I had Starkey HAs for more than 10 years, specifically my current model is from 2016 (Halo 2) and recently I got to try Evolv AI RIC for a month. I never had Phonak in recent years. Prior to give my subjective opinion, I do want to premise: regulation and being able to give indications to the fitter-audiologist makes such a difference.
My opinion: best part of most Starkey HAs is construction quality, never broken part such as receiver, microphone or else. Mine has fallen to the ground a couple of times and no problem with that. As for most model of HAs I’m extremely cautious about water – I don’t want to risk that and I don’t wear them near sand nor in activities where they may fall from my ears.
About wearing them: my current model is a bit heavy on the ears, I get some aches after a couple of hours. This part has been improved in more recent models, I can say the Evolv Ai is way lighter.
About Bluetooth. My opinion is: introducing Bluetooth has been a massive improvement with HAs, I use it a lot. Starkey’s Bluetooth is not the strongest to me. It often gives me some problems and without accessories it’s very limited. Also, it may change for the newest generation (Genesis), still up to Evolv Ai the Bluetooth accessories has been the same for more than 6 years.
About sound. This is strictly linked to each regulation. I’m very used to how Starkey sound after all these years. I can’t compare to other brands or natural hearing. The sound I dislike more are metal-sound, water-sound and car-sound.
In general, I had many issues with: whistles – got partially solved with getting encapsulated receiver, still anything in proximity to the microphone can get a loud whistle (other people can hear that too). It can be annoying with car-seat-belt or a person sitting very near to me.
App and regulations. In more recent years, it has been possible to adjust a bit with a couple of apps. For what I understand, up to the Evolv Ai model it’s possible to use “Thrive” while for Genesis only there will a specific app. I use it to create some programs. To me the result you is very similar to the standard ones, still it’s possible to enhance a bit the comprehension in noise and microphone sensitivity/direction, eventually you can try to use Edge mode and other settings. To me it’s ok to have this options. Also, specifically on a Iphone or Ipad you can do a lot with this HAs. The feature “Live Listen” is useful to me in noisy places, especially speaking with someone on a table or positioning near a pc audio output. I need to specify that to me it works better if you shut down your own HA volume and use the phone’s microphone only. A plus: Starkey has made available a tinnitus app “Starkey relax” that makes calming sounds and to me the guitar one is really a nice touch.
Other mixed considerations.
I would say that to me it seems like Starkey is a solid brand, that is strong in RIC models. So, as I’ve lost some more hearing, I grew out of their optimal target.
I say this because when I tried the Evolv AI RIC model I think it was struggling with my level of hearing loss and this impacted my trial to the point that I considered my older model more reliable and I struggled to see evident improvements. On the side, you can regulate it a lot, so I can ask for more power if I work a lot with regulation.
This leads to another point that I’m living first person as someone from Europe. In my experience, in Europe there is a delay in making Starkey models available, they always arrive at least a year later. RIC are the easiest to get, I do think even the newer model will be here sooner. While, if like me you are expecting to try a different model (es.BTE) you will have no real info about deliveries. Also these delays are frequent for CIC models. I’m not totally sure, still my audiologist told me that the main European Starkey Base is in UK (where most earmolds get done), so there has been some long waiting time. Another “commercial” point – here where I live there are not many centers that have Starkey, and some of them are quitting the collaboration with Starkey in favor of other brands, like Signa or Phonak, you may want to take this into consideration.
To me overall I’m good with it, at the same time I haven’t signed any pact with this brand so I don’t see reasons to completely ignore other brands.
. I will say background noise management has been really good ( I particularly notices how much more quiet my commute was today, and still heard the radio very well). The 4 click fitting, well, that may need some work, as I need to get adjustments. I am hopeful and excited after my first day…I just need to get them dialed in.
