I recently had significant hearing loss in one ear along with the milder loss in the other ear and am looking to get my first pair of hearing aids (officially old I guess 
) Note; Buying a hearing aid is like buying a mattress or used car, you really have no clue what your getting.
The ENT office provided the Oticon for a trial period ($5700) I have since found that the same company making the Oticon model makes the Philips model ($1500 at Costco).
As far as I can tell the technology is basically the same for a significant price delta.
Can someone tell me if the Oticon is worth the additional $4200 and why or why not?
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Only you can answer this question, youâll need to trial them both to see which is âworthâ the money, just remember that Costco only sell the premium models, your ENT specialist may not be offering Intent 1 for $5700, but regardless thereâs a number of different brands that you could try before setting on Demant, Costco would give more choices, some stores are even offering Sennheiser a rebranded Phonak model.
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Thanks, the paperwork says I have the top line Intent and looks to be what you referenced
If it is the same technology then does it ultimately come down to the ability of the audiologist to fit properly?
BTW the audiologist was honest with me an stated that I could get the same technology cheaper, I just found it hard to believe $4200 worth.
Second question, is there any reason not to go to Costco vs the Dr office?
My personal opinion is that theyâre not the same, but theyâre very close. But value-wise, the $1500 one at Costco beats the $5700 Oticon Intent hands down.
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I would say the distance to your local Costco would be a reason to select the Dr. vs Costco.
A second is how much time they can spend with you, and do they have AI generated voices to help fine tune the hearing aids.
Most of these hearing aids have 20 channels that can be adjusted, plus there are other adjustments such as directionality, feedback, noise reduction, and few more.
The more time your hearing fitter can spend on making adjustments, the better result you are going to get.
Good communication between you and your fitter, and the talent your hearing aid fitter has can make all the difference.
Note you can bring in a person, like a spouse, that can read to you while adjusting the hearing aids, bring in a music instrument that you play, or even bring your own computer with AI generated voices.
If you live close to a Costco and are paying out of pocket, it makes a lot of sense to start there. They generally have three brands of hearing aids to trial, and a 180 day, money back refund policy if they canât make you happy.
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Just my two cents! try to ask about which brand/model could include the T-Coil. Not all mfrs include it. some will say itâs old tech; you donât need it with blue tooth/Auracast, but, believe me, when you go to a venue/church/etc., where it is being used, you will not be sorry you have it in your aids. Youâll hear like when you were a kid! Many have not heard of it, but itâs out there. Extremely popular in most of Europe; Oregon has âloopedâ many many stores, airports, venues, etc. Some states are following the trend. There are even portable âloopsâ (which I have one) that you can take with you to dr. apts., etc. If you can, ask to try an aid which has the loop in it!
You can try both and compare. Costco has a six month return policy so you can get the Philips 9050âs from them and the Oticonâs from your audiologist where youâll get something like a 30 - 45 return period. Work to get them both optimized and then compare. Return the one you donât want.
Been using Costco for my aids for years and yes they use âreal time voicesâ and all the âbest practicesâ talked about by the the $5-7000.00 local sellers in my area. In the case of Oticon Intents and the 9050âs {which I own} the basic processor and hardware are much the same but some minor software is missing according to their respective facts sheets. Based on how well my 9050âs work I do not think those features are worth $1000âs more.