Rechargeable, Blue Tooth, In-Ear Hearing Aids

[Harold Gough]

Has anyone had any experience?

I have had in-ear hearing aids for several years and just about get along OK in situations I encounter.

My current ones are less than £100 a pair and last a couple of years or so. I am not intersted in paying four-figure sums. Nor am I interested is ongoing "support". I don't want a hearing test or wax removal. I want to put them in my ears and that is it!

Hearing the TV is not what it could be. I have a set-up, with an old blue-tooth version where I can used wi-fi headphones but the feels a bit anti-social.

I have moderate white noise tinnitus which it woud be nice to moderate. I don't know what to expect from general noise-cancelling.

I'm not keen on app-control/adjustment if I can avoid it.

All contributions welcome.

Harold

[blackfox]

I have the latest NHS digital ones that you control from you smart phone , .. might be worth booking a audiology appointment there free and the batteries are free to

[Melaka]

Me too, but I don't use the app. They cost £3.50 per pair - the parking fee at the hospital.

[Harold Gough]

I have the latest NHS digital ones that you control from you smart phone , .. might be worth booking a audiology appointment there free and the batteries are free to

Thanks. I've been there with behind the ear ones, free batteries too. I'll keep it in mind. I have too many other health issues and appointments at present. (Must get my eyes tested too).

Harold

[Phill D]

Like Jeff I have the NHS ones but don't use them as often as I should. They work ok but do seem to just amplify in all directions even though they are supposed to be directional. I have pretty severe tinnitus now and they are supposed to help but they don't. The different modes also seem to be a bit limited in what they do. I wish they were rechargeable batteries. A set of batteries is doing well if they last a week

[LadyG]

I don't have experience with hearing aids, but live with someone who's on their second pair this year. First he was sent to Rugby who got all kinds of things wrong and then they broke when he had a fall so he had another hearing test at the local Specsavers and one hour later came out with new hearing aids. Both of them have replaceable batteries, but the new ones last far longer.
Anyway, ramble over and to the point - he's an ex-musician and has pretty severe tinnitus. The first lot forgot to turn that setting on, the second have it on the 'app' and it's working well, to the extent that he doesn't need to turn on the masker as often. The downside is that it returns with a vengeance when he takes the aids out at night. But as he says, his own fault... I think it first started when he was at Motorhead's first gig and he stuck his head in Lemmy's bass bin...

[Harold Gough]

Like Jeff I have the NHS ones but don't use them as often as I should. They work ok but do seem to just amplify in all directions even though they are supposed to be directional. I have pretty severe tinnitus now and they are supposed to help but they don't. The different modes also seem to be a bit limited in what they do. I wish they were rechargeable batteries. A set of batteries is doing well if they last a week

Yes. Mine are supposed to be OK on the phone but they screech. Replaceable bateeries are a nightmare and I am not going back to them.

Harold

[Bikie John]

I have been using NHS ones for a few years now and find them pretty good. They use one-shot batteries that last me a fortnight, give or take. The ones that we get on the NHS are usually a few years behind the leading edge and my latest (Oticons from a couple of years ago) don't have native Bluetooth. But you can get a streamer (which costs!) which talks wirelessly to the hearing aids (using very low power FM radio I think) and can get input via a 3.5mm jack or Bluetooth.

There is a consumer programme on BBC Radio 4 called Sliced Bread which is sometimes interesting. They covered hearing aids earlier this year:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00282qp

I thought it was very good. The key recommendation is to talk to your audiologist about your needs - which of course goes directly against the original request to get something cheap that you can just plug in! I have found the service from the NHS to be good. Batteries, other spares, and follow-up appointments are all provided free (although the batteries are cheap to buy anyway).

John

[Keith-369]

I find replaceable batteries are the most convenient. A pack of 6 or 8 is extremely light and compact and cheap if you buy them from the right place. I have a pack in the car dash pocket, a pack in my wife's handbag and a pack in whatever case/bag when we go walking. I can go abroad for three weeks with just two small packs which take no room and need no charging point. I've never been let down in over 9 years of using batteries.

[Harold Gough]

If you have NHS hearing aids you get free batteries, from my local GP practice in my case.

Harold

[Keith-369]

Thanks Harold, yes, I have had NHS aids for 9 years and get my free batteries automatically through the post. I only mentioned prices in case anyone was buying aids of any description privately as against NHS.

edit to add - I've changed batteries in my hearing aids in a hospital waiting room, at a party and in many strange places. Can't do that if your rechargeable batteries go at an inopportune moment.

[blackfox]

On a lighter note and talking about wi fi and rechargeable items , middle of the week we went to a large Amazon returns warehouse and got a few bargains .but browsing the shelves I did notice much to the amusement of the wife and granddaughter a rechargeable wi-fi enabled butt plug .. I kid you not wish I had taken a photo 😄😄😂😂😂

[Melaka]

Whatever next!!

[Harold Gough]

Did you mean a lighter note or a tighter note?

Harold

[Bobblejack]

You weren't tempted were you?

[Harold Gough]

I've put in an order for the only one which specified the Bluetooth version (5.0) and have orded, separately a sender unit in 5.0. They are behind the ear but I am fed up with my in-ear ones slipping out.

If I like what the combination does I will buy a second sender unit for my PC.

Harold

[Bikie John]

Please let us know how it goes, it could be interesting.

[Harold Gough]

I will do. In the meantime, my Bluetooth 4.1 headphones and sender unit give improved sound clarity compared with just listening to TV output. It has no sound cancelleation function.

Harold

[Harold Gough]

I've put in an order for the only one which specified the Bluetooth version (5.0) and have orded, separately a sender unit in 5.0. They are behind the ear but I am fed up with my in-ear ones slipping out.

If I like what the combination does I will buy a second sender unit for my PC.

Harold

Correction. I was watching 2 listings. The behind the ear one didn't specify the Bluetooth version so I opted for the only listing which did specify and it is in-ear. The sender unit for TV/PC will arrive tomorrow and the hearing aids on Thursday.

Yesterday I located the volume adjustment for the TV headphone output which is the same for hearing aids. I also switched on the surround sound, which is impressive though headphones but not by normal listening.

Harold

[LadyG]

And when this thread started I didn't have hearing aids and was fairly certain that this morning's hearing test would reveal that all was as normal, but I was wrong and am now feeling truly old. This year I've gained a walking stick, a partial denture and now hearing aids. That's it, I'm old!

[Bikie John]

Having been wearing glasses since the age of about 7, adding the electric ears a few years back was no big deal! But is is a bit of a pain at noisy gigs when I have to take them out so I can put earplugs in.

[Melaka]

I've been wearing them for about ten years. You'll get used to them pretty quickly.

[LadyG]

I've had glasses since I was 17, varifocals mid 30s.
It's going to get confusing at gigs as I'm usually the keeper of his hearing aids so we'll need to label boxes!
Himself has a tinnitus setting on his aids as he was a singer before becoming a punter. Me? When I went to The Stables when it was "The Stables" and you sat at the front on folding chairs and your feet on the stage, you didn't need plugs.
Then I got divorced, ditched the jazz and went back to rock. First gig, got to the car and couldn't hear it so went out the next day and bought the best plugs I could afford and have done the same ever since so I'm used to having something in the ears but it's the over the ear bit that's weird at the moment.
And, as Melaka says, I'll get used to it.

[Bikie John]

I got used to them pretty quickly. But the Covid era was a pain - juggling specs, hearing aids, and facemask straps was occasionally "interesting". I never quite sent a hearing aid flying off into the distance, but came close once or twice.

Having to swap the hearing aids out to put earplugs in is a minor pain. It is yet more blasted stuff to carry around!

John

[Harold Gough]

I got used to them pretty quickly. But the Covid era was a pain - juggling specs, hearing aids, and facemask straps was occasionally "interesting". I never quite sent a hearing aid flying off into the distance, but came close once or twice.

John

I lost one of my NHS behind the ear ones while fiddling with a face mask outside a local shop.

Harold

[Harold Gough]

I enjoy these hearing aids. Iift them out of the charger and they say "power on" then "earing aid mode". If I want Bluetooth I press the button on the earpiece twice and it says "Blue tooth mode".

The sender unit is plugged into the TV * and is in pairing mode when I switch the TV on. I get "Connected" and hear the sound shortly after.The volume control is the one for headphones. I get a lovely depth of stereo which is not apparent direct from the TV.

* All four cables got "Connected" but I got sound only when I used theToslink optical cable, something I hadn't heard of before.

When I turn the TV off, after about a minute I get "Disconnected" and after a similar delay "hearing aid mode". Once, when all was quite I hear "Power off" and they switched off.

The only con is the frequent popping and clicking I get in a moving vehcle, whether my on car or a bus. This is not unique to this model. I cannot simulate it by movemt of my head at other times.

The surprise was that the earphones in Bluetooth mode connected and functioned with my very old 4.1 sender unit via the 3.5mm jack plug and headphone output.

Harold

[Crazy Dave]

Like Jeff I have the NHS ones but don't use them as often as I should. They work ok but do seem to just amplify in all directions even though they are supposed to be directional. I have pretty severe tinnitus now and they are supposed to help but they don't. The different modes also seem to be a bit limited in what they do. I wish they were rechargeable batteries. A set of batteries is doing well if they last a week

I think that the point of hearing aids is that you should wear them all the time. I’m told that one’s brain needs time to adapt to a variation in settings, if you stop and start, the poor old brain needs to keep going back to square one in order to rewire. I was convinced that my old NHS aids were better than their replacements, the audiologist sighed and said “David give the new set a month and come back if you are still of the same opinion “. I never went back, at least not for that reason.

The staff in the audiology department at my local hospital are dedicated and professional, most people I know who has been referred to a well-known high street chain do not rate their experience.