Other half has the top of the range ones bought from Boots nearly 2 years ago for a not cheap £2.5k.

They have been returned 3 times over that period with the same charging problem with one of them. The last time was around 7 wks ago where they say things were replaced, but yet the same problem is still there. To say we’re totally pissed of with this would be an understatement… Spoke to the customer service team today and asked for them to be replaced with new ones. Waiting to see what they say..

Just wondered if anyone else has had any issues with Phonak hearing aids too?

Cheers.

Phonak are a decent make of hearing aid. Maybe it’s just that model. All hearing aids need to go back for a service (they stop working). Spending more doesn’t really make them more reliable, but the tiny in the ear ones are less so than a behind the ear type, mainly due to being very small and constantly subjected to a moist environment. Water ingress is probably the most common thing that can effect them, you can use a little drying pot at night, which might help.

My dad has them, same price from Boots. They operate fine but he’s been back countless times for consultations, configuration changes, software updates, different tubes etc etc because he can’t hear well with them, and in some situations like noisy cafes he’s completely overwhelmed with background noises. His beef is the microphones are on the back and not forward facing, so they’re very good at picking up everything he doesn’t want to hear and nothing he does, despite their fancy software. I tried them on when the dog was barking, the TV was on and my nephews were smashing toys about and my head nearly exploded. It’s been a nightmare for him but I think that might be old age (88) hearing loss in general and not necessarily a fault of the hearing aids as he’s got 2 pairs of NHS ones that are no better.

Yes.
A pair, free from my NHS audiologist.
Better in terms of size, color, and performance than my previous Oticon one. But that improvement is probably time passing and products improving than brand differences.

The app is OK. The Bluetooth connectivity is a bit hit and miss.

Controls are simple. So far they’ve been reliable and effective.

I’d recommend anyone who has ongoing problems sees their audiologist. These professionals are very helpful.

the microphones are on the back

They’re not quite on the back. They sort of sit just alongside the pinna with a good ‘view’ of the sound reaching your ear. I’d assume that they were designed by people who had a clue about sound, hearing, and design.

https://www.phonak.com/content/dam/phonak/HQ/en/solution/products/baseo_q/documents/user_guide_baseo_q15_q10_q5_029-0298.pdf

in some situations like noisy cafes he’s completely overwhelmed with background noises.

This should be discussed with audiologist or ENT surgeon.

Like you have suggested, my guess would be that this is related to continued hearing loss with aging. But, better to see if it can be improved than accept that it can’t.

@prettygreenparrot – he, and I, have been back every 2-4 weeks for the last 2 years to see if it can be improved rather than accepting that it can’t. They make a change, he sees how it is, then goes back for review and the cycle repeats. He’s also had multiple appointments with 2 different NHS audiology departments. He’s persevered with this a lot.

Re the microphone location design, I’m sure the location is sub optimal, being partly influenced by some fashion requirement to make the aids as invisible as they can. It seems strange that the microphones are on top (not back) of his ear instead of near the concha. They should capture what comes into his ear via the ear’s own construction surely?

Interesting thread. I should have them but am putting it off. Not necessarily denial, but a reluctance to get on the spendy hearing aid treadmill. The audiologist I have been to uses and was recommending the Phonak but have yet to take up the free trial. Happy enough at the moment knowing my hearing is sub-optimal even if it drives the mrs spare at times. Mind you, she’s also getting hard of hearing and hasn’t yet had her hearing tested so I feel I’m still on defendable ground. 🙂

The problem with hearing aids is that they can’t compensate for a ear that has a sensori neural hearing loss. older peoples ears lose performance with age and this involves not just the volume of sound but also the frequency selectivity. The hearing loss is often in the higher frequencies.

Simply ampifiying the sound is not enough and the abiltity to hear in noisy environments gets worse with age even if you can hear at normal sound levels.

Hearing aid designers have tried to use directional microphones and noise reduction software to try and improve the situation and have also used frequency compression to try and move sound people can’t hear to frequencies where they have more hearing.

Modern hearing aids have two microphones one on top of the aid facing forward and one facing backwards these can opperate together to make a directional microphone of use just the front microphone to make an omnidirectional microphone. Additionally when the wearer has two hearing aids the aids are often linked by bluetooth to try and make it easier to hear in a noisy enviroment.

The other problem regarding the ear is that the concha normaly has an earmould or open fit dome in it, to connect the hearing aid to the ear.  This block some of the sound reaching the ear from the outside world. As the hearing loss gets greated the earmould normally blocks a most or all of the natural sound  because as hearing aids amplify more the ear canal need to be blocked more to prevent feedback. Software can reduce feed back but not when the hearing loss goes beyond a centain point.

To sum this up hearing aids help peoples communication, but are limited in noisy situations and the current Phonak advert is not helping with people expectaions.

If the OPs wife’s hearing aid has charging problems I would ask them to replace the specific hearing aid. If it’s both aids I would ask for a different make or model of hearing aid which does not have probems.

I hope this helps

Ok, can someone explain why I can buy a pair of wireless earbuds for £10 but hearing aids are thousands.

I get that there must be a load of regulatory stuff to do, but isn’t the hardware much the same?

Ok, can someone explain why I can buy a pair of wireless earbuds for £10 but hearing aids are thousands.

Free on the NHS – just get a referal from your doctor and go to Specsavers or other high street NHS suppliers.

Specsavers have been great with mine, just pop it in if there’s an issue and it’s usually sorted the same day.

Yes, but someone is paying for them, NHS don’t get them for nothing (or maybe they get a reduced price?)

Merely pointing out that you don’t have to pay £1000s for them – good modern digital ones are available to all. People see the ‘hearing aids from £2500 adverts’ and it puts a barrier up to people who may not realise they are available on the NHS.

And wireless ear-buds are merely fancy speakers – they aren’t processing and filtering sound from someones surroundings.

But some do sound cancelling, so the must be some signal processing going on. I must take a pair apart and look inside. Another project for when I retire: cheap hearing aids!

Look in the pensioners section of any weekend paper – and cheap ‘best ever, most awesomeist, invisible’ hearing aids are already available!

You still need to visit an audiologist though as hearing loss isn’t the same for everyone. In my left ear (the one I use a hearing aid in), the horseshoe/anvil bones bit is fused together due to a calcium build up so sound doesn’t get transferred properly. My right ear is fine.

There’s quite a bit of expensive, and sometimes fruitless, R&D in these devices. That costs a fair bit.

Medical devices always carry a premium in price.

This is in part the regulatory hurdles they have to pass. there are medical device and CE rules in the EU. perhaps less demanding than in the USA where FDA ‘regulates all hearing aids to ensure safety and effectiveness for consumers’.

In part the volume. Hearing aids I expect are not as popular as AirPods or glasses.

In part the ‘value based’ pricing common in medical settings.

The retailer of the hearing aid has to provide ongoing support for the hearing aid and the patient for quite a long period after fitting. They have to employ audiologists and other staff. They are not just handing over a product.

The NHS hearing aids cost the NHS less than private aids as they can buy in larger volumes.

There is a lot of R&D and development that goes into hearing aids and the development facilities are very impressive.

They have quite a lot of signal processing in the hearing aids which has to be evaluated to see if it works and is of benefit in the real world.

Quite a few new players (Sony and Bose included) have come to the market now the US has approved over the counter hearing aids and prices have dropped. To keep things cheap you have to set them up yourself which should be easy for most people by running a hearing test from a smartphone app which will tailor the hearing aid.

I’ve got oticon which are pretty good but still struggle in noisy environments. In these situations I either change the program to ‘comfort’ or if that fails take them out which often makes things better as people you are with are generally talking louder because of the noise.

If your hearing aids are fitted properly you should do a lot more, than you can do with a smart phone.  Over the counter self fit hearing aids are not going involve even the most basic ear and hearing checks.

Well, I have emailed Boots, will see what they say.

Thanks for feedback.

@ Biking, some of our pre hearing aid conversations were hilarious where she obviously didn’t hear what I said properly and took a punt on her answers. Reminded me of a Two Ronnies sketch.

Re the actual hearing aids, they are the all singing all dancing top of the range ones with all the features. So they told us.

I have NHS phonak hearing aids from specsavers, they are not perfect but have improved things generally. I still struggle a bit in noisy environments but higher frequency sounds like birdsong are much clearer. All ongoing costs like tubes, earpieces and batteries are covered by specsavers. I had a hearing spectrum test and they map the hearing aids to fill in the gaps.