It seems much the same. It does now tell you if there are firmware updates for the aids. You might be able to update them through the app, but mine are already up to date.
I recently got the 9040’s as an update from my Bernafon Zerena 9’s. The 9040’s are fantastic…even better after moving to a larger dome. I have not found it necessary to change programs. General is good for everything…even live music in a noisy venue.
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I recently purchased the Philips 9040 from Costco and have worn them for several days. I have worn hearing aids for 30 years with no adjustment problems. These 9040s were taken back after first try because I was getting loud lisping sounds. They have been adjusted and I am still hearing the lisping sound on tv although not as bad. Also paired to my iPhone but constantly turning up volume. Deciding whether or not to just put up with these adjustments. Anyone having same problem and how was it corrected?
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You don’t post your audiogram in your profile so there’s no telling why you’re getting the lisping sounds. Do you know if you have frequency lowering enabled? If so, then it’s most likely where the lisping sounds come from.
There’s a phone level setting you can have the Costco HCP adjust upward for you if you find the iPhone volume normally too low (assuming you’ve already also turn up the volume buttons on the iPhone). See the screenshot below for an example.
I just got my 9040s and they are the best hearing aids I’ve tested for normal sounds. I tried Jabra, Oticon, Eargo and Audicus. I originally had Jabra’s from Costco but they kept not connecting to my phone and the right one had low connectivity issues. I took them back to Costco and they gave me loaners of 9030s with batteries. They were a big difference in that they were the closest to normal sounds - no harsh crinkle sounds when running water or touching paper. I have to say that after the audiologist programmed my 9040s they were even better than the loaners. I chose the battery option over the charger option. The batteries last about 3 to 4 days and are inexpensive at Costco. I get a warning when the batteries are low and have about 30 minutes left. I wear them all of the time and forget they are even there. Costco may not be the concierge service of a private specialist but they are a third the price and have outstanding return policies - plus you can take them to any Costco hearing center to be cleaned or serviced.
Bottom line - they are comfortable, I can hear conversations (low tones especially) and television programs as normally as possible.
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I’ve had my Philips 9040s rechargeables for several months and a litte voice always asks how I know they’re the best because I’ve never tried another brand. But the minute I put the HAs in, my life immediately improved. A small learning curve and I am still thrilled with the vast improvement. Last night I watched a non captioned movie and got almost every single word. I just increase the volume one click if I need to hear every single word in a meeting/theater setting.
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Can anyone comment on how well the 9040s play with Android phones? I’m primarily interested in hands free phoning. I have KS10s now, and they work very well with my Android (11).
I don’t have personal first hand experience for you in this, but I remember reading on this forum that some 9040 user seems to have issue with the 9040 and their Android phone that has ASHA support. But I also remember hearing from users who reported that it works fine with their Android phones. ASHA is not that established yet, so I guess it really depends on the brand of Android phones you have. Your best bet is to try it out to see if it works for YOUR specific Android phone or not.
But do note that your Android phone MUST have ASHA support to (maybe) work with the 9040 directly without a streamer, unlike your KS10 which doesn’t require your Android phone to have ASHA support.
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You can listen to your phone calls on the 9040, but it’s not hands free when using an android phone.
If you don’t need new hearing aids, I would wait a year or two to see if the Costco hearing aids start supporting Auracast. I suspect the Jabra 20 hearing aids will be the first Costco hearing aid to get Auracast.
As far as connectivity, If I stay within my home, it’s pretty rock solid. When on the move, I get occasional drops. That’s not very surprising since the frequency used by Bluetooth is used by just about everyone else. So multiple chances for interference.
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We’ve got a new video up about this product.
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Jabra Pro 20 now supports Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast. I see Samsung is now starting to add Auracast to one of their TVs.
As it stands today, I would try the Jabra Pro 20 since Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast is where things appear to be heading.
My hearing fitter said that if I lived on the East Coast, a telecoil would be useful, but she didn’t see much usage on the West Coast where I live.
Anyhow, the we are headed to Auracast, so the telecoil is old technology.
If you like to wear hearing aids to help improve your listening experience with headphones, telecoil functionality is VERY relevant and useful for when you wear HAs with headphones. Often times, streaming music with just HAs is simply not as good as with headphones.
I think we’re entering an era when LE Audio should at least be mentioned in any review of hearing aids. Even if not everyone will actually “get” what it is, they should be alerted that there is such a thing that the aids do or do not have. They can do their own research from there.
Not sure what problem Matthew has with Costco’s long return period. I don’t see the downside from a consumer’s pov. I think the video’s pacing and content is fine for beginners but the rest of us don’t need to know about moulds vs. domes or what Bluetooth streaming is for. In the end, I don’t think I learned enough about whether this hearing aid would serve my needs better than any other. When it comes to hearing aid reviews that’s probably the nature of the beast.
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I don’t see the case for BTLE audio as compelling just yet for me. If I were buying a new higher end TV, and if Samsung wasn’t disqualified for some reason. As it is, my TV is only 3 or 4 years old, and it’s got plenty of life left. Besides, I have a TV streamer that’s likely to work with my next TV (6 years from now?) and worth nothing on the used market, so auracast isn’t of much benefit to me - or to anyone who doesn’t want a new Sansung 8K or QLED (OLED? Mini-LED? whatever…) TV. As for music at home. nothing digital that I’ve heard comes close to my analog Naim system.
At this point, you need a high end Samsung phone to get BTLE Audio, but I just bought an Apple without it, so again, I’ll have to wait for auracast to be useful. If you’re will to buy new tech now, great. If not, you’ll have to wait, too.
I guess if 2 HAs were equal, but one has auracast and one doesn’t, I’d lean to the auracast one, but at this point, I don’t see a good reason to be an early adopter - though I’m grateful to the early adopters for proving the market for auracast is viable. Auracast shows every evidence of becoming very useful, after all.
How does telecoil compare with simply using Shokz bone conductors on my temples?
Thankfully, I can listen to music using headphones without a telecoil.
How is telecoil better than Auracast?
If the telecoil is in the hearing aid, aren’t you using the speaker in the hearing aid and the processing in the hearing aid. I guess I don’t see how that gives better sound.
Using telecoil is still using hearing aids to drive receivers to create sound waves through the air into your ear canals on the output. So it’s the same difference when compared to bone conductor devices. The only difference is that instead of having the microphones from the hearing aids picking up the environmental sounds on the input side, the telecoil picks up only the sounds from the headphones and the use of the mics on the hearing aids is disabled completely. In this fashion, the environmental sounds are not detected at all. And in this fashion, the sound over the airwaves created by the headphones’ speakers are not picked up by the HAs’ mics either. Instead, the sound in the form of electromagnetic waves generated by the headhones’ speakers’ magnets are induced into the telecoil, so it is cleaner in the sense that there is no external sound pollution induced and added into the headphones’ sounds that travel via the airwaves.
Yeah, listening to music using headphones without a telecoil is definitely possible by letting the HAs’ mics pickup the headphones’ generated sound via the airwaves instead of using a telecoil to pick up the electromagnetically induced sounds, as long as your HA’s feedback circuitry is effective enough to manage the feedback that may ensue by having the headphones creating a medium to bounce the receivers’ generated sound back into the HAs’ mic. For people with heavier hearing loss, especially in the mid and lower frequencies, it’s very easy to get feedback when putting on headphones. So this approach doesn’t work for everybody.
I never said that telecoil is better than Auracast by itself as an input form into the hearing aids, when the HAs are not used in combination with headhones. They’re 2 different input technologies. I only said telecoil is still very useful for use with headphones because not everybody is able to use HAs with headphones without having feedback issues. The telecoil solves this feedback-while-wearing-headphones issue. Also, this eliminates the need for the feedback management processing, yet another thing that can affect the integrity of the music you hear.
Meanwhile, I think Auracast is just a form of Bluetooth streaming standard that transmits wirelessly the sound via the Bluetooth protocol. Auracast would be better off to be compared to the current wireless streaming technology used by HAs using BT like with Phonak, or BT LE form (such as MFI and ASHA or proprietary BT LE used by streaming devices) like with the other aids’ brands, than to be compared with the telecoil.
Yes, with telecoil, you still use the HAs to process the sound and the HAs’ receiver to deliver the sound, so it doesn’t make the sound better compared to BT type streaming as far as the HAs’ performance and delivery is concerned. What makes it better is the sound as delivered from the headphones themselves through the airwave that is COMBINED with the sound delivered by the HAs. The inherently weak limitation with HAs is that their receivers are tiny and can never match the low bass performance of a good set of headphones. But for people with ski-slope type loss where their hearing is still decent in the lows and most of their hearing loss is in the highs, with a good set of headphones to give them the great low bass performance and they can hear using their decent low frequency hearing naturally, combined with the high frequency compensation for their high frequency hearing loss delivered by the HAs, then they get the best of both worlds. This is where it’s better than direct streaming via BT, because with direct BT streaming, the HAs and themselves alone have to deliver the whole spectrum of sounds, and the HAs don’t get the help from the headphones to help deliver the better low bass performance.
Of course this advantage is mostly for music listening where the low bass sounds are much more relevant compared to normal listening where the low bass sounds are not as relevant. But in this scenario, for music listening and for people with ski-slope hearing loss that still has decent low frequency hearing left, using a combination of telecoil and headphones is still better than direct BT streaming like with Auracast or MFI or ASHA or Phonak legacy BT or a streaming device using proprietary BT LE.
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I guess I’m lucky that I’ve never had a feedback issue while wearing headphones.
I’ve never used a telecoil but I would be surprised if it made any difference for my hearing loss and the open domes I’m using.
I will say that streaming music using Bluetooth isn’t quite as good as using my headphones, but it’s not that bad either using my Philips hearing aids.