My Rexton BiCore experience

Hearing Aids
#1

My Rexton BiCore C R-Li hearing aids came in this past Sunday, and I wanted to wear them a few days before giving my initial thoughts. I trialed all 3 pairs around Costo (also Jabra & Philips) before deciding on Rexton. Sound-wise, Jabra and Rexton seemed very similar to me, but I went with Rexton for two reasons: 30+ hour battery life and the directional microphone feature on the app.

I need to preface all this by saying that I’ve been wearing a single Phonak Lyric in my left ear for 8+ years. (It wasn’t appropriate for my right ear, as it is worse) I know that Lyric isn’t very popular here, but it suited me perfectly well for a long time. It obviously wasn’t meeting all my hearing needs, but it was way better than nothing. And it was incredible in the sense that it was “set and forget” and low-maintenance for my active lifestyle. It was invisible, I didn’t have to take it out to shower or sleep, I never had to worry about feedback issues, I could talk on the phone and wear earbuds, and never have to worry about losing it or sweating during a workout, etc. Basically, I never even had to think about it.

So, I knew I was going to be a touch crowd for the switch to RICs. I’m only making the switch because my speech comprehension was never going to be maximized with the Lyric, which are analog.

And so far, as expected, I’m not the least bit impressed with Rexton. (not sure whether to laugh or cry!)

  1. They make my ears ache and are so itchy. I can only wear them a few hours a time before I want to rip them out.

  2. They are much higher-maintenance. I have to take them out for showers and bed, and clean them every morning. I have to worry about water and sweat, and be careful when brushing my hair or being active that I don’t lose one. Not to mention setting one down, and my cat making off with his new toy!!

  3. Everything sounds tinny and a bit distorted at times. They are connected to my phone, but the audiologist needs to turn up the internal sound on them, because I can barely hear phone conversations, even though they are directly streaming into my ears.

  4. Everything is much quieter. I have to turn the TV up to 50 now, instead of 40 (with my Lyric). I need more volume.

  5. I’m not sure that speech comprehension has improved. Conversationally, I’m hearing my partner and friends about the same as I did before. At the gym earlier, a sweet older lady was trying to talk to me, but I could not understand her at all. Her voice was so quiet and soft that I had zero chance, so I just gave up and moved on. (But maybe that’s a situation where even hearing people would struggle?)

  6. The feedback. Oh, the feedback. It’s terrible. My audiologist set my baseline volume at 7, but I have the ability to turn it up to 15. Since the Rextons are much quieter than my Lyric was, I must turn the volume up to hear on Teams meetings, or hear the TV. But when I do that, the feedback starts. My partner cannot give me a hug, or even get within 3 feet of me, and the feedback starts. He even heard it three rooms away! Thankfully, I mostly work from home. But I’m a little worried about going back to the office and my the entire floor hearing it.

My audiologist did do the feedback tests before I left the store, and everything seemed fine in his office. But out in the real world, I have to keep the volume at 7 or below and not get within 3 feet of anyone :laughing:

  1. The app. It seems fine, I like being able to choose a microphone direction (which does help) and different programs. I have Automatic, Noise/Party, Outdoor/Traffic, Television. Although I don’t think there’s enough difference between any of them to tell a real difference, so I just leave it in Automatic.

I know that I sound like a Negative Nelly! I’m trying very hard to be positive and give these a real chance. I have 6 months, so there is nothing to lose. And I know it will take more than a few days to truly get used to the sound.

I do need quite a few tweaks that I will tell him about at my 2 week follow-up appointment: more volume overall (for both external and internal), address the feedback issues, and address the issue of not hearing the soft-spoken woman at the gym.

If you have any suggestions, please do chime in! I wish I knew what algorithm they are set at, so that those of you who are geniuses at this sort of stuff could give me some tips! I can ask the audiologist at my next appt. I have the power receivers and my domes are vented, I believe.

And if you made it this far, thanks for reading :smile:

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#2

Did they set the hearing aids to experienced user?

I have a loaner pair of the Jabra because my hearing aids busted. I’m liking them so far but I don’t have high expectations

Maybe those domes aren’t for you - was there a reason those were chosen?

I like open domes

#3

I would say for starters get custom molds made instead of using the click sleeves. They should 1) be more comfortable 2) allow more gain without generating feedback
Seeing your audiogram would give more clues that this is a decent suggestion, but the combo of not enough gain and feedback really suggest you need a more occlusive fit.

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#4

To my eyes, all of your complaints could be addressed by proper fitting and probably custom molds, as MDB wrote.

You didn’t take your old aids out when you showered? And went to bed? For me, that’s not a “high maintenance” problem. And I don’t see how your old aids magically cleaned themselves, whereas the Rextons require that you do that. Hmmm…I’ve never heard Phonak advertise that their aids don’t need cleaning.

try different domes, but from all that you’ve written, you may need custom molds, which should address feedback and possibly volume issues. You may need power receivers. If so, another brand won’t solve that issue.
But I guess that your old PHonaks still give you better volume?

and yeah, post your audiogram. (I should too!)

#5

Lyric is worn deep in the ear canal for months at a time. No removal, no cleaning.

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#6

Oh thanks for reminding me! Lyric is off my mental map. Why did you move on? And, p.s, moving from a Lyric to a trad BTE will take a bit of adjustment from your audi and your brain, I would imagine. best wishes!

#7

Hi! Yes, he did set me up as an experienced user. As for the domes, we tried nearly all of them, and he settled on these. The closed domes were too occlusive and the open didn’t give me enough gain. He did mention possibly doing custom molds in the future, so that is certainly an option if it will take care of the feedback issues and give me more volume.

#8

The audiologist did mention possibly doing custom molds in the future, so that is certainly an option if it will take care of the feedback issues and give me more volume. Maybe I should start that process at my follow-up appointment.

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#9

While I absolutely loved the Lyric, I don’t feel that I was getting the best speech comprehension from it. I still struggled quite a bit in groups, in restaurants, etc. And the Lyric is not digital, all it had was up/down volume control, so that didn’t help much in those settings.

My main goal now is to get the best speech comprehension I can. I also like the idea of being able to make adjustments on an app and have my phone and TV stream directly into my ears! If Lyric ever goes digital, I’ll be beating a path back to them :laughing:

Thanks for the wishes, it definitely is quite an adjustment, but I am willing to be patient and give it a college try!

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#10

Yep, start the process! the custom molds aren’t too expensive, and worth it if they work. I mean, they can realize the potential of any aid in very good ways. No promises! I have them and won’t go back to rubber domes.

I have no opinion about Rexton. I wear Signia Ax aids, which may be related. But any BTE aid that fits the parameters of your audiogram should be able to deliver decent volume and all the rest. I didn’t realize that Lyric were analog! Fascinating! that introduces a whole 'nother leap in terms of your getting used to the new soundscape.
To be honest, I wish I could try analog aids for playing my guitar at least. In the end, I imagine digitals will work better, because of their ability to match sound to my loss.

#11

I loved my Lyrics – for all the reasons you mentioned! RIC/digital aids are a huge adjustment – I cursed them and flip-flopped with Lyrics a couple of times…
The biggest improvement for me is streaming (phone calls, meetings, music, TV etc.) to my HAs – a HUGE leap in comprehension! Not-so-much in-person…
Once you get the bugs worked out – others’ suggestions are spot-on – I hope you have at least a little more love for the Rextons…

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#12

Yayy another former Lyric wearer! I feel like we’re such a small club around here!! :grin:

What aids are you wearing now? You mentioned that you aren’t really noticing a change in speech comprehension with them, that makes me worried for myself!

As much as I’m enjoying the streaming capabilities of the RICs, that’s not enough for me. if I don’t notice improved in-person speech comprehension, then I’ll go back to the Lyric. Because that is the #1 reason I’m making the switch.

I’m hoping to be able to understand the soft voices of my partner’s two kids, and do better in in-person work meetings and restaurants. But if I don’t gain improvements in these areas, I don’t see any reason to keep these much higher-maintenance RICs, when the Lyric was literally zero maintenance and I never even had to think about it!!

Oh my gosh, how wonderful would it be if they could make digital Lyrics that would offer steaming?! Someday, I bet they will, but the already-high price would go up considerably.

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#13

I actually switched from Lyrics several years ago – to Costco’s KS6 (made by Resound, as I recall). Currently I’m using the Jabra from Costco – the streaming & iPhone ready-ness made the decision for me.
As a PS, it was an adjustment for lots of us (not just Lyric wearers) to get used to digital HAs. Suspect there are still folks who miss analog :wink:

#14

Another alternative might be ITE hearing aids. Not as discrete as CIC, but has more capabilities

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#15

Thanks for the suggestion, this is is definitely an option if this Costco pair doesn’t work out! I wonder if they would be powerful enough for my hearing loss (above and over what Lyric could do).

#16

ITEs can use powerful receivers. It looks like Rexton offers an ITE. Unsure about the other Costco brands. An ITE is often a generation behind in technology.

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#17

My experience with the Rextons couldn’t be more different than yours. The streaming audio has been amazing - literally life changing for work meetings, and overall I love these aids. I got fitted at Costco. They don’t get nearly as much wax buildup as my last RIC aids which I attribute to the updated sleeves on newer models of hearing aids. Took a few days to adjust and the only issues I’ve had are the default setting is too loud for me so I always have to enable noise reduction mode and the Bluetooth connection can be finicky when switching between my Android and iPad. I wonder if you need to give them more time as well as having another audiologist fit/adjust them.

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#18

Hi user107, thanks for sharing your experience! I’m happy and encouraged that you are really liking them! Do you mind if I ask a few questions? I’d appreciate any advice!

  1. Do you experience any feedback when wearing them? (this is a huge issue for me)

  2. What is the noise reduction mode? I don’t see that in my app screen… is it a “Hearing Program”?

  3. How are they doing with hearing speech in noise?

  4. Which receivers/domes are you using?

Oy, I have just the opposite issue, the default setting is way too low and I have to turn it up all the way just to hear comfortably. And this is after I had the audiologist turn them up like 4-5 times!! When he first fired them up in my ears, I literally could not even tell them were on :laughing: He seemed really surprised that he had to keep turning them up, and suggested that he couldn’t go much louder… which is not a good sign :grimacing: (I do have the most powerful receivers, but not sure which domes I am wearing) When I start the App, it defaults to level 7, which is the mid-point, and I have to turn it up to nearly 15.

#19
  1. I don’t experience feedback except sometimes when putting them on, which is normal. But never in normal use. If you have feedback after they are set in the ear, then they need adjustment by the audiologist.
  2. Yes, the “noise reduction” is a program set up by the audiologist. I have 4 programs for mine - normal, noise/party, Focus 360, and Induction Loop. Normal is actually too loud for me normally but only if there’s hvac or in a store like Target - it’s been adjusted once after initial fitting…I’m going to go back to get adjusted again, if it’s possible to do so.
  3. I have problems in restaurants but I think that’s pretty normal.
  4. I’m using the default sleeves and one dome is open, the other dome is closed. I have assymmetrical hearing loss. You do get used to the occlusion feeling of the closed dome after a week or so.

I have moderate hearing loss in both ears. Before I got the Rextons I relied on my Phonak Titanium P50 CICs. My hearing got noticably worse over the pandemic years that when I went back and had the aids adjusted, they had to close the vents of each aid in order to get the amplification to a level that would work for me. But I decided to try out the Rexton from Costco, and use the Phonaks as a backup set. The Phonaks just weren’t enough for me at this time, especially the lack of bluetooth streaming. I was really struggling with work online meetings.

I’m really puzzled with your experience. How severe is your hearing loss? I’m going to guess that either the hearing aids don’t have the capacity for your level of hearing loss or you should see another audiologist (or both). The person who is fitting you should be able to determine if the aid itself will work for your hearing just from its performance specs.

Best of luck - remember that aids do require at least 1-2 weeks to get used to them. Don’t give up…

#20

Hi again! Well, I went back to my audiologist yesterday and it is NIGHT and DAY now… wow! He gave me larger (closed) domes in both ears, which took care of all the feedback issues. And adjusted the overall gain, so now I am just like you, I have to turn my aids down because they are too loud. What a crazy improvement over my first two weeks, where I was dealing with terrible feedback and not much improvement in hearing. I much prefer having the option to turn them down!

We ran out of time in our appointment, but I wanted to have him add the “Noise Reduction” program - is that the one you use most of the time?

Also, are you able to connect them to your computer? I have a laptop and while they pair fine, my laptop does not recognize them as a speaker, so nothing happens when they are connected. I wonder if I need an external device to facilitate the streaming? I work from home and would like to have my Teams meetings stream right into my hearing aids.

Do you find that your closed dome makes your ear feel occluded? I am experiencing this a little bit, but not as much as I feared, so I’m going to try to get used to it.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience and getting back to me!

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