I can’t speak to the Phillips 9050, but I felt the same way with Jabra Pro from Costco. very tinny, distorted. I kept it 4 months then exchanged for RExton Reach. The Rexton has more natural sound and the automatic programs are great. No need to use phone app in noisy restaurants etc. Good Luck.
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I don’t know where you live but the NoahLink Wireless 2 runs for around $180-$200 on Amazon. If you’re desperate now, but you’re willing to try DIY and you’re 7 hour drive away from your Costco, and there’s little guarantee that 1 more trip to Costco for adjustment would fix your issue for you, even if it’s a gamble, I’d try DIY and all you lose is $200 for a device if it doesn’t work out. If you’re not very technical, maybe enlist a friend or relative who’s technical to help you find and download the software, get it up and running, then study the various features on it. The online Help for the HearSuite software is fairly decent. If you or the technical friend is capable enough, even read up on the Philips technical papers to learn to understand what all the terms mean. Even if you end up returning the 9050, you’re not throwing away the NoahLink Wireless 2 as you might be able to use it in the future for another pair of hearing aids that works better for you.
Normally I don’t suggest DIY for just about anyone, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If there are no affordable resources near you who can help, you gotta try to learn to help yourself, and enlist help of a family member or friend who’s more technically capable to help. At least DIY will give you almost instant results for you to evaluate and experiment. So it affords you the chance to do trial and error very quickly that infrequent visits to a professional too far away would not help make possible.
Sonic and Oticon hearing aids are in the same umbrella under William Demant, who also owns than licenses the Philips hearing aids technology. If Sonic and Oticon aids used to work for you, it’s very unlikely that the Philips 9050 cannot help you similarly to the Sonic and Oticon aids. So don’t blame it on the aids, blame it on the fitter. Then do something differnt about it, instead of going back to the same fitter. If another fitter from the nearest Costco is 7 hours away and you can’t affort anything more costly than the 9050, then figure out how to help yourself via DIY.
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I’ve ordered the NoahLink and expect it next Friday. I’m going to try it according to the basic instructions and I’ve asked my audiologist to help me if I need it. I’m really happy to be able to adjust my hearing aids myself, I can’t wait. I also have the software, so I’m ready. I trust Philips, they give such good results to others. I’ll keep you posted! Thank you
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Its great that you can ask your AuD. That is a special relationship - a valuable one.
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I too got my HAs at our nearest Costco only 75 mi. away in my case. The initial fitting seemed good in the store but within a week I experienced many of the same loudness and high frequency problems you mentioned. I went back and they summarily said" it’s not the HAs it your ears". But they did reduce the gain 2 levels and mid and high frequency ranges and sound was much improved.
I have to agree with the suggestion to “take them back”. You should try the Jabra20s that I and several others got at Costco and request a new audiogram fitting. THEN, if not fully satisfied with the fitting at Costco, get the self fitting program and NoahLink like I did and you may find that you can greatly improve the performance. If you do this, follow Tenkan’s instructions (which I unfortunately did not do) to SAVE your original fitting the first time you open the program, Exit and create a different user name for the new fittings you create.
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Good advice about both saving the original fitting before making changes but ALSO make up a different Patient name for subsequent changes…I forgot to do the second part and know the consequences. Eventually though you will get it right even with that mistake I made about a different user for changes.
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Best $200 I ever spent; BUT rememeber to not only save your first fitting, Exit and save it. THEN make up a new patient name for putting in new fittings. Your program will then have both your original name and a second patient name you can call New Fittings or whatever to not lose the first original audiogram when you make changes.
When I told him I’d bought the Novalink and had the software from my Philips, he thought I was so funny that he agreed to help me with my adventure!
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I will publish a more thorough review after wearing my HA’s for a while longer, but in the meanwhile…
I have owned my 9050’s for a week now. My initial impression is that they are a vast improvement over the KS9’s I’ve been wearing since 2019. Wind noise has dropped to virtually zero when riding my bike, especially when compared to the KS9’s that sounded like I was in a wind tunnel with even a modest breeze, Bluetooth is much much better as well.
I’ve got a pretty good tech at Costco and I’ve pretty sure that he programmed my HA’s with the “recommended standard” for my audiogram. Things that I like: Increased clarity of higher frequency sounds… I can actually hear the timer “ding” on my microwave oven. I’ve not had issues yet with listening at a restaurant but a real noise test is still to come.
What I don’t like: I sound a little bit like I’m in a barrel but already getting used to it. The wife says I am speaking more quietly, so maybe there’s something there after all.
The real pain in the (r)ear is listening to music. For sustained high notes, like a flute or violing, or some new age music, the sustained notes are coming through with a “trilling” or “tremolo”. It’s as though the HA’s are attempted to fix what they perceive as background noise. It’s annoying.
I’m due back to Costco in a week for adjustments… I’ll give a full report then. Meanwhile, I have to think that either you really have a defective pair of HA’s or they are not programmed correctly.
That’s the hidden feature I like to call TTTF (Talking Thru The Fan).
It’s the feedback manager, attempting to correct what it percieves as “Noise”. You should be using the HiFi Music program for music, so if it’s not already set up, have them add it.
Have your fitter turn off feedback manager in the fitting software for the Music program, and you should be good.
The problem with your voice sounds like occlusion, where your ears seem plugged up.
Perhaps your fitter can change the domes, or if your losss is severe to profound, custom molds with venting should help.
You should post your audiogram below your badge so we can see what’s going on.
Click on your profile pic at the top right, choose preferences, and and click on My Audiogram.
following for streaming music . . . I need to get rid of Speech in Noise program and get the Music one . . .
Much appreciated. I thought I had my audiogram… apparently didn’t pick it up from Costco… will get it up in the next couple of days. Yes, my hearing loss has moved into the severe category, with multi-tone tinnitus as an added benefit. I’m not too unhappy with the occlusion situation… I did have custom molds in Singapore… I might look into them… although I found that sweating in humid Singapore, and now Houston, was/is a problem.
As a side note, is there a resource that explains all the different possible settings on these HA’s and how they might interact with one another?
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You may wish to visit the Self Programming catagory, and request a copy of the HearLink fitting software, because that way you could explore all the settings, and the help files would explain them.