Just double-checked and YES for my Costco. The hours are not listed for the website but if one calls the Costco Hearing Aid Center for Store #689 (210-200-2033), just before the recorded beep to leave your own phone number for a callback, the message will recite the HEARING CENTER hours, which are 7 days a week. Mon->Fri, 10 am to 7:30 pm; Sat, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm; Sun, 10 am to 6 pm (appointments HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). If anyone wants to doublecheck phone number or location in San Antonio, TX, here is the link to the store with specialty center listings: Nw san antonio Costco Warehouse- Costco
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Thanks all for the great review and comments. I picked up my Phonaks from Costco (in Canada) last Sunday. My issue is that my hearing is significantly different in each ear. The left is very bad while the right is moderate but still needs a hearing aid. So far I’m not overly impressed with the Phonaks but really have nothing to compare to. I feel that given the large discrepancy between my two ears, I need something that will allow me to adjust each side separately in different situations. I’ve got the Phonak app and can adjust volume, but it’s not enough.
I’ve looked at the Resound app and it certainly provides much more control. My question is whether the app provides separate controls for the left and right side for things other than volume, such as bass and treble, wind noise, and so on. Thanks.
Bob, you can separately control the volume (gain) on the left and right aids, but adjustments to tone (bass, middle, and treble) as well as wind noise suppression affect both aids. This is supported by the confirmation beeps: left or right for separate volume adjustments, both for other adjustments. However, you could ask your audi to set up new programs (in addition to the defaults) with different tone/wind noise settings for each ear. These would appear in the app’s slider selection bar. You could switch to one of these using the app or by doing a long press on the hearing aids’ button.
I would add that I think you’re one of the folks who would really benefit by being able to program your aids yourself. Unfortunately that’s not possible with the Costco Fortes, but it is possible with the admittedly much pricier Linx 3Ds. You might try working with the Costco audi to see if you can get the programs set up to your liking – you have a 180 day trial period.
Thanks for the fast reply Bryan9. That’s what I thought based on the demo built into the Resound app, but you never know with demos. I’ll see if I can get a range of programs. I think the trial is 3 months in Canada, still more than enough time. My first step is to return the Phonaks and arrange for the Fortes.
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There are a lot of smarts in the ReSound aids, which will hopefully be supplemented by the skill of the audiologist or fitter who sets you up. So I think you should see how they do with your differing prescriptions, before you try to outsmart the system by asking for a bunch of different programs you may not need. There are only four program slots in the aids anyway, not counting the automatic programs for the iPhone or Phone Clip. I can’t think of why you’d want, say, different wind noise suppression on each ear.
I suppose it will depend on whether the Resound automatic program is better than the Phonak’s. While my right side starts at 20dB up to about 1k and then starts dropping to reach 70dB at 8k, the left side is almost linear at 70dB. I also found, while attending a local music festival, that the left side was much more sensitive to bass. That’s without hearing aids.
I’ve been in a couple of situations where I’d want to turn the left side down or at least make it less sensitive to certain frequencies. One was at a family gathering where some young kids were playing. I heard them better than the people right in front of me. And yes, they tended to be on my left side. Similarly, I was at a fairly quiet restaurant with some friends. The volume on the left was enough to distract from what the person in front of me was saying. And for listening to TV, I find that I have to turn the volume down on the left side to hear clearly, although I should say that at least now I can properly make out voices on TV.
I was thinking of a couple of generalized programs where the left side bass is set to lower than normal and perhaps one where the bass is normal but the mid tones and treble are set higher. Given that, when I adjust the bass and treble for both aids using the app, plus the ability to adjust for noise and speech location, I can probably find something that suits most situations.
Everything is adjustable and they may not have them turned up if you are new wearer. The aids themselves may have an acclimation schedule, or your pro may do it manually based on how you are doing. You should need a few adjustments the first couple of months. It takes time for your brain to adjust to the new sounds.
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As you ask, I am sharing my experience, now in my second day with Forte 8.
I got carried away with my excitement with the ReSounds over here. 
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Still feeling this way after a month with my Forte 8s. Stuff I just couldn’t hear with my Oticon Agil Pros: Comments made by checkout clerks in supermarkets/big box stores, wife talking from another room, TV at normal volume, my little cat mewing softly, cats purring, birds chirping outside, slow-moving cars coming at me when I’m crossing the street, pill hitting floor after I dropped it… able to have phone conversations again and don’t fear the phone ringing…
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Update - I am totally grooving on listening to music through my Forte 861s connected to my iPhone. I have to push my power domes all the way into the canal in order to get the deepest base. I select the Music program with Bass Boost, and use the Music app to play my favorite tracks… .and OMG, I am hearing music again for the first time in 25 years. It’s just an overwhelming experience. Honestly, the sound is as good as anything I’ve experienced with audiophile quality headphones or speakers… doubtless because the frequency response has been adjusted to suit my audiogram. What a joy!
I just described this post to my wife, who commented:
“For the first time in many, many years, I am now able to talk to you in a nice, soft voice, without yelling. It’s very pleasant. It was such a struggle to have conversations with you before. And I’m not raising my voice too much when I speak to other people with normal hearing – something they noticed.”
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I think that I need to start streaming music to my HA’s while driving rather than listening to the car radio directly. The ReSound All-Around program does a good job of keeping road noise to an acceptable minimum but yesterday coming home from a 100-mile road trip, I thought I’d try enjoying the Music program - Yep! The music sounded even better (what I could hear of it) but the road noise came through in full glory, too. I have a 12-year-old Honda Accord in fantastic shape (it only has 64,000 miles on it) and I want to take advantage of its remaining life until driverless technology gets better (to help mind what I’m doing on the road in my old age!). I was wondering if there is a relatively inexpensive way to convert the radio to stream to my HA’s? The car can do XM Radio, etc., but I don’t want to pay a subscription for that or for Spotify, etc. I like “free” and I like the serendipity of discovering songs playing on some station while I drive - my theory is that skipping between stations helps keep me awake on monotonous drives such that my wife cannot help but fall asleep in the passenger seat! Not looking forward to doing the same in the driver’s seat!
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-Qx41bsFJRtS/learn/learningcenter/car/Bluetooth/in_car.html
But before you do that, have you tried the Noise Reduction slider in the Music program’s Sound Enhancer section? Of course it’ll take away some of the music along with road noise, but depending on the type of music it might be acceptable.
Also, as @Mark_Chambers already wrote below, I have the default gain set lower on the Music program, or you can reduce the volume through the app or the iPhone triple-click shortcut. This way the aids don’t amplify the road noise too much, and I can crank the head unit louder to overwhelm (well, not completely) the road noise. This might be a bad idea in theory, since cranking the head unit too loud might exceed the aids’ input capacity. But maybe not such an issue with Quattros?
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Turn the volume down on your aids to quiet the road noise and turn the volume up on your radio to compensate.
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Thanks for very helpful suggestions! Yesterday was the first time on a long open road trip for me with HA’s. While driving at 70 to 75 mph, I didn’t want to play around with the phone in a dashboard phone mount (ProClipUSA) too much for fear of distracting driving (I think of the same while switching radio stations by pressing the Search button without looking). The laws are pretty strict, surprisingly for Texas, and in 2017 the state had a horrific accident with a young guy, driving a truck while under the influence of drugs, marijuana, and alcohol and texting, who crossed the center lane and crashed into a van load of elderly churchgoers returning from a retreat outing, probably at a closing speed in excess of 120 mph (it was a 70 mph road). Incredibly, he survived with modest injuries but all 13 people in the van died. The guy had been followed for miles and even recorded on cell phone video by another car going the same way and terribly alarmed by his erratic behavior (he had already swerved across the center line and also onto his own side shoulder numerous times and recovered). The pursuing civilian trackers called 911 but during the high-speed drive, the guy crossed from one Texas county into another, the sort of back country situation where a sheriff’s deputy from a specific county would be responding, and by the time the Mounties arrived, all they could help do was collect bodies. Supposedly the fact that the van had only lap belts, not cross-chest harnesses, contributed significantly to the fatalities.
So thinking about stuff like that, I’ll be all for HA’s of the future where you can control programs and settings either directly with the HA’s or indirectly through your phone app by using your voice! (and I never drive under the influence of anything-except caffeine that I keep in sliding dispenser mouth mug in my car cupholder).
I wear Alta2 Pros. I use the streamer to turn down the aids a few notches and turn up the radio. I can then use the radio equalizer to adjust the sound. It works well.
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@Mark_Chambers - Thanks for bring the thread back ~on-topic relative to Bryan’s music enjoyment! I did try your suggestion on increasing radio volume, decreasing HA volume and it worked great on a relatively short drive over a bumpy, noisy road - and the wife said the radio wasn’t too loud for her, either. On the ReSound’s when you create a modified Program as a Favorite in the Smart 3D app, too bad that I can’t seem to further modify that Favorite and save it yet again under a new name?! Maybe there’s something in the 3D app that I haven’t figured out yet? And there is the No-No of experimenting with modifications while driving - I guess I need to get my wife behind the wheel and play with the modifications as a passenger!
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Thanks for a great link, @x475aws. I got fixated on the less expensive options suggested but I think the wife would prefer to hear none of my rock song selections while I drive! So the extra expense for a Bluetooth conversion option might be something the wife would very much prefer I indulge myself in.
UPDATE: In reading how the BT adapters work, it’s streaming FROM a phone device TO the car radio. Perhaps what I’m looking for has not been invented yet: BT streaming FROM the car audio system TO BT-enabled listening devices, e.g, BT-headphones, earbuds, or HA’s. That would let some folks in the car listen and others wouldn’t have to hear what’s playing.
Try Pandora- Free with few commercials- Although you would have to stream it from your phone.
Ugh, sorry about that.
Thanks for the tip. I’ve thought about something like that. My first preference would actually be the live FM station app Next Radio as I have an FM chip in my Galaxy Note 8. If I plug in a wired headset, the cable on the headset acts as an FM antenna and it would act just like a car radio. The advantage of live, over-the-air FM is that it consumes VERY little battery and LESS DATA compared to real streaming over the Internet - and I think with Next Radio I can switch to Internet radio streaming if I want.
The disadvantages are that the phone sends its audio out through the wired headset, so I’d have to wear it in the car, which might block other useful road audio, e.g., a car honking at me, and I’d be more likely to get into distracted driving trying to mess with my phone screen rather than just punching a large car radio button that I know by reflex where to find.