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Starkey and the Future of Hearing Aids

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Re: Starkey and the Future of Hearing Aids

#41

Post by randlet »

ghaff wrote: post #27
pugworthy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fellow HA wearer here - close on 25 years now. I agree that disruption in manufacturing is important, but I also think there are a few other areas that could use disruption. First, remove the stigma of hearing aids and hearing loss. It's not an old person's thing, and it's not something you have to hide. For me, they are glasses for my ears. That cost thousands of dollars. I want options. I want colors. I want "Ray B…

I say only half facetiously, make them look like AirPods. It’s considered perfectly normal to have one or two in your ears much of the time.

1) I don't want to be confused with someone who won't take their earphones out

2) this is another form of camouflage which is indicative of something that sour be hidden or shameful

Re: Starkey and the Future of Hearing Aids

#42

Post by mpnordland »

randlet wrote: post #41
ghaff wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I say only half facetiously, make them look like AirPods. It’s considered perfectly normal to have one or two in your ears much of the time.

1) I don't want to be confused with someone who won't take their earphones out 2) this is another form of camouflage which is indicative of something that sour be hidden or shameful

So, take the idea that Starkey is going on, but make them ostentatious? Kind of the way arm and leg prostheses have gone now that 3D printing has reached consumers?

Re: Starkey and the Future of Hearing Aids

#43

Post by abqader »

yeahitslikethat wrote: post #19
netman21 wrote: post #14

Wow the guy admits that hearing aids were inexpensive and simple while they charged $2,500 for them. I want super hearing and I want to control it from my phone. Waiting on Silicon Valley or China to make it happen.

They are expensive due to regulation as medical devices.

Hearing aids now have an OTC (over the counter) bill passed in the FDA. Senator Warren lobbied for the bill for Bose. I think Bose is going to attempt to break into the D2C space with hearing aids.

Re: Starkey and the Future of Hearing Aids

#45

Post by pugworthy »

mpnordland wrote: post #42
randlet wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) I don't want to be confused with someone who won't take their earphones out 2) this is another form of camouflage which is indicative of something that sour be hidden or shameful

So, take the idea that Starkey is going on, but make them ostentatious? Kind of the way arm and leg prostheses have gone now that 3D printing has reached consumers?

Ostentatious - characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice.

That is not at ALL what we want. Not even close.

Re: Starkey and the Future of Hearing Aids

#46

Post by solatic »

biggieshellz wrote: post #28
solatic wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm convinced that the real reason why hearing aids remain so expensive is because of the need to see an audiologist. In a day and age where Shenzhen makes hardware iteration cheap for Chinese hardware companies, it makes very little sense for the hearing aids themselves to be so expensive. I'd love to hack on mine, but I lack the hardware setup that connects the hearing aids to a computer for programming, not to men…

The problem is that patients don't always know what is supposed to sound right, especially if they've been going without hearing aids for years. If you take a person with a high-frequency loss and correct it to the normal range, they'll often complain that everything sounds sharp, or there are too many noises and it's hard to concentrate. Only after wearing them for a while does their brain learn to filter out the no…

Which is precisely why home self-programming is so important. It allows patients to go back and re-program as often as they feel necessary, and such additional tunings would not cost the patient the cost of additional audiologist visits.

I guess the question is whether ignorance is bliss. If a patient self-sets a hearing aid to a level that the patient thinks is great, but isn't theoretically as great as it could be, is that actually a problem?

Re: Starkey and the Future of Hearing Aids

#47

Post by pugworthy »

exabrial wrote: post #2

Most hearing aids these days just boost certain frequency bands due to band-specific hearing loss. I saw a research project awhile back that was using neural networks to discern speech from background noise, and cancel the background noise. I'm hoping the feature comes to hearing aids soon!

Mine use low power wireless to coordinate sound amplification, and they are 4 years old. They can be a lot fancier than you're imagining - but at a price of thousands of dollars each.

Re: Starkey and the Future of Hearing Aids

#49

Post by gattilorenz »

mpnordland wrote: post #42
randlet wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) I don't want to be confused with someone who won't take their earphones out 2) this is another form of camouflage which is indicative of something that sour be hidden or shameful

So, take the idea that Starkey is going on, but make them ostentatious? Kind of the way arm and leg prostheses have gone now that 3D printing has reached consumers?

They should be like glasses, as they serve quite a similar function. But they are even less evident, so unless you wear bright pink aids, they shouldn't probably attract any attention (they don't really change your look, do they?).

Everything else means there's still a stigma.

Re: Starkey and the Future of Hearing Aids

#50

Post by yeahitslikethat »

wrycoder wrote: post #24
yeahitslikethat wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are expensive due to regulation as medical devices.

They are expensive because of the rent-seeking cartel that adds more dubious features while gradually raising the price. Even MDHearingAid, which started under $500, with a stated policy of serving a wide market at a low price, recently added one more microphone and doubled their price. They keep sending me offers of $50 off, if I buy two. Got greedy, like the rest.

Oh the good ol' "rent seeking cartel" meme again. Never heard that before.

Even though the same rent seeking cartel produces the same non medical hearing loss grade devices at lower prices. Good call.

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