Premium vs. Basic Hearing Aid Technology Levels - Which is Better in 2023?

The premium devices provide more headroom and value-added features for pinpoint adjustability

All of them bear artificial sound.

I have an appointment today. I did something to my ear (pulled an ear plug out fast and it popped my ear). It cause pain for about 45 seconds and when that went away, I could not hear. Did not burst ear drum. I've had tube place, balloon dilation and still no improvement. Dr. say only way to go is hearing aids. This makes me feel better, because I honestly can not afford Premium level.

I bought Phonak Marvel top-of-the-range hearing aids 4 years ago. The Marvels are brilliant however I do not believe I have had much benefit from the extra

When Phonak update the Lumity, I'm upgrading. Which level will I go for? The highest. I need all the possible help I can get!

Great video. As someone who has gone through the process and spent the money, I fully agree with your thoughts.

Top 3 best hearing aid BTE for Company
Waterproof?

I am about to make this decision since this will be my first entry into using hearing aids. My decision is to reach for the highest level I can afford to try to "future proof" my situation should my hearing further deteriorate.

Let me guess the devices that were trialed were phonak oticon Starkey and widex

I wear a Picasso I1600 device in my right ear. I've had this aid since 2020. I went to a local audiologist in the Memphis area, and she fitted me with a cic, after putting a 2 part compound in my ear, so my aid fits perfectly in my right ear with no problem. The two things to me that are important to me in a hearing aid are having background noise eliminated, and tinnitus masking. I'm 71, and to me those are the two most important technologies one can have in a hearing device. My hearing device was pretty expensive, but you get what you pay for, and it has improved my lifestyle significantly

Bought the Phonak Marvel basics. Audiologist was independant and not linked to a brand and advised their were diminishing returns on the premiem model. Have never had an issue and saved 6k. Think about it this way if you dont go premiem you can upgrade every 2 years 3 times for the same price. The 20% benefit dr cliffe is talking about here might be gained by just taking a better model in 2 years ie the audeo life and then one more time on the next one.

I always fill like my left ear is full even has liquid in it. Question-are ear bulbs good for cleaning out the ear canal?

I also wonder if the persons in the study doesn't feel comfortable with advanced technology. Perhaps they don't stream audio, spend a lot of time in noisy environments, and aren't extremely active.

Even though I have no love for math, statistics is very creative form of mathematics. Depending on your antithesis and thesis, you can skew the data to prove any results. I ended up taking 3 terms of statistics in school. Your sample size,the demographics, income level of your participants and and number of chosen variables can make any theory seem to have the conclusion you are searching for. What sounds great to one person may sound terrible to another. This subject would be difficult to measure because there’s way too many variables that could invalidate the results. Regardless, i think you need to determine what features are important to you and the lack of such features as the dealbreakers. Tap control and Apple Watch are not dealbreakers and those are usually only available on the top tier technology level. Dropping to a lower technology tier would not be an issue if these were the only options i could not have in the lower tier level. Technology changes so rapidly that I’m sure i will replace when my current technology is not working for me and much shorter than the actual lifespan on my devices.

Do they have Best Practices in Australia?

When I bought my second pair of aids I went for the highest available option. Switching from Signia NX5 to AX7 was a very good decision in my opinion. I perform significantly better in loud and windy situations now. But it is important to choose the right program.

There may be another point to consider. After I got my hearing aids I can absolutely hear better and I forgot sounds that I had not heard for many years but I have found that in many situations, I don’t want to hear all that noise.
Perhaps some of the participants in this study felt the same way.

There was an client who got the Phonak P70-UP aids and he was complaining of pressure buildup in his ears. He sold the P70-UP aids and brought an pair of P30-UP aids. With the P30-UP aids, he was getting less pressure. He claims the more technologies made his ears bothersome.

I wonder if the benefit would go up or down with worse hearing loss. It would be great to see that in another study to verify the whole range of hearing loss configurations.

Im going back for another fitting this time getting the higer level aid, out of my own pocket. With the level the health insurance paid considered higher level did'nt work out well. Currently wearing a 15+ yr old Analong aid, i sure hope that it works well for me this time around as well as a new Audiologist.

A possible common sense solution would be to allow the client to try each tier with REM and decide accordingly.

This is a great video. I've known about the Cox study for a long time and really appreciated your thoughts.

Good morning Dr. Cliff I saw an add pop up on your channel for Cortexi ( cure for tinnitus) and was wondering what your thoughts were on this product. Thanks for your time Gary

There are also aspects to some of these premium technologies that allow for a larger margin of error in the testing and fitting processes. Meaning that the differences might be more noticeable to customers of audiologists that did not adhere to best practices.

Can you do a Belltone hearing aids review? Seems to be the only brand that my insurance covers.

The study group was too small to come to any real-world conclusions other than treat your hearing loss. Going to a provider who will take the time and do the work is your best bet for successful treatment of hearing loss.

There is no way to compare them for an individual. Do you want the $3000 or the $9000 version?? For a first time user, you have no idea of the difference. Your just glad you can hear better now. Either way, it's way to much to charge people!

This set of hearing aids I got from the VA is the 2nd Premium phonak hearing aids just like the 1st one I guess all the hearing aids are Premium ones

I have hearing loss in 1 ear only. Is it still worth buying the latest hearing aid or would a more basic hearing aid be just as good