I have three weeks with the Philips 9030, and a week with the Oticon More 1, There is no comparison. I can hear in noise much much better with the More. Also, I can hear soft sounds much better. I had the Philip adjusted three times. They are in different leagues, especially in noise. The only thing the Philips does better is that it uses the hearing aid microphone for phone calls, but the More requires you to speak into the iPhone microphone.
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I don’t believe the Phillips aid uses the hearing aid microphone for making calls. Unless it’s a setting I haven’t found, I speak into my phone when making a call, which is exactly what I want to do. Otherwise I would have opted for the latest Costco aid.
I’ll be picking up the pair of Jabra aids I ordered on July 1st and look forward to comparing the 2 sets.
Yeah, I thought only Phonak does that so far (speaking into HA mics on calls) and not requiring a streaming device for Android phones.
But if the HearLink 9030 is anything like the Oticon aids, you can use its version of the Oticon ConnectClip streamer for phone calls (even on iPhones) and you can leave the phone in your pocket and just wear the ConnectClip around your neck or clip it on you in front and its mic will be used for phone calls.
I’ve been wearing the Philips Hearlink 9030 for over 1 month. Your iPhone can direct phone calls directly to your hearing aids while your phone is in your pocket. In fact I had to do some research to be able to turn off the hearing aids automatically connecting to phone calls. Settings-Accessibility-Hearing Devices-Audio Routing-Call Audio…Select “Never Hearing Devices” to stop the Hearing Aids automatically answering the calls or select “Always Hearing Devices” to have all your iPhone Calls go directly to your hearing aids.
The Philips HearLink 9030’s handle phone calls reasonably well for the hearing aid user but several callers have commented about having occasional difficulty hearing me.
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Yeah, but what we’re talking about here is not an issue of how to route your incoming calls, automatically or to your hearing devices or not.
The question is, if you have an incoming call, and the iPhone in your pocket or purse routes the call to your HAs, do you then have to get the phone out and speak into the phone’s mic for your phone calls for a clear conversation? Or can you just leave your iPhone in your pocket or purse or whatever and not worry about your iPhone mic being obstructed from picking up your voice (being in your pocket or purse and all) because the HearLink can pick up your voice from the HA’s mic and not from the iPhone’s mic?
Maybe callers complain about not hearing you well is because you leave your iPhone in your pocket, so its mic still picks up your voice, but being in the pocket makes the pick up of your voice less than clear.
i keep my phone in my purse which for some reason isn’t ever within reach. My solution has been to pretend I’m Dick Tracy (for those of you who remember him) and aim my voice at my Apple Watch. Works great and the folks on the other end report that the transmitted audio is great. I should admit I’m surprised when my watch rings and vibrates and indeed it takes a few seconds to realize the phone is nowhere in sight and I can answer the call with the watch. Works well for Apple people and there’s probably a similar Android solution.
Well, there’s intent, and there’s semantics in the word “similar” that was used.
To the folks who called out the comment “It’s a nice HA similar to the Oticon, just only (that it’s) sold at Costco.”, they saw it for its intent, which was to imply that the HearLink is “equivalent” to the Oticon More, but sold at Costco for a much cheaper price.
This implication has been used many times before in other threads on this forum, often times by Costco HIS’s who told their patients as such, as reported by forum posters. The opposition from the folks who called this out was mainly against the intent, because they’re not equivalent, because the cores are different.
But because the word “similar” was used in the comment, it created the opportunity to dissect this word to its literal meaning to divert away from the original intent in order to justify the comment. This is what fueled the dispute.
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Thanks for your clarification and for being a welcome peacemaker. (FWIW, I agree with your analysis.)
I’ve commented to many people who say a Costco hearing aid is “the same as” another hearing aid that it is similar, but not the same. One might get less of a reaction if one replied that yes, it is similar, but then point out differences rather than say it “is demonstrably false.”
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I asked Philips if their HearLink 9030’s use the hearing aid microphone or the iPhone microphone while streaming calls.
Here’s their reply:
“Thank you for reaching out to the Philips Consumer Care team. When making and receiving calls with your iPhone, even when streaming, you will need to utilize your phone itself for transmission of your own voice.”
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Thanks for confirming from the source. That’s what I thought.
So I will bring my observations of the HearLink 9030 to a conclusion. Today I returned the aids to Costco for a full refund. These are fine aids that perform well enough, however, as my world opened up with more family gatherings and business meetings, I noticed the aids were only marginally better than my Oticon Opn1 which are 5 years old now.
I started wearing the OPN again and realized they gave me the same speech understanding and natural sound that the HearLink did. The biggest plus the HearLink have over the OPN is the ability to adjust the equalizer settings for streaming, but that feature alone isn’t worth $1799 to me.
I would absolutely recommend the HearLink, but for me as I got into more experiences and was able to make direct comparisons to the Oticon OPN1, they just didn’t make enough of an impact to justify the expense. Really goes to show you how fickle hearing aid reviews can be
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If your OPN 1s were failing today, though, you’d go out and buy the 9030 again as their replacements though, right?
I assume that you were trying to kill 2 birds with 1 stone here, hoping for the 9030 to be better than the OPN as a replacement primarily, and secondarily, retiring your OPN as backup pairs then. And since it didn’t meet your primary objective, you couldn’t justify keeping them just for the secondary objective.
That’s a big ask for a simple EQ, huh?
You can easily get a decent eq for your phone, if you don’t already have one, free.
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I have molds as well. Ask the Costco Audi about venting in your molds, due to the plugged ear sensation. My current Oticon’ s molds have this for almost 3 yrs.
Hi, I just got a loaner. They gave me the 9030’s while my KS8’s are out being refurbished at the end of my 2 year warranty. I thought these were the KS10’s, but after trying to connect to the KS10 app, Easy Line Remote, multiple times I realized that I’ve got the 9030’s. I’m bummed because I had come to the realization that although I love the re-chargeable aspect, the sound is pretty much not worth paying another $1800. So now I’ve got to ask how do my older KS8’s compare to the KS10’s, if you have any info on that.
KS8 is made by Rexton. KS10 is made by Sonova who makes Phonak. Probably biggest difference besides rechargability is connectivity. KS8 is made for iPhone. KS10 is Classic Bluetooth. I’d suggest sticking with KS8 unless there is something specific it’s not doing for you. I’d likely still be using my KS7s if they’d had a way to directly stream sound from a TV device (without pendant)
My experience is the same. I have three months on the Oticon More 1 and two months on the Phillips 9030, and the Mores are incredible. Light years ahead. They are not the same hearing aid.
I bought the 9030s to serve as my back up pair but I’m probably going to return them to Costco because the fit is so mediocre. My Costco tech is clearly struggling and simply relying on the Phillips software. He switched me yesterday from the default Phillips fit flow to NAL-NL2 because he doesn’t know what else to do. I might ask my Audi to program the 9030s instead of returning them…she is excellent. Or I might try to download the software and DIY.
I wore the OPN previously, but only in my left ear as my right ear had normal hearing at the time. Today I need aids for both ears (sigh). I liked the OPN, but the Mores are noticeably better.
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