I think my Resounds 9 BTE are starting to get older and maybe it’s time for an update because, among other things, my hearing has deteriorated a bit in recent years.
I often wear headphones and/or earbuds to stream from my computer and cell phone. For the TV I often use the Resound streamer with my HAs.
I asked my Audi whether there are now better HAs on the market, something with BT not only MFI and perhaps also ITC because of the hassle with mouth caps and glasses.
Ultimately, I was advised a Starkey Livio 2400 AI as having many options and excellent quality.
So I tried the ITC and it was nice to notice that I could eat without the HAs bumping against my glasses, put on and take off a mouth cap without losing my HA and stream classical music directly and also speech understanding was clearly improved .
Now I read that the Evolv would come on the market as a successor. If you are to believe the media, again better than the Livio. Given the price, I would rather wait a month for that money… So I decided to return the Livio after the trial period, although I was happy with them.
Now that I have my Resounds back in for the time being and sometimes nothing, I have discovered that I really don’t hear very well anymore and partly because of that I don’t like to be in company. While waiting for the Evolv to come out, I’m starting to doubt whether I’m doing the right thing to want ITC just because of the hassle with mouth caps. Slowly it becomes clear to me that being beautiful is also important, but being able to follow a conversation is the ultimate goal of an HA. Perhaps I have unjustly pushed my audi too much towards the importance of invisible HAs.
Therefore my question to the experts here on the forum to help me in deciding whether an ITC would still be such a wise choice or whether I should choose a RIC/BTE, partly because of my audiogram.
I have been wearing the Levio 2400 AI RIC/BTE just a little over 2 years I have been happy with them they were my 2nd pair of aids. Due to recent decrease in my hearing I received a new hearing test and it showed my left ear to be about the same which is modest to severe loss and my right ear is now profound loss with a WR score of 30 words.
I was told I could go with the new Starkey 2400 Evolv or a BiCROS I went with the Evolv since I am more familar with that tech. and they said I coud return them and go with the BiCROS if I was not happy with the new aids. I have had the new Evolv’s for almost two weeks and I think I can hear and understand my granddaughter better now which was my greatest wish/concurn. I don’t seem to ask her to repeat herself as much but more time will only tell if that is true.
Overall I think they are better than the Levio 2400 AI but again time will tell.
I got mine through the VA they had just become available to them on Nov1. I think they were released to the general public in Sept. If your hearing is not as bad as mine then they may be a good choise for you.
You could just get a new audiogram done and retune them to fit your loss.
What is the exact model of ReSound you are using?
You could also use the bluetooth PhoneClip for this, you wouldn’t need to carry around a set of headphones using it.
But yeah, directly streaming to ones HAs is by far a better solution.
Obviously there are plenty of other brands that will/can meet your needs, it’s always a good idea to trial a few different brands for comparison purposes, this way “you” make the decision about which brand best suits your requirements.
Seems you have may have made the decision, so these things you liked and noticed a difference, trial another set or two to be 100% sure.
Sure I understand that, so you must obviously do something about the this, no need to be like this when you know you can improve things.
Well only you can make the call on this, if it’s not ITC then that leaves RIC like your ReSounds.
Ha yeah, you got this correct, nothing better than following the conversation!
Well if it were me, I’d definitely go RIC type, your hearing loss is not so bad at all, just about any HA would be able to help once probably set up, have you considered your local Costco? certainly they can’t be beaten in price alone.
Thanks for your appreciated info Granpaw. What is not clear to me… but I assume is that you’re again on the RIC/ BTE or did you make the move to the ITC’s now. So what I understand that waiting for the new model to be available.
And the other thing is I could not find your audiogram in your profile. Do you hear worse than I do, as I posted my most recent one.
Here in the Netherlands I have to wait untill 2022 unfortunately for them to become available.
Thank you for your respons tenkan.
Sorry I forgot to add the “Linx”, so it has to be the Resound Linx 9.
I do have the clip also, but it is inconvenient in a way and does have less good sound then my expensive Bose and Sony with Noise cancelling headphonse which I can use over and also without HA’s.
I feel a bit ashamed if I would try several HA’s as I heard they have to throw them away afterwards because of medical reasons. I already tried the Livio 2400 AI now custommade, and then the second already will be eventually the Evolv…
You say you would go for the RIC/ BTE, but not the reason why. As I tried to make clear that I would love to have the ITC’s for the reasons mentioned. But what is your motivation?
By the way the Costco is not in the Netherlands where I live, so the cheapest price will be the advised market price over here.
Thanks again
Your welcome I stayed with RIC/BTE I just got a copy of my audiogram and will update my profile soon and yes as I stated I have profound loss in one ear. I think both starkey aids would work for you but I would go with the latest tech. since you will most likely have them for several years.
Ok then, so sure those are quite old now so a upgrade to the latest technology would be a wise move.
Actually it’s not the PhoneClip thats giving you the inferior sound as such, but the bluetooth streaming program that’s set up to use it, so you could, if you wanted make the adjustments in the software in make it just how you like it, but of course there’s no way you’d get your HAs to sound as good as your high quality headphones.
You shouldn’t be feeling like this, it’s your right and I’m sure the clinic will be more then happy to help you trial others, most hearing clinics have trial models just for people like yourself, so they won’t be
"throwing"them out, and if not the manufacturers will accept the return without iss5from your audiologist.
Yeah quite a few reasons really, it’s been posted about many times on the forum, so I won’t rehash it, but you can check out yourself by using the search button from right here on hearingtracker.
Thanks Grandpaw for your additional information.
I will have a look at your audiogram in due course for my curiosity to see what you mean by severe hearingloss, thanks for posting in advance
Thanks tenkan for your reply. Happy to hear you can confirm it will be time for newer technology. Sometimes you put something in your head without having the right arguments and then it would be a waste.
The one I tried lately (Starkey Livio 2400 ITC) were my third pair of HA’s in my life and I feel like I kept getting brand new ones to try given the packaging that came with the former ones. So i don’t know if my audi provides samples also, though it is a big company in the Netherlands (OogVoorOren). But to be honest it wouldn’t be completely unfair if I also could try something for the money to spend before buying.
And thanks for the obvious help pointing to the search help, which certainly answers one of my questions. I’m going to work on that today.
Sometimes, however, it is better not to read too much because of my increasing uncertainty, so I hope not to be confused
There are advantages with choosing the RIC over a ITC hearing aid and vise versa which I will not go into here. I have always worn ITE half shell. Currently Resound Linx 3D and prior to that Starkey. With a severe…severe/profound hearing loss it is challenging to fit a custom hearing aid for severe/profound hearing loss, but it can be done. Starkey(also Resound, Phonak) offer a UP(upper power 70db) receiver in the custom hearing aids, same as in the RIC. The challenge is getting the gain needed without feedback. And if you succeed in controlling feedback there may be no head room for gain if your hearing gets worse due to the feedback issue. I have tried a RIC hearing aid in the past but prefer the custom hearing aid. I have had success controlling the feedback. I plan on trying the Starkey Evolv custom hearing aid when I am due for new aids in early 2022, unless another manufacturer comes out with a new custom hearing aid which I might try.
As far as I found out now the most important differences to consider for me are: The smaller the HA the less knobs on the outside to handle without going to your phones app or an extra separate device.
Furthermore off course you have to come along with different things as personal earwax reactions and your own voice sound differences as well as incompatibilities for glasses.
You mentioned at least one important thing for me here I think. You cannot easily exchange the speakers of the ITC and IIC/ CIC, which is possible in the RIC without destroying the custom made aids. But I do not know if this will mean a lot if you use the same pair for 4 or 5 years.
I am currently trying the Evolv custom’s, I’ve tried the half shell and the cic’s, we can’t seem to get rid of the feedback issues, I need to pump them up a bit to hear speech better, but when I do, the feedback is terrible, the reason I didn’t like the half shell is , you can only get them in rechargeable, that makes them bigger and sticks the microphone out in the wind, so that’s another issue,
Sorry to heat that. Then if you are looking for custom with disposable battery then Resound and Phonak offer custom with disposable battery and a UP receiver. However, the technology is a couple years old. I will be looking to get new HAs in early 2022 and hoping Phonak or Resound would be coming out with a new platform for custom HA(with disposable battery option). I get the impression that the HA manufacturers will be moving to rechargeable battery version of HAs and slowly eliminate the disposable battery version. So we may have to get used to rechargeable battery HAs soon.
I’m using the ReSound linx quatro9 mih, and have zero feedback issues , I was really hopeful that they would have had the customs out by now in the Resound One, I’ve been told they may be coming, but they will not give a time line. The app is much better for the Resound also…imo
