My Jabra Enhance Pro 20 review

[michael.grossman]

About me:
First off, I know, I’m wordy. I am 47, got my first pair of hearing aids just over 3 years ago, it was during COVID lockdowns that I noticed my ears rang all the time. I went to an ENT and he asked me if I had hearing loss. I laughed and said “I don’t think so”. I then went down the hall to the audiologist where I discovered I have mild to moderate hearing loss. I was shocked, a little aggravated. Not sure why I had hearing loss. I’m bald so I have no way of really hiding them, but I have yet to be self conscious about wearing them. Anyways this is where my journey of hearing aids began. My first pair I bought were Phonak marvel at the 70 tech level. I went with disposables because I didn’t think the battery would last me all day.

Why new hearing aids:
Yea, I know that on average people wear their hearing aids 5 years or so but for me I felt I was ready for a new pair. I have been waiting for a pair of hearing aids with auracast, had read / watched videos on M&RIE receivers so when I saw the EP20’s were now available at Costco I got really excited. I had also seen that their sister model the Resound Nexia’s had a ridiculous battery life. As most around here know Costco’s hearing aids are all top tech level. If I were to do it all over again I would definitely have gone for the top tech level in hearing aids. For a good while my Phonaks were great. With COVID I wasn’t going to very loud places. As things began to go back to normal, I noticed that I was struggling to hear in noise to the point I was avoiding loud venues at all cost.

EP20’s getting fitted:
I called into costco, they got me an appointment for the next week. I went in got my hearing tested and said “Yes I would like to order, when can I get them”. Just over a week later I had my appointment to fit them. The place I got my Phonak’s didn’t do real ear measures. Getting them dialed in was a pain in the ass, looking back I’m not sure if they were 100% dialed in. Costco did real ear measures, already a positive step. At first the tech didn’t want to put M&RIE’s on them but I insisted, I have struggled with directionality on the Phonaks. Anyways things went smooth. The techs were great and answered all of my questions.

First impressions:
I walked around the store a bit, called my wife. She said I sounded really bad, like I was electronic and in a tunnel. This was a bit disappointing but not a deal breaker yet. I got very few complaints on the Phonaks when I called using Bluetooth.
It’s hard to describe for me but the sound coming from the hearing aids sounded more natural. Like it blended in with unamplified sound, nothing was too loud or too soft, something that took 3-4 visits to get to the last place to get them dialed in. I guess real ear measures do work.
I streamed a bit of music when I got home, it was no better or worse than the sound from my Phonaks, they are hearing aids, not meant to generate a ton of bass, I accept that. My family sounded more clear. I could still hear the tv pretty well with people talking around me, another thing I had been struggling with.
At the end of the day, before going to bed I looked at the battery level 70%. Sure, it was basically just 3/4 of a day but almost definitely something I could work with.

Real world testing:
The very next night was my company party. I was excited but also a bit anxious. I walk into the party and what to do you know, a live band playing. I popped it into the hearing in noise program. While not perfect, it was night and day better than my Phonaks, which didn’t have a hearing in noise program since I didn’t have the highest tech level. If I didn’t have the Jabra’s I don’t think I could have stayed long, unless I wanted to spend the night pretending to hear people and not really talk.
Since the party, I have been in noisy restaurants and other venues and it’s been great. I feel like I don’t have to worry as much about going to loud places.
Battery life is outstanding. I have always worn my hearing aids 365 days a year from the time I get out of the shower in the morning to the time I go to bed. I think the lowest I have ever seen the batteries at the end of the day was 40% on a day when I did a ton of streaming.
I mentioned before I struggled with directionality. With the EP20’s and M&RIE’s, its subtle, but yes I can localize sounds 100% better. Sounds used to sound like they were coming from the hearing aid. Now sounds sound like they are coming from where the sounds are actually coming from. It’s not perfect but a huge improvement. In the past if one of my kids was watching a video on their cell phone it was annoying as hell, Not only would I not b be able to tell which kid was not using their headphones, if I was watching tv it would sometime just sound like the TV had background noise.

Other likes:
I’m an Iphone guy now. I get it, there are many areas where Androids are superior to iPhones. I had one of the first Android phones, owned many of them over the years, rooted them etc. When I got to my current job, almost all of my users, I want to say over 90% of them used iPhone. As someone that has to support them quite a bit, it just made sense to make the jump. The phonaks have bluetooth classic, this as pluses and minuses. A huge plus is that Phonaks can connect to any bluetooth device. One huge downside is that Bluetooth classing sucks down the battery pretty fast. I’m not sure if it was just my Marvel’s, just phonaks or just all Bluetooth classic devices but when I was streaming, no outside sound would be amplified. Pausing a video for example, it would take a second or so for the amplification to start, so if someone was talking to me, I missed the first part. If I was streaming at a low level and someone tried to talk to me, same thing, no amplification. With my Jabra’s I noticed right away that they are always amplifying. I can stream at a low volume and still hear what people are saying clearly.
MFI integration between the HA’s and Iphone is awesome. I wish they would mandate identical compatibility for android devices. Bluetooth connected, the Marvels were just like a pair of inexpensive bluetooth headphones when connected to an Iphone. If you wanted to change the volume not using the buttons on the HA’s, you had to open the app, wait for the app to connect and then control. The EP20’s connect to the phone and stay connected until you turn off Bluetooth on the phone or you turn off the hearing aids. I can tripple click my power button and I can see battery level change volume, bass & treble and change programs. Another plus in the apple arena is the apple watch app. It’s nice to be able to easily change a program, level or see the battery level from my wrist.

What I don’t like:
It’s a little hard because I like the EP20’s. Call quality for the person on the other end is what I would consider bad. As long as I can hear what the other person is saying on the other end I’m fine even if the sound quality isn’t 100%. It’s the other end. Some people like my wife seem to exaggerate how bad things are, I get it it’s not like having headset on where the mic is next to your mouth. My wife flat out won’t talk to me on the phone if I’m using the EP20’s. My Phonaks weren’t amazing on calls but if I was in a quiet place I got little to no complaints. I wished that a company that owns Jabra, a company known for their headsets would have taken more time to get this part right. Perhaps it’s the M&RIE’s that make things worse, I don’t know. That’s it, just taking calls over Bluetooth. It’s not a deal breaker. Since my hearing loss is mild to moderate, with my volume up on my phone and my ear to the phone, I can clearly hear the other end. I also never really liked walking around talking on my phone looking like a crazy person talking to themselves.

Conclusion:
I really like these hearing aids. I’m interested to see what other new models from other brands come to costco in the next 6 months. I guess if they look amazing and have amazing call quality I would consider possibly swapping, but I would lose the M&RE. I also don’t want to abuse the system, that’s just how I am, plus I’m a shareholder.
My last hearing aids were disposable batteries. Their huge downside was water resistance. If I worked out my sweat would short the batteries out, couldn’t go near a swimming pool even if I wasn’t going to go under etc. The batteries on these are nothing short of amazing. If I keep these, when they are just about to go out of warranty I’ll send them in for new batteries.
I loved the staff at Costco and love that I got them dialed in on the first visit. I’m happy that almost anywhere I would travel in the US, I could go into a Costco if I had some major issue. Oh yea, it’s also hard to beat the price of Costco.

Admin note: Linked to HearingTracker’s review of the product

[jim_lewis]

@michael.grossman

I’m an Iphone guy now.

Didn’t see that you mentioned what model iPhone you use. I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max and ReSound Omnias. Also, an Apple Watch Ultra. I’ve asked my wife how I sound via both the iPhone and the Apple Watch. She usually says great and that she can hear me very clearly. By habit, I always have my iPhone up near my mouth, but I assume, since ReSound advertises it, that I’m actually doing hands-free calling through my Omnia mics. With the Apple Watch, it’s all through the watch’s speakers and microphones.

I wonder what mics Resound uses? I have M&RIE receivers and deliberately wear very occlusive molds. I wonder if the M&RIE receiver mics are used for hands-free calling and if so, whether the openness of one’s fit and being on the fringe of feedback due to the M&RIE receivers could influence call quality, with an occlusive fit keeping the M&RIE mics well-separated from any sound delivered by the receivers into your ear canals?

[michael.grossman]

I’m on a 14pro. I’m pretty sure it is using the mics on the HA’s. After I typed the review I googled it again and found an article that said while a call was going, pull down the menu on the top right and select focused sound. I tested calling my wife in a quiet environment and she said I sounded normal. Hopefully this will work.

[jim_lewis]

I actually had a couple other reasons to call ReSound, which I’ll mention in other posts. So while I was at it, I asked the tech guy I got about the difference in our outgoing phone call sound and the M&RIE mics.

Normally, I’m in the All-Around program with 360-degree listening set (one question would be if that setup is the same for you). In a low to moderate noise environment, the M&RIE mics will be the predominant source of sound, but supposedly, as noise increases, listening will switch to the Front Focus mode. The tech claimed in hands-free calling, the HA mics are automatically used on the iPhone (unless I turned off hands-free calling but he never told me how to do that). He claimed if I had M&RIE receivers, the mics in the ear would be used in the phone call (but I don’t think he considered quiet vs. noisy environments). When I told him my wife says my call quality is great, but your wife says you sound like you’re talking in a tunnel, he said that problem usually arises when the mic volume is not loud enough and increasing mic volume may solve the problem - but I didn’t find out from him how to do that. Perhaps when you switch to the (front) focus program, you effectively increased your mic volume since the front is where your voice is coming from.

He welcomed anyone with a technical problem to call them for support. The number posted on the web is for consumer help: (888) 735-4327, pick option 1 on your keypad. It comes from this web page: Contact us | ReSound US. When I called, I first got a general rep just trained to answer basic questions on HA setup. But when I described the problems I was calling about, she said I needed technical help, and I had to wait 10 or 15 minutes before the tech guy picked up my call (you can leave your number for a callback).

[michael.grossman]

Jim-
This helps a lot. I’m the type to read the manual and then dig in and try to figure out things myself, and for the fact that I spend half my life working with vendors over the phone, I’m surprised it never crossed my mind to call them.
I’ll probably experiment a bit with the settings. I guess on my test call from Costco or “the club” as I like to joking call it, it could be possible the sound was coming through my phone. That would be easy to test. One other thing I have noticed is that if I go into the hearing accessibility menu on my phone, there is a mic on button. I guess perhaps that could do something, but I really didn’t test it all that much.
I’ll test doing a call in front focus, fiddle with the mic button program in accessibility. Even though its not a deal breaker, it would be great to get this working better. The focused button in mic settings seemed to work but perhaps the other settings could make things look even better.
Later I’ll call them with the new info and results of my testing. This all makes me a bit more hopeful. Maybe if we can figure out how things really should be they could tweak things with a firmware or app upgrade.

Thanks again for your comment, it has a high potential to help!

[x475aws]

@michael.grossman

if I go into the hearing accessibility menu on my phone, there is a mic on button.

Are you referring to “Mic Input” on the triple-click screen?

[michael.grossman]

Yes this s what I saw. Have you tested it ?

[x475aws]

I have Oticon aids, different brand but also MFi. Mic Input On uses hearing aid mics on phone calls, Mic Input Off uses iPhone mic.

[eliotb]

I’ll have to ask my audiologist which system my new Oticon Real 1s is set toc-- phone mic or HA mics. Best I can tell changing that setting can only be done from the Oticon software.

I found out the hard way after years of using OPN S1s that the volume of the signal going to the hearing aids via bluetooth is set by the transmitting phone, so with the help of volusano on this list I got the audiologist to change a software setting that gives me a better signal with which to work. I am slowly learning to automatically reach for the phone volume button to get the noise in my ear better audible. It is much easier after having had the change made.

[x475aws]

@eliotb

phone mic or HA mics. Best I can tell changing that setting can only be done from the Oticon software.

I have Real 1’s also, and iPhone 13 Pro. Does your triple-click screen not have Mic Input field? Make sure you aren’t streaming or looking at a web page (which could have a video) when you check.

[eliotb]

I use a 13 mini, and, aha … yes, there it is. Now, I just need to remember to test it out in both settings. In large measure my complaint was with the initial volume of signal going to the hearing aids for me to hear the call. The audiologist jacked that up a bit and now it’s tolerable. I’d forgotten these had a way to use the internal mics as the outbound transmitter!

I confess to rarely using the app, especially with the OPN 1s.

Thanks for the education.

[JimGnitecki]

Googling “iPhone Mic Input”, the Starkey HA support website comes up and says:

2-Way Audio Mic Input Options

On: iOS is using the hearing aid microphone for voice pick-up during a call.
Off: Hearing aid user is required to speak into iPhone or iPad microphone during calls. Call audio is still streamed to the hearing aids.

NOTE: This setting cannot be changed during an active phone call.

Jim G

[michael.grossman]

Ok I feel dumb. I know I have see the Mic input button in my screens on my phone, but for the life of me, I can’t find it again. I tried looking while not streaming, not on call, on a call or streaming. I do see it on my apple watch but this just seems to error out.

Where is it again?

I tested again last night, called my work voicemail and talked into the mic on my iphone, then put it under a blanket and talked. It is definitely using the phone mics as under the blanket everything was muffed and my apple watch says mics are off.

[x475aws]

Triple-click screen:

[michael.grossman]

Strange, under the volume slider on mine I have tone and a slider for treble and bass. The only thing I can think of is that I bought a used phoneclip and a multi mic and those are paired to my HA’s. I have both off but who knows.

[jim_lewis]

My ReSound Omnia controls when I bring up the Accessibility hearing settings:

I don’t “triple-click” my right iPhone power button. I’m always loathe to test the mechanical durability of buttons on my phone. I swipe down from the top on the very right side of my phone. That brings up the iPhone Control Center. I have installed the Hearing widget (Settings, Control Center, add the widget there if you don’t have it already). Here’s my Control Center screen and the Hearing widget is in the lower left of the screen (the EAR symbol). Tapping it opens the controls shown in the first screen capture of this post.

BTW, the “Battery 100%” is the level of my zinc-air size 13 batteries in my Omnias, not the level of my iPhone SOC. Jay is likely using zinc-air batteries, too, since he’s also at 100% in his screenshot two posts above!

[Blue_Pearl1]

Michael, this whole thread is helpful. I don’t have an Apple Watch yet, but will soon, and I was wondering if it connected ok to a Jabra from Costco. That would be a plus. Thank you for the review of the Jabra. There are lot of details to consider when first getting much needed aids.

[michael.grossman]

Yea the EP20s from Costco

[michael.grossman]

Not sure what’s going on with mine

[jim_lewis]

My wife says when I turn off the HA mics via the Hearing widget mic button, the phone calls sound a lot louder and clearer with my voice input through the iPhone phone mics. She said I don’t sound like I’m down at the end of a tunnel with the HA mics, but my voice is just very soft compared to voice input via the mics on the iPhone. If I turn up the “microphone levels” via the sliders in the Hearing Widget, she says my voice is louder but still relatively soft, and I am amplifying background noise levels, too.

I have separate right and left ear controls in my screenshot above of the Hearing widget screen because in Settings, Accessibility, Hearing Devices, MFI Hearing Devices, I have turned on the slider “Adjust Independently” for no good reason (My Jabra Enhance Pro 20 review - #16 by jim_lewis). When I am in a call, the mic input button disappears from the Hearing screen, which goes along with what I’ve read that you can’t switch hands-free calling on or off while in a call. If I turn off the Adjust Independently slider, here’s what my Hearing widget screen looks like:

From now on, I’ll probably turn off mic input from my hearing aids and use my iPhone mics so my voice sounds as loud and clear to my callers as possible.