Hearing Aids in 2023 .. Questions

I've been wearing hearing aids for over 20 years, and in my experience, the best quality ones sound the best for music or anything else; hearing aids are programmable, so you can have them set at one setting/curve if you're going to be at a dinner with background conversation, for example, and a completely different setting/curve if you're listening to music. There are usually about 4 or 5 different programs the audiologist can set up for you.

I would also go with custom-molded ear-pieces if you can afford them, as the better the seal, the better the sound. I wear behind the ear ones for everything but headphones, where I've got in-ear ones. 

I don't know anything about the new hearing aids you can get without an audiologist. 

OTC aids are weaker, strictly for beginners.

My hearing isn’t that bad but I’ve been wearing hearing aids for 5 years. Long story how I ended up there but suffice it to say, we wear glasses when we have just slightly imperfect vision. Should do the same for hearing.

High end hearing aids through an audiologist can run $8000 to $12000. That is a huge markup. the audiologist I went to had a hardwood office like a law firm.

Costco sells pretty much the same thing with great customer service. Make sure you get a brand with a hifi music feather. Hearing aids are aimed at those with severe hearing loss and they use AI to make voices easier to understand which is most hearing aid user’s goal. That ruins music. The hifi music setting eliminates the AI and just lets the hearing aid act to fill in the frequencies you have lost--like and equalizer. Music sounds to me like I’m 20 again.

I am currently using the phillips from costco.  Less than $2k.

Jerry

I had to get hearing aids a year ago. Moderate hearing loss. I did a ton of researchand ended up with Widex Moment 440's. Very expensive but they have an app that lets you customize the curve through a series of A/B tests for different listening environments. There are also pre-configured ones but I've set one strictly for listening to my system. I don't know of another brand that has this. I would recommend giving them a try or at least discussing this with your audiologist.

@vonhelmholtz I’m not sure if they’re still available, but growing up I had fully analog hearing aids. My brother wore them and hung onto analog aids for as long as he possibly could. I’m on digital aids. I’ve worn Phonak aids for the last 15 years or so, upgrading along the way. I actually am still wearing my second-to-newest model because it sounds much more natural than my newest ones, which sound processed and mechanical. I can’t say what works for you, but hopefully your audiologist will let you demo a few types.