A few weeks ago I bought Rexton Reach HA’s from Costco. History: Have needed them for years, put it off until about 3 years ago. Did a 6 month trial with Kirkland 8’s, was OK with them, then the 9’s came out when the trial was about done so I switched. Was unimpressed with the new model and went a year or so without. Finally realized I was past the point I could do without them and got a pair of Bose/Lexi OTC. Liked them OK but after a few months they started acting up, finally they both quit. Had the extended warranty and got a full refund.
Decided to see what Costco had to offer these days, went and got a test, specialist recommended the Reach. Tried them in the store and was thoroughly underwhelmed, but decided to go ahead with them. Researched them that night and realized they have high end technology, such as helping you understand multiple conversations and focus on sound in a particular direction, along with help with reverberant rooms. I decided to (unlike previous trials) wear them all day, every day to get thoroughly acclimated to them. After a couple of weeks I went to Costco to get them “tuned” and asked the fitter about open domes (I prefer to hear some sound naturally if possible). He fitted them and changed the program to go along with the domes.
That made the difference! I really like the sound better with open domes (10mm). These domes and wearing them all the time had made the difference. As a percentage, I’d sayt hese cut my hearing problems by 80%. They deal with noise quite well, especially if you focus the sound forward or in the particular direction you need to hear in (how often do you need to hear what’s behind you anyway?) The naturalness of the sound, with the open domes, is amazing. I often forget I’m wearing them. And, the rechargable battery system is great. All 3 of the previous HA’s had regular batteries and I thought I would never want rechargables, but it turns out I really like the convenience of popping them in the charger at night (they turn off automatically when popped in).
With previous HA’s I would walk out of the house and be overwhelmed, hearing every bird in a mile radius. When eating all I could hear was myself chewing. None of that with these, I hear what I need to hear- human voices. It would be nice if they would reject road noise more when driving, but I guess you can’t have everything.