I’m 6 months out and feel very good about these hearing aids.The sound quality is superb and the ability of these aids to lower unwanted “noise” is really a highlight.
However, I had several problems getting them tuned in properly. The first fitter intentionally underpowered the aids as she claimed volume based on the real ear measurement would be too strong. That went on for the first 4 months because fine-tuning sessions failed to solve the fundamental problem with the initial setup which not only included the lower volume but also an incorrect REM. Another fitter boosted the volume, but it didn’t help with clarity because the first hearing test performed was inaccurate. So the whole thing was off from the get go and my problem had nothing to do with the HAs. The third fitter redid my hearing test and the audiogram was very different from the first one. That solved the basic problem. I had another small problem that made it difficult to hear anything anyone was saying while streaming even at low volume.it was due to the noise reduction being set too high. Everytime someone wanted to speak to me I needed turn off the stream. This interaction was exacerbated by the the 5-10 second delay before the HAs would disconnect from streaming. So if anyone wanted to speak to me while I was streaming I had to ask to repeat what was said at least twice due to the noise suppression and delay.
I’ve used the Rexton app extensively and found that it isn’t gimmicky and has great utility. The app settings have to be reset for current conditions which makes sense since you don’t want to default at home to a setting you made at a restaurant. That is to say, the app settings are for tweaking the current environment.
My connection to Bluetooth is very good and I can go back and forth from an iPhone and iPad without resetting. I only have two programs, automatic and noise/ party. I tried the music program, but didn’t find it made much difference. My sense is that hearing aids can’t produce the sound quality that music requires. If I want to listen to music I use a pair of earbuds with an equalizer app. Occasionally I will use the app to tweak. In particular, the ability to focus the beam is useful and works quite well.Also, the ability to lower various types of noises such as fan noise works incredibly well without altering the rest of the sound profile.
The sound quality is a giant leap from my previous aids which were 4 year old Oticon S2. The new Intent ( Phillips 2050 more or less) may also be a step up, but before buying the Reach I tried the 2040 and it didn’t seems much better than the S2. I’m very satisfied with the Reach and chose not to trial the 2050.
My single complaint is that the Reach has a telecoil that I never use while significantly increasing the size of the aid. I’ve raised this issue before about size and received considerable negative feedback for complaining in an era of small HAs. I will say that an HA without a telecoil fits perfectly in the cleft near the top of the ear, but with a telecoil the HA makes the upper tip of my ear stick out since the HA is about a third larger. That isn’t a complaint about the Reach as much as it is about telecoils, particularly since they will be phased out within a few years with LE and Aurocast.
Overall, best hearing aids I’ve had by far.
I had difficulty writing this review due to formatting problems.