Results of Actual Hearing Test and Next Steps

@mahler123, Ditto!  Can't beat Costco.  I went to both Costco and HearUSA yesterday and found similar results.  BTW; found similar with optical the same frame with prescribed lenses at Costco were hundreds less than private.

Hearing Aid Price: its a bit of apples and oranges; Costco didn't carry the exact same brands as HearUSA. Costco carries Jabra Pro (latest version $1600 and Philips  (latest version $1500).  6 month full refund policy.

HearUSA carries the Widex and Signia plus an in-house option.  Widex and Signa model comparable to Philips were $4550 with a 60 day return policy and this was after my Kaiser $1000 benefit was applied. So figure $5550 at HearUSA.

Note: I found Jabra 200's direct from Jabra online store at $1900.  Philips (new) on eBay for $2600. Philips, Widex and Signia not sold direct online only Jabra.

Consultations:  Both Costco and HearUSA technicians advised while I could benefit, I should have limited expectations since my hearing loss is minimal at higher frequency.  They both said results are very individual and it can take months to get used to wearing the aids.

The Costco tech advised he had patients with musical needs, but he said the aids are optimized for human voice, not music.  Even after many fine tuning adjustments and using music mode the results in music applications were mixed.

My likely next step is order a pair of Philips at Costco (recommended by tech for me) give it a few months and see how they work.  But I may just put this off as the music I listen to sounds just great. 

For TV / Movies, I have a B&W / Sony 5.2 AV system.  I can raise the center channel for vocals or just increase overall volume. The musical presentation with  5.2 is strong and I sometimes lose some background dialogue, but closed captions are an option to just higher volume.

@socalml528 

thanks for that.  My actual appointment with Costco is this afternoon (I have to go to work to turn in my laptop, ID Badge, etc in the AM-I retire today).

  I was at a wind band concert Friday night.  It was a great concert, but there was a lot of percussion, and at one point the triangle player (apparently) had a prominent part, whacking the thing, and I couldn’t hear any of it.  It’s the first time I’ve noticed any defecit listening to music

@socalml528 - they told you that it could take months to get used to wearing them? I suppose it could, it depends on the person, but in my experience with many hearing aids, days is more like it to decide if they'll work for you or not. 

That said, I am going to investigate CostCo for my next set of aids.... 

@larsman since you have the personal experience I'd default to your assessment.  But as is often said, "individual results may vary" 😉.

Since you have extensive experience; I tried some on at Costco and I noticed I could "feel" my voice when speaking like when you have a cold and your ears are plugged.  It was a short demo, but my question is: does this sensation go away or is it non existent once they are tuned?  Or is that what you get used to?

Your hearing loss is so mild, hearing aids wouldn’t help.