What color did you choose and why?

Hearing Aids
#1

After 20+ years of wearing various CIC hearing aids I’ve decided to make the leap to the RIC world. With my CIC’s I never really got to choose a color, so the process of choosing a color for the RIC casing is new to me. I’m curious to hear what color people have chosen and why they chose it.

The specific RIC aids that I am looking at purchasing are the Phonak Paradise. All the colors are pretty muted, various shades of silver/gray/black/brown. I was leaning towards black but I honestly don’t think I’ve ever noticed a black RIC in the wild. Most of them seem to be silver.

Any thoughts/experiences would be appreciated.

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#2

I’ll take most any subtle color other than cadaver tan. I’ve had dark brown, grey, and currently dark grey. No particular reason, just my pick from what was available.

#3

I went with the colour that best matched my prescription glasses temple tips…dark grey. People don’t seem to notice them as much as my previous aids (dark tan).

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#5

I had widex red/white, and huge reason I even got them and wore them was the color. Those skin/brown colors are something I just can’t stand on me, I have zero clothing/wearable item in such colors in my possession. In my world, brown is for wood.

But due to incompatibility with android phone and diy programming, I went for phonak for new aids (+ roger mics, regular BT, autosense)

Seriously considered sky marvel, but they don’t work with the app, no ric anymore, plus autosense OS is adjusted for kids whatever that means exactly. Earlier model autosense was the same for kids and adults.

I have black paradises now (ric). Ordinary tech gadget look, I like them. But still, red or purple I’d probably like more, depending on the exact color, phonak likes dimmed ones, which I don’t.

Tried white marvel (wanted one black, another white), but they were slippery and looked like cheap shiny plastic to me, whilst black is mat. White is not available in paradises anymore :joy:

Silver wasn’t interesting, had those on trial.

Decals are available for bigger bte models, and only for sides. I was considering painting it over to cover back, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk of messing up with the mics.

Plus, I like black color, just wanted to be more wild with aids.

Maybe I’ll put some stickers on the side, for easier spotting them if I drop them. Black really isn’t great for that, but I’m used to chasing black things (clothes, gadgets)…

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#6

I see your domes are similar to mine. I have small closed dome in my left HA and small power dome in my right. Are yours about that? 0

#7

Boring grey. No particular reason but now that it’s mentioned, I have titanium rimmed glasses and hair that is going grey.

Perhaps I should get red. If people see the aids, they might talk more clearly :smiley:

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#8

Dark brown because my hair is dark brown. I did that with my first aids but was thinking about some bold color this time. The KS9s didn’t have colors like red and purple though, so I went with dark brown again.

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#9

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This will be my second BTE and I went with hair color last time. These are the Resound One swatches. I like 74.

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#10

My aids are Oticon OPNS1 Minirite rechargeable in steel gray.

#11

I change my HAs quite often, maybe every 18 months on average. Currently my latest are silver, which is against my prejudice towards brighter or more distinct colours. I have twice had graphite and once black gloss. But the nicest were royal blue. I did nearly get red once, but the audiologist had got them in a format that was just too large for me. Maybe next time.

#12

The Widex I trialed were Red/White. i liked having a bright color. Alas, no such choice with the Phonak Paradise i wound up with. I went with the champagne, not quite a silver so a bit of ‘color’ if you will. Being in the bike industry with it’s recent fascination with boring black bikes I am really over black as a color choice so that was out. Really the color differences with the Phonak aids are pretty sublte, and not fun at all. :frowning:

Jim

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#13

I didn’t seem to get the vanity gene so my first (and still) aids are plain ol’ black. Maybe the thought was that they’re in the shadows of hair and behind/on top of the ear. I’ve since cropped my hair. Don’t care. I like the idea earlier of bright colors so that maybe people would speak clearer behind their mask and behind the plexiglass.

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#14

Nope, small closed dome on s receiver and medium dome on p receiver.

Had open domes large on both, but currently experimenting how I’ll handle a bit of closure. When I started in April or so, closed caused too much distortion that made things incomprehensible. After several months of open domes, I think my brain got used to working with distortion so I’m pushing it further :slight_smile:

Small left is bc that ear is fine so that some sound come around, but still to have less leakage as with open domes.

I’m wearing black for like, 25 years or so, my favourite color. Last ten I’ve added some bright colors, red, violet, fuchsia (those three I used for hair as well), yellow, green, blue (scarfs, tshirts) but they have to be as I call them ‘proper’, no added white, no added grey…

So, now there’s time when only ‘true to myself’ are aids :joy:

Maybe with next one more manufacturers will have color and aids that I like.

Black is considered new, can’t remember seeing it 5 years ago, widex had this red, green, blue and I think orange, but others had only various tan or silver colors if I recall correctly.

#15

Silver…It is what was on offer from the VA…I really don’t know if I could have gotten a choice or not.

#16

Of course you had a choice, the VA has samples of all colors offered for all manufactures.
If you don’t like the silver, simply tell the Audi, to let you choose another color.

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#17

My first HAs from Oticon were a lovely dark purple. My second set only came in boring “natural” skin & hair colors, so I got a dark poop brown set. I’m now looking for my next set & am very disappointed there are no bright colors. The manufacturers perpetuate the stereotype that you should be ashamed of your hearing loss by implying your apparatus must blend in. BORING!!

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#18

https://www.amazon.com/Ear-Gear-Original-Hearing-Protection/dp/B00BOSYAYE

Here’s another alternative!

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#19

Well, I am learning all kinds of new things…next time we go with red and blue…

#20

Mine are brown to match my hair. I like the fact they blend in, but I can appreciate how one would want a bright color.

#21

gunmetal grey…suggested by audi to match my salt and pepper hair

which makes little sense to me since I wear my hair short and off the aids

…but I left decision to my wife and she agreed.

It does make sense that any attempt to match skin tone will probably look bad…even if it’s an exact match to skin color, it would look like some sort of tumor.

My gut tells me to just match your typical glasses frames if you wear them…not because it would disguise them in anyway, but just because it’s probably a color you like and is complimentary to your colors…

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