Well I’m about to buy these things, so will find out soon enough
Knowing they have a 3 month trial period, that must mean you really like them. Any reason for rushing into it?
You still have to buy them to try them at Costco. Who’s rushing what here?
Yeah uhhh…
Anyway I ordered them in, pick em up on the 9th.
She said so far the feedback has been fantastic, I see no reason why she’d lie. I’m happy enough, my first ones so nothing to compare them against. Seem pretty small & super light, I hope they don’t just simply fall off somewhere.
Well I’ve been wearing them now. My first experience with any hearing aids so I guess my expectations were too high? I dunno. My main problem is speech, so I was hoping for a big jump in hearing everyone, haven’t noticed that at all. It’s almost like, they plug up my ears, then boost back up, bringing me back to where I started? I dunno, I can tell more little sounds around like the car squeaking etc, but…
Going to have them fit better & ask for bigger domes or whatever the gel insert thing is, see if that helps.
before your 90 days is up ask to try the Kirklands then before that 90 days is up try the next ones, etc… then you can pick the one you like the best. as a first time user it will take 2 or 3 weeks for them to settle in for you. they probably started them on a lower power then you need so you din’t get blasted. I would suggest going with custom molds as once you get use to them you won’t go back to domes.
It’s such a shock to your system to start wearing aids that they usually start you out low. I found at Costco they started me out even lower than I would have expected, such that it was almost pointless to be wearing anything. I don’t know the units, but the initial master gain was set to “2” originally, then increased to “5” after 3 days when I complained that they weren’t doing anything at all and to “10” after another week. Now I know they’re doing something.
Also, try changing your batteries. The size 10’s say they’re good for 3-5 days, but they don’t seem to actually make the aids turn off until several days after that for me. The tester they gave me doesn’t seem to be very accurate – today on the 6th morning of a max 5 day battery they still tested at 100%. The left ear gave out at 6pm this afternoon however. I changed the batteries in both ears and was surprised at how much louder everything was again. I thought I had just let my brain adjust to the new sounds, because I last changed the batteries on the same day as my adjustment. It appears that no, my brain hasn’t adjusted yet, it’s just that the batteries weren’t allowing for as much gain as I was getting on day 1.
Good luck. The Charismo’s are the second brand I’ve tried, and they don’t have nearly the audio clarity for speech that the Oticon Altas did, but they also don’t have the annoying continuous static either. They’re also less than half the price.
–Beth
Well I stopped by there, she gave me some different sized domes. So I’ve been going thru those. Too big & it plugs up and my voice reverberates etc, too small and they slip around…
Actual appointment to tweak the sound though isn’t until next Thurs so will post results then. Thanks for the input strawberry I bet you are right about the volume. It’s like I don’t even wear them, there’s not much noticeable effect to using them at all. I mean other than the paper crinkling etc which I guess I’ve gotten used to now - I am all about speech and they do nothing for speech so far.
How far in would you say you wear your domes? Are they just resting in there or are you really pushing that receiver cable in deep?
The Costco representative likes to push them so far in I’m worried she’s going to hit my eardrum. The first time the dome was too big and very uncomfortable. We switched to a smaller dome immediately but she started me out on size 2 wires. Last appointment we changed to size 1 wires and that’s much better.
I’m trying to figure out how far in they sit… far enough in that I never feel like they’re going to fall out, even during vigorous exercise at karate class, but not so far in that I feel like they’re about to touch my ear drum. If I put my finger at the opening to the ear canal I can pull the receiver out with my fingernail without sticking my finger actually in my ear.
Thanks for the updates!
–Beth
Yes mine likes to push them in deep too at first. I have changed the domes & am fine with how they sit now. Problem is today we amped up the high frequencies to help with speech… and when I got home I realized that just moving my hand near my head makes a horrible feedback squelch. I can’t live with that… so either she is going to turn it back down (in which case I don’t feel that I am getting enough benefit on speech to pay that much $), or she’ll put in bigger double domes or something, which will stuff up my ears making my voice reverberate etc in which case I won’t live with that either. 
Going back to her asap to see what happens.
I have a thread in the Digital Hearing Aids forum on the Charismos. I’m new to using hearing aids and it’s been quite a journey… finally becoming a positive one 
I’m a 6’ tall male with average size ears. From the outset the techs have had me use a tulip dome which isn’t much wider than the receiver itself - the receiver and dome together are precisely 1/2" long. It’s been comfortable for me from day 1 - they never come out until I pull on the “ripcord” (that loop at the end that sits inside the outer ear - what’s that called?). No occlusion sensation at all.
I’ve heard it called the “sport loop”. It helps keep them in place by pushing down on your outer ear. It’s optional, but for me essential.
–Beth
Thank yee Beth! 
Smile&Nod;
Looking at your audiology results, you have greater hearing loss in the low frequencies. I, too, have loss in the low frequencies - although generally, my loss is pretty much flat - and have been told by 2 different hearing aid vendors that people with low frequency hearing losses typically require ear molds, rather than the typical domes, when wearing RIC devices. Apparently the typical domes that are used with RICs are made for people who have normal hearing in the low frequencies and poorer hearing in the high frequencies.
The loss in my right ear is due to otosclerosis, so I will be meeting with a neuro-otologist sometime in the next few months to discuss possible surgical treatment for the hearing loss in that ear. In the interim, I ordered one of the Charismo 2c hearing aids from Costco 1.5 weeks ago. (My left ear is clinging to the low end of normal so neither the Hearing Aid Specialist nor the ENT thought I needed a hearing aid for my left ear yet.) The Hearing Aid Specialist who tested my hearing made a mold for me. I will be getting my hearing aid hopefully next Wednesday so might be able to add more to this conversation by then. But from everything I’ve read and heard, you might want to try using that aid with a custom mold.
L R
250 15 45
500 20 50
1000 20 45
1500 15 45
2000 20 40
3000 25 35
4000 25 35
6000 30 40
8000 5 45
I picked up my Charismo 2c hearing aid from Costco yesterday afternoon. Here are my first impressions:
Overall, it’s very VERY discreet. Neither my husband nor my mother-in-law could really see it until they looked directly at my ear from the side, but I had to tell them what they were looking for - the clear tube! As a relatively young mom with two young kids, I find it’s invisibility really reassuring!
Never having worn a hearing aid before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The initial fitting in the sound proof booth makes things difficult to discern, in my opinion. All I had to base sound on was the audiologist’s female voice. She first tried me with a custom ear mold; however, I felt as though sound was coming through several layers of blankets with that. So then she changed me to some sort of dome that’s supposedly better for people who also have low frequency hearing loss as I do (see my audiogram posted above). The dome she tried me with looks a bit like a lampshade with two slits down each side. In the sound booth, that seemed great. Even on the drive home it seemed great. But that’s where it ended. Once I got home and spoke with my husband, I felt that his voice wasn’t coming through the aid at all. So I plugged my “good” ear, and sure enough, his voice was barely audible through the aid. I then tried the aid on all three settings: 1 is the automatic setting; 2 was made a few decibels quieter to help me deal with my screaming toddlers, and 3 was made a few decibels louder for when I’m having a “bad hearing” day due to allergies. On all 3 settings, my husband’s voice was still barely audible and quite muffled. I then listened to a newscast and found the same thing. Female voices were fine at a much lower TV volume than I usually use, but the male voices were muffled and mostly incoherent. I’m not sure what this means, except that maybe I need to try a new dome? The audi did mention that I might need to try a few different ones. The next one will be a double dome, whatever that is.
The other thing I found is that the aid has shut itself off a few times already, at random intervals. The first thing I did was check to ensure the battery door wasn’t open. And it wasn’t. Then I took out and reinserted the battery. I tried that twice with no improvement. I finally resorted to opening a fresh battery. The aid is still shutting down at odd intervals. I don’t know why this is happening?! Any insight?
I have a follow up appointment booked for tomorrow, because basically, it’s voices that I need help with and so far the aid isn’t really doing the trick. I’m hopeful that the audiologist can tweak it a bit to improve things. I’m willing to give her a few months to get there. Honestly, I really want this aid to work for me, because if it does, I’ll get one for my “good” ear as well. The ENT said my “good” ear has normal hearing, but it doesn’t. It has a mild loss, and I suspect I would benefit from wearing an aid in it as well. But I can’t really afford 2 aids if they aren’t through Costco, because the other one I like a lot, the Starkey Xino 110 costs about $7,000 for the pair and we just don’t have that kind of money right now.
Anyway, I’ll update more as I gain more experience with the Charismo.
I don’t know if anyone is still reading this forum, but just in case, I thought I would update you on my latest experience with the Charismo 2c.
I have now been wearing the aid for 4.5 days.
Here are the things I like about it:
-I absolutely love how discreet it is! It’s easily a 10/10 in terms of “near invisibility”. As I mentioned previously, a person would have to be literally standing right behind me when my hair is up in a ponytail in order to see the aid itself. The wire going from the BTE into the ear is very thin and unobtrusive looking. Honestly, I never thought I would leave the house with my ear exposed once I got a hearing aid, but I did exactly that yesterday!!
-It is incredibly comfortable! I really thought I’d hate having something in my ear canal, even a tiny tube with a tulip dome on the end. While my ear has been itchy intermittently during the adjustment phase, most of the time I don’t even notice that I’m wearing a hearing aid. It’s not cumbersome at all.
-The price is amazing! If a person can make this aid work for them, which I suspect has more to do with the audiologist than the aid itself, they should go for it. It’s a nice little fully automatic unit for a great price.
Here are the things I’m not liking, but please bear in mind that I have a strong suspicion that the hearing instrument specialist (HIS) I’m dealing with is not remotely close to proficient at programming this aid. :
-Most voices sound tinny. Even after my adjustment two days ago, in which the HIS added more base and took the treble down a bit, voices still sound tinny, like they’re coming through a long tube. My 2.5 year-old daughter’s voice sounds incredibly shrill; it doesn’t sound that way in my normal hearing ear, so I know for sure this is a problem with the aid setting.
-While I am overall hearing voices better, I’m missing out on the other sounds in my aided ear. For example, the dishwasher and furnace noises are barely audible in the aided ear. If someone is speaking, I don’t hear environmental noises, like birds, in the aided ear, even though I am hearing them in my unaided one. It makes my binaural hearing experience very challenging and uncomfortable at times.
-I’m having MORE trouble participating in group conversations than I do without the aid!!! In fact, prior to getting the HA, I was only just starting to experience some difficulty hearing in group settings. Today I had family over, and when my toddlers were playing in the living room (about 15 feet away), and my aided ear was facing them, I could only hear them and their toys, and I couldn’t hear my mother, who was talking into my unaided (normal hearing ear) right beside me. All I could hear was my toddlers! It was very strange, because when I took the aid out, I could still hear my toddlers, but I could also hear and understand my mom fully. It was very, VERY frustrating!
-Music still sounds like two metal garbage can lids smashing together, with lyrics being mostly inaudible or so distorted that I can’t figure out what is being sung. I have a conductive hearing loss in my aided ear, so according to the ENT, all I need is amplification. And certainly, that is my experience. If I plug my “good ear” and listen with only my unaided “bad” ear, I have to turn the TV volume way up to hear it clearly, but when it’s turned up, I DO hear it clearly!!! (I have 100% speech discrimination in my bad ear, even when it’s unaided.) Yet for some reason, if I plug my “good” ear and try to listen to music with only the aided ear, all I get is clashing metal (I’m not a heavy metal fan-I mostly listen to worship music) and distorted unintelligible lyrics. I love music, both listening to it and playing it, so if this doesn’t improve sometime during my three-month trial, this HA is not for me.
My current thought is that while I do enjoy the discreetness of this HA, sounds, and my interpretation of sounds, will have to improve significantly in order for me to consider purchasing this aid at the end of the three month trial. I’m well aware that what I’m hearing largely depends on the hearing instrument specialist’s familiarity with the aid, and her ability to tune it to what the client wants. At this point in time, I’m not convinced the HIS I’m dealing with is familiar enough with this aid to actually know what she’s doing, as both times I’ve been in to see her, she’s had to use the manual, and has “programmed” my four settings according to what the computer says she should be doing, not what I think… I don’t know if there are any really good HIS providers at another Costco in my city, so I really don’t know where else to go to see if sounds can be made better for this particular aid. Nonetheless, I’m willing to give this aid at least two months to see if we can get it working well for me. I don’t want to give up too easily.
If anyone has any suggestions/thoughts, please feel free to comment.
I go to Costco to pick up my Rexton Quintras next week. My understanding is that they are just a little larger version of the Charismo, but with a few more features. I will keep your detailed discussion in mind when I start evaluating them. These will be my first aids.
You certainly want to try to find someone who is better at adjusting your aids.
I found the Charismo 2c’s “automatic” program very jarring. It doesn’t smoothly transition from amplifying one set of sounds to another – it fairly suddenly will go from vague room-noise amplification to voice-mode and try to seek out and amplify voices over all else. It was probably in that mode when you were hearing the toddlers.
You can have up to 6 programs in the 2c, and you should ask to experiment with them during your trial period. Having programs allows you to be in control and choose if you want general amplification or toddlers.
Some people like this aid quite a lot, and it is a good price. Everyone is different though and this may not be the aid for you. I gave it a good try, for over a month with 4 adjustments, but in the end just couldn’t get it to stop squeaking when my 6 year old daughter was excited, and I decided to go with something else that I’m very happy with.
I just started wearing aids in June, and overall I’m very happy with the improved quality of life. Last week I took a mid-day shower after exercise and forgot to put them back in before going to pick up the kids from school, and I really missed having them all afternoon as I was driving the kids around. I can still hear my children (if they want to be heard) without aids, but it is SO MUCH EASIER with aids in.
–Beth
Hi there! I’m two weeks into my trial with a pair of Charismo 2 hearing aids. I’m having a fair amount of success but am having an adjustment in a couple of days. I think they have to be turned down a little…if I turn my head too quickly I’ll get some feedback and certain high tones are VERY shrill. I think a simple adjustment will do the trick and will post again after I’ve had that done. That being said, everything I’ve read points to making sure the person fitting your hearing aids is VERY skilled. I was following the blog of another member of this forum and he was having a tremendous amount of difficulty until he saw a different fitter and then, voila!
That being said, I’m really enjoying a couple of features - first of all, the ability to change the program to dampen background noise so I can hear voices better. I call it “party mode”. Without the hearing aids if I’m in a crowd I can’t hear anything. I am hearing voices very well now, even my granddaughters with their little higher-tone voices. I also like those little domes instead of a full ear mold. However, I don’t find the “outdoors” program at all helpful in surpressing wind noise (I’m a golfer).
Good luck with your trial, and I’ll keep posting about mine. Cheers!