My wife and I are first time purchasers of hearing aids. I have spent many hours looking at pricing, products, features, reviews etc. We have demo’d a set of small hearing aids (sent back after a week) and we are now on trial with another hearing aid, this time behind-the-ear with an in-canal speaker and M&RIE feature. The number of devices is quite overwhelming but we homed in on quality of sound, affordability and after care quality. We decided to focus on 5 devices and we’re at the stage where we’re probably a week away from making a purchase. A factor that we feel is very pertinent to the affordability question is the broadly held opinion that the life of a hearing aid is, on average 3-5 years, at which time one would need to go through the process all over again. Hence, why consider devices that cost more than $4,000/pair (We’re retired) unless money isn’t a problem.