The time has come, reading subtitles on the tv takes away so much from watching a movie etc. Might as well read a book. And with that, general conversation is difficult, especially with soft spoken people. Also, I do have tinnitus and high frequency loss. I have an upcoming appointment with Costco. I ‘think’ the Phillips brand may be a good choice, but will see what the recommendation is. For those suffering from tinnitus, what are some of your thoughts? Such as, do HA reduce/mask tinnitus effectively? Is a certain HA programming method better than another considering tinnitus? This is my first venture into HA’s, (HA 101), so I am trying to think ahead a little before the appointment.
2 Likes
Welcome. Congrats on having made an appointment. Regarding tinnitus. As far as I’m concerned the secret to dealing with tinnitus is not to focus on it. I’m unaware of mine most of the time unless somebody brings it up. (It’s screaming now) Most of the tinnitus “solutions” that hearing aids offer are just background noises to cover up the tinnitus. Just getting more stimulation to your ears often helps. With new hearing aids you’ll have lots of new sounds to focus on. It’s helpful for us to get an idea of your loss if you post your audiogram. (Click on avatar at upper right of screen, then bell, then my audiogram)
2 Likes
I’m also a hearing aid newbie. I also went to Costco to get my Jabra Enhanced Pro 20s. I have been extremely happy with the care that I have received. Later today I have a two week follow up appointment. Having done a lot of research on YouTube and the internet, I asked for the Jabra brand. A couple of times when I put them on, the volume from the right one was much lower than from the left. I took them back to Costco and they cleaned them. Then, both worked just fine. I’m going to discuss this with my hearing aid fitter today. Costco will clean them into the future for as long as they carry that brand. Even though this is the holiday season, it only took them about twenty minutes to do the job.
I recommend that you watch a few videos on a YouTube channel called, “Hearing Club”. The videos are produced by a Costco hearing aid fitter in Pennsylvania. His advice and options were very valuable. The best thing about having hearing aids is not having every conversation with my wife, me replying by saying, “Say that again, louder”. Or her telling me, “The TV is blaring”. Good luck.
4 Likes
Welcome to the club! This forum is an excellent place to gain insights and the people are always willing to help with issues and advice.
I have tinnitus also. I have the Costco Jabra model and an app on my phone that generates white noise to help with the tinnitus. TBH, the white noise is annoying and I don’t use it. I do seem to get about a 50% reduction in my tinnitus when I insert my aids. Some people see this affect, some don’t.
Post your test results when you get them and good luck on this journey!
3 Likes
Right, living with tinnitus becomes, as you said,“try not to focus on it”. The challenge being in very quiet areas it can be very difficult to turn the brain off to it, and so easy to focus on it. I will post the audiogram following the appointment. I have a tendency to overthink things lol. At this stage of decision making, like most first timers, I have more questions than answers. That being said, I really appreciate any thoughts on this whole process. I am an outdoors person, so wind noise will/could be a factor. On occasion will attend a concert. It would be nice to actually be able to hear the concert without the muffling affects of hearing protection and not cause more damage to my hearing. Maybe those days are over? I would not consider my hearing loss to be more than ‘moderate’, my wife might disagree? Before retirement I had yearly audiograms done at work. When the tone, and volume of the tone, would roughly match that of my tinnitus it would almost be painful, a ‘flinch’ point. I bring that up wondering if programming would need to take that into consideration? Anyone have issues with that and hearing aids?
1 Like
I have Android, Jabra appears to be tailored more towards the i-phone. Right, I don’t think that I would benefit from white noise. To me, I ‘think’, it would interfere with what I am trying to focus on hearing. It may help, I’m guessing, if a persons tinnitus level is minimal and not pronounced?
I always say the first rule of Tinnitus club is that we don’t talk about Tinnitus club…
I have never found the white noise generation within the hearing aids to be something desirable. I find that with sound coming into the ear better with hearing aids the focus on tinnitus is taken away.
6 Likes
All future phones will come with LE Audio. The Jabra Pro 20 hearing aids are compatible with LE audio so no worries. See the topics on LE Audio the future of hearing aids.
Current Android phones use ASHA. The Jabra Pro 20 is compatible with ASHA too.
ASHA gives you the ability to listen to your phone call through your hearing aids, but you have to speak in the microphone of your phone.
Costco are also getting back in with Sonova so there are some locations that will be trialling Sennheiser (a Sonova brand). I am a Sonova advocate with Phonak Infinios so def worth asking the question…
2 Likes
Wind noise is crap on all of the aids I’ve tried. However it’s fairly easy to manage by wearing a headband or little hearing aid socks (EarGear)
4 Likes
Flyboybob, Thank you for the “Hearing Club” recommendation! His videos are very informative!
+1 on Ear Gear. I use them for cycling, they are great
2 Likes
One really cool thing about hearing aids is that they will protect your hearing from really loud stuff too. As for the tinnitus, one technique I have developed that works when it is really loud is to actually listen to it and look for patterns. I find as I explore it I can get lost in it in a way rather than be annoyed by it. Mine started on 27th April 2000 and never stopped. It’s part of me now.
There are bay days tho when its roaring. I wrote about it here…
1 Like
After some research and a one week trial of a pair of Phonak Spheres, I ended up at Costco as well – hoping for an affordable solution. I have tinnitus and have had for 15 years or more.
I came home with the Phillips 9050, and I am very pleasantly surprised at how good they are. Since I am retired, meetings, trade shows etc are behind me so I was looking for an aid for general hearing and I wanted something that sounded decent with my music system. With a bit of massaging, I have them sounding very, very satisfactory. The audi at Costco told me that the Jabras are very forward sounding and the Rexton might be better for speech in noise, but she recommended the Phillips for music listening. fwiw
3 Likes
The wind noise reduction has been excellent on my 9040 hearing aids.
2 Likes
I just got back from my two-week check at Costco with the Philips 9050. I have severe loss above 2.5 kHz (high-frequency) along with tinnitus in that frequency range. The audiologist was excellent at their job and recommended changing the domes, shortening the wires, tweaking the programming, and adding retainers, all of which was done inside of the 30-minute appointment. Now my experience is even better than at first. These HAs make a huge difference for me for ordinary listening, work well with my iPhone for calls and streaming, and with the recent updates, the performance in noisy / crowded situations is improved, although hard to say exactly since that’s limited to a couple of store visits today. It was OK before, but the audiologist listened to my comments and observations in order to make the changes. Definitely recommend Costco, but be aware that each store has different personnel in the hearing department and your experience may vary. Don’t hesitate to raise questions and issues!
4 Likes
Have had the Philips 9050’s for a few weeks now. The staff at our local CC was great. This is my first venture into the HA world so my thoughts on the 9050’s is limited to them at this point. What I can say with certainty, is that I should not have waited so long! I didn’t realize just how much I was missing. After leaving CC my brain was adjusting to sounds not detected in so long that it actually made driving a little more of a chore (for lack of a better description). I no longer need the closed caption on while watching the tv and can actually turn down the volume to the point where my wife asks if I can turn it back up a little lol. I use the phone app frequently to adjust the volume and/or equalizer functions to adjust the HA’s to my needs of the day. I find that my Samsung S23 Ultra doesn’t play too well with the 9050’s. Even with the LE turned on the phone sounds through the 9050’s is not what I would consider acceptable, very tinny at a comfortable listening level and just down right annoying at a louder level. That said, its quite possible it’s operator error on my part? Overall I am very pleased with how the 9050’s allow me to again hear sounds missed for so long. I would really like to be able to connect the 9050’s with a “windows” laptop and listen to things while the wife is watching her programs on the tv. So far the only option I’ve found that will do this is the Philips device. Not too keen on spending around $260 for it though. Thought maybe I could find an aftermarket LE bluetooth card for the laptop and swap it out, but it doesn’t appear the market has caught up to LE quite yet.
3 Likes
It’s great to read how much you’re enjoying your new hearing aids! Congratulations!
Hope that you can find solutions for your laptop connection.