Phonak will return to Costco on Monday 10/28/2024. They will be selling an AI powered Sennheiser Sonite RIC.
AND they will be discontinuing the Rexton Reach on Nov 24th
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From other post and link to Reddit post it’s clear this is a true hearing aid and not OTC. Unclear at this point which aid this would be most similar to. It does seem to be compatible with Phonak accessories (TV Connect and PartnerMic)
True. The record for these in accessgudid.nlm.nih.gov was created about the same time as the infinio records. So there is a chance they are infinio platform based. What is the likelihood they also have sphere?
WH
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Bluetooth.com lists a Hansaton Sonite but I didn’t see any further info. I think Sphere tech has only been included in Phonak (not Unitron or Hansaton) Actually I haven’t even seen any Unitron or Hansaton products with Infinio. I’d guess the Sonite is Infinio but not Sphere, but I really have no idea. I have not been good at guessing/making predictions.
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That would be another ground breaker for Costco.
And my wife’s KS9’s are still doing great but the Spheres would sure be enticing at $1600.
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I doubt it will be sphere because with Phonak sphere is a premium feature. Sphere is profitable for phonak, and will remain so until phonak offers the same for all technology levels.
That’s my hunch, which may not be correct. From phonak’s point of view, they have to retain some features that will make phonak still desirable.
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Hard to say … Costco has a lot of market power, so they may be able to require sphere tech. OTOH, Phonak has a lot of power, too, so they may be able to keep it to their brand name. Fingers crossed.
Also, with a TV connector at $100 (per the other post), I wonder if it’s compliant with the BT LE Audio/Auracast standard Iwhichever std governs this).
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I agree. I would be shocked if they were selling the Sphere for that price. They can’t even keep up with demand for the sphere in the independent. Plus they have been clear that it costs a lot to manufacture the sphere
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I’m doubting TV connector is Auracast compliant. Previous versions (and I’m guessing this is unchanged) did not even use Bluetooth, but Phonak’s own wireless technology.
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This is great news. Maybe dropping their Phonak/Kirkland models had sales fall off enough it was noticed in the boardroom.
Still, I was talking with a new HA wearer and they told me Costco didn’t take insurance, or made it hard enough it was as good as.
I’ll be very interested to see the new model’s features.
Costco will not bill insurance for hearing aids (they do seem to have some arrangement to do so in optical) They should be able to help with providing necessary paperwork for insurance company but you’ll need to pay Costco for the hearing aids and get reimbursed by your insurer. Many HA insurance plans really aren’t worth using.
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Would make perfect sense for Costco and sonova, no one comes close to sales market volume of Costco (except VA of course) it would just flood the market with sphere, another thing is the brand, by using Sennheiser instead of Phonak, sonova could possibly pull this off?
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It definitely affected them, they had a complete write down on yearly profit with market share dropping.
Dropping Rexton/Signia doesn’t make a lot of sense, I guess had to make room for the big boys in town!
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Sphere utilizes the Deepsonic chip, maybe Sennheiser the Deepsonite. We can only dream.
I’m not disagreeing that sphere is a premium feature, but the KS-10 was pretty evenly matched with paradise 90. It remains to be seen if this is like the KS-10 situation or more like the oticon/philips disparity.
WH
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As was the KS9 aids.
Looking forward to some hands on experience from our members.
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This is not surprising. At the time of the Infiniti/Sphere release, it was speculated that the Infinio without Sphere would likely show up in Costco as a defeatured version of the Phonak premium line.
What is surprising is to see this return of Phonak linked with the removal Rexton. With Phonak and Sennheiser being Sonova brands and Rexton being a WSA brand, the decision on the two product lines would appear to be unrelated. The joint announcement would appear to be for marketing purposes.
The rexton reach ric is being discontinued. The behind the ear will stay. Only 170 Costco stores will get them new Sennheiser aids.
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Bicore or M-core, so there’s no Reach BTE right?
Huh? Why would they do that?
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