I’ve been wearing two Be’s for almost 2 mo’s - my first aids and I love their directional pickup. I would say they are significantly better than the bte directional mike set up as far as focusing on sound coming from infront of you.
That is comparing them to the delta 6000.
The deltas had a lovely sound, probably all in all a better sound than the be’s, but I just loved the way the be’s seemed to channel in sound from infront of me.
For example, I was in a group situation when I was trying the deltas. I was talking in a group of 4 people standing in a circle and strggling to hear because there was another talker in a group behind us with a loud voice and he was completely drowning out our converstaion (for me). The same situation with the be’s, and I can still hear the guy behind, but his volume is cut by like 50% and the conversation in front of me is dominant - muey bueno.
THe be’s arn’t perfect, but for me the scenerio above was the deciding factor. They just sounded more like real hearing.
I am sure there are programs you can adjust to improve this situation w/the bte and I admit I only had them for a month and didn’t perhaps get as many adjustments as I could, but I was impressed with how ‘close’ the be’s were - right out of the box.
There downfall so far is they were uncomfortable for the first few weeks. They are one size fits all. One of my ears got a little red and sore so I immediately quit wearing it for a day, and eased back into it a few hours at a time. I understand for many users this would be very inconvienient if it affects your job etc. After 1 month, it seems my ears have ‘toughened up’ in the contact spots, kind of like breaking in some new shoes, and now I have no comfort issues. (a plus for the deltas is they felt awesome from day one, didn’t know they were there - )
another issue was phones. I have a corded landline AT&T no problems, but my $100 Nokia cell phone was AWFUL. Absolutely awful. I just switched to the G1 from T Mobile and am please to say it gets an 8/10 with the aid. I almost have to move it around to FIND a bad spot that is very nice.