I finally picked up Philips Hearlink miniRITE T R hearing aids at Costco tonight, replacing a set of Kirkland KS8s. (RITE for “receiver in the ear,” “T” for telecoil and “R” for rechargeable lithium batteries.) I paid $2700.
The technician programmed them at my full prescription at high frequencies and slightly reduced amplification at mid and low frequencies as she felt that would give me the best balance between comfort and the ability to understand speech. My KS8s were also programmed to my prescription so I didn’t need a break-in period.
I’ve only had them a few hours, which included shopping in Costco, going out to eat and watching a baseball game on television. My first impressions compared to the KS8s:
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Better noise reduction, especially noticeable when our loud a/c comes on at home. The KS8s overwhelmed me with the sound of air rushing through ductwork at home & at work unless I turned them way down. The Philips recognize the noise and suppress it automatically.
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Better location and amplification of sound sources in multiple directions. This was a marked improvement over all previous hearing aids. As I was walking around Costco I was overhearing other shoppers’ conversations off to the side and behind me and actually understanding some of what they were saying to each other for the first time in at least 10 years.
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Clearer, more natural sound overall. These are programmed as loud as my KS8s but don’t feel like it. It was just my wife and I at the restaurant and it wasn’t excessively noisy, but I did effortlessly understand everything she and our waiter were saying. I might have done just as well with the KS8s under the circumstances, but wouldn’t have been as comfortable.
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Worse feedback reduction, but not excessively so. The KS8s perfectly suppressed feedback even when wearing headphones over them; these will feedback a bit when I put my hand up to them.
That’s it for now. I won’t know if the purchase was worth it until I see how they perform at work, but for now I’m cautiously optimistic that I will be able to pick up an extra word of conversation here and there compared to the KS8s.
-Emsgran