OTC hearing aid ads

Hearing Aids
#21

Um yeah well you’ll be astonished then, cheap yes, so that’s the point of OTC right, they need to be cheaper (which they are) so more people can buy into the system of hearing better.

No maybe, this is what is offered, again “cheap” is critical to getting people to use HAs, it’s one of the main points of OTC, now being cheap doesn’t mean “rubbish” (those models you were talking about I’m sure are just that, there’s no OTC hearing aids available for $20 or $89!)

I disagree, the thing is that your offered a 3 band equaliser and noise reduction, I’m not sure if the Phillips offers microphone direction, but others do which is very handy indeed, control of streaming as well.

Yep that’s right, but nothing stopping you from doing DIY, if your not happy with your clinics set up, why not try it, it’s not hard, it’ll give you more insight into what your talking about.
And if you want to actually try some OTC there’s a number of them available, some have already been talked about here on hearingtracker, the first was the Bose SoundControl released 2020, it got some good reviews from people using them, Bose have partnered with Lexie, self fitting as well.

From Sony (rebranded Signia)

5 Likes
#22

I don’t know who it was that posted about hearing aids at this price range, but it wasn’t me. OTC’s I’ve seen on the CVS website (a national drug store chain in the U.S.) run from about $200 to $1,000. And yes, agree–less costly is important. But it’s a matter of whether what’s in the less costly models actually help or are window dressing.

How do you try out OTC aids? I’d certainly give some a test, but not by paying for multiple brands like you have to do with our prescription aids. (They won’t work for my hearing, but I’d seriously like to know how they do work). BTW, the Bose you linked to is already defunct according to that page.

#23

The Bose Sound Control hearing aids were out before the OTC started. They withdrew them and partnered with Lexie for two new models. Supposedly they have Bose technology incorporated, as they are marketed as “Powered by Bose.” Hope this clears up the matter for you.

WH

2 Likes
#24

Thx. Just out of curiosity, were they prescription-based pre-OTC or how did they sell them? An audiologist I went to a year ago said Bose tried getting into the hearing aid market but backed out after their attempt–finding it too complex. Looks like that’s maybe only partially true.

#25

Well all of us here are hearing impaired and have experience buying aids and testing for aids. Otc aids are made for people with pretty much moderate to mild hearing loss. For people who either don’t accept their loss, couldn’t be bothered doing anything about their loss, or can’t afford hearing aids. Yes it’s a new field and there will be plenty of opportunities for people to get ripped off. But at the same time there will be situations where people will actually be helped. I think it’s wrong for us to be so critical about something that’s so brand new. We go on this forum looking for advice or to try to help others. Being negative or putting down the whole concept of otc aids doesn’t seem fair especially based on how an advertisement reads. I say we all try to keep an open mind until evidence tells us otherwise. Look on the bright side. Maybe it will reduce the number of those idiots who keep saying what and you have to keep repeating yourself to because they don’t want to admit they have a damn hearing loss

4 Likes
#26

@hass5744, For what it’s worth, I think this is exactly right! But people need to be properly educated about who the OTC products are for, and what they can and cannot be expected to do.

1 Like
#27

No prescription needed, they were the very first OTC, you could buy them straight off the shelf.
The reason they stopped was because they went into negotiation to partner up with Lexie.

1 Like
#28

Yes sorry, it was another poster.

#29

I’m surprised not more talk of Jabra. With their decent aids (formally Lively), reasonable prices, online support, and 100 day trial period they seem worthy of consideration.

#30

Jabra ( former lively) seems to be very heavily invested into online marketing , payment plans, and “remore adjustment”.

For the same price Or less i can do much better at costco.

My personal requirement is now “self fitting” and “self adjusting”.
I DO NOT want to be at the mercy of yet another “next warm body on the bench” misadjusting my hearing devices.

I now have three untis that met these requirements:

  1. Lexie Lumen : daily wear, self fitting, excellent noise canceling, i cna hear my wife, the TV and the car radio now. I can also tweak them to some extent.

  2. Nuheara Earbuds: self fitting, good noise cancelling, more detailed self fine tuning; they make my ears a little sore and try to fall out, but absolute best for streaming classical music! I thought I lost my baroque music forever…

  3. BeHear headset: self fitting, good noise cancleing, e tensive fine tuning; less convenient for daily wear. Great for music, not so. Good (yet ) for tv. Right now noise cancelling is too aggressive.

My biggest problem recently is agressive noise cancling and excessive noise amplification. Rattling paper bags, etc. interestingly accoring to my audio psectrum analayzer (tablet app) the worst noise is above 6 khz. Which is where most of my ski slope droppoff exists.

I have found I would rather give ups high end “details” (ie above 6 khz or 8khz) to remove excessive noise and be able to understand tv and my wife. The Ear buds will restore the highs for streaming music, but in streaming mode I am not subject to the insane and painful ambient noise.

My loss is mild to moderate, standard skislope.
Just my experience, your milage will vary.

3 Likes
#31

@Shunkadu2

Yes, they are advertising aggressively, but that isn’t necessarily bad.

And they are selling a proven product. I would consider them DIY - the claims about support from a more or less on demand audiologist should be taken with a large dose of salt. :smirk:

But if you do a search on say, Jabra select reviews, you find, from rather independent sources such as Healthline, Retirement Living (4.6), and Senior Living (4.8), very positive reviews.

3 Likes
#32

No argument that people need to educate themselves. But that’s true about almost any purchase. Too many people buy cars based on what the salesman says because they’re too lazy to do the research themselves. I’m sure the same will be true about otc aids

1 Like
#33

Yeah definitely, Jabra being in deep with GN ReSound is something that is going to help with sales. But as another poster mentioned they are on the high side with prices, these have got to under 1k for the masses.

#34

First update on my beginning to explore how OTC aids are being sold and how they’re actually working in practice. Went to a local CVS store today (a huge drug store chain in the U.S.). Asked at the pharmacy to talk with someone about the OTC aids they sell. They knew nothing about it except they don’t have any in the store. (Just an aside, I noticed they do sell earbuds.)

I talked to the store manager who said CVS hasn’t worked everything out yet since this is so new so for now you just have to buy them online. I asked him if there’s someone online I can talk to about the options they offer. He didn’t know. So I asked, how would I decide. He said, just pick a pair, buy 'em and try 'em. :slight_smile:

I haven’t gone to their site yet to follow-up on my questions but I wanted to post this primarily because I found his buy em and try em response amusing. I’ll have to check their return policy to see if that’s a workable way to go.

#35

Yeah that’s not very good at all, but at least they were honest, as in they didn’t have a clue about what was going on, truth be told it is new industry so things are going to be a bit different from the normal establishment/ service for these things, I’m looking forward to seeing how things pan out, just be sure that you check that they are definitely OTC and not something else.

#36

Bingo, on the button! Here again is a great analogy why OTC aids should not be marketed like “reading glasses”. How many folks take their OTC reading glasses to an optometrist and ask for an ajustment of anything to even fit their vision?

Hearing issues are far more complicated, being a function of hearing tests, perhaps REM measurement (for what they’re worth!) and most important: how the individual wants to hear the world around them - speech, music, traffic, TV, phone, et all. None of those variables come into play with reading glasses.

Ah, to get first edit on these marketing claims and positioning ploys. I’d set 'em straight before they go public with these statements. :neutral_face:

#37

:slight_smile: Well, marketing is all about pith, analogy, emotion, whatever will catch attention in this attention-sapped world. While looking into OTC aids on the CVS site, I took their hearing test–which is focused on speech-in-noise. And that’s what their marketing is based on remedying. After you take the test, the screen below comes up–hear what the world sounds like with and without aids. At first I thought, oh, that’s kinda cool. Then I thought about it for a moment and realized, all they did was play a recording of sentences spoken with staticy background noise (what you hear without aids) and a recording without background noise (the clear speech you hear with aids). OTC’s have found the holy grail I guess. Or maybe hearing aids really do help in noise when you only have mild loss. Hearing professionals on the forum @Neville @Um_bongo @Zebras, is that the case?

image

I’ll go ahead and report here though, as part of my looking into this, I thought the hearing test was BS. Listening to a set of 3 numbers in staticy background noise and clicking on what I heard to determine how well I hear. It never seemed to me like the background noise was changing in volume or type and I thought I’d got most of the number sequences correct. But, the test came up telling me I have considerable hearing loss and should see a hearing professional. So, whatever it’s doing, it got me.

image

I could still buy the aids though if I chose. Which is one of the purposes of OTC.

1 Like
#38

Some OTC HAs I investigated recently out of curiosity work with a smartphone app to test your hearing across a number of frequencies and will apply an automatic prescription accordingly. In effect, then, you get results akin to a lazy audiologist using the automatic settings on “real” HAs (but with a couple of generations-old HA technology), and with amplification that doesn’t reach legit prescriptive targets, likely because A) people find it uncomfortable and might return the devices and B) this reduces risk of hearing damage if there are any errors in the “self-fitting” process.

The results from such a product will likely benefit many mild/moderate losses, which is clearly why the category was approved.

Being in Canada, this is only trivia for me at the moment…. but if I don’t have the money for “real” HAs next time I need them I just might consider trying whatever the “best” of the OTCs end up being. Likely one of the brands that are actually 5-year old “real” HAs under a different name.

2 Likes
#39

I don’t think I understand what you mean here. Why would you think it doesn’t meet prescriptive targets? If the app is essentially creating an audiogram that the aids will then match, wouldn’t that be considered meeting prescriptive target?

Did you actually test this set of aids? I’m asking because I’m kind of wondering how I might do that. Not going to buy them just for review testing.

#40

I don’t just think this, I have considered the results of Real Ear Measurement of such devices. Check out Dr Cliff’s videos for an example of this:

Relevant portion is at about 8m10s.

A consistent finding when testing OTC HAs (and their predecessor devices) is insufficient amplification relative to the prescriptive targets you would expect from an audiologist. If you crank them to maximum volume they can get close or reach targets in certain frequencies. But generally they don’t get there.