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There are actually some decent alternatives avaliable on alibaba and other Chinese outlets. I helped my father with getting a pair, they were 125 and have been
by zrobotics 8y ago
There are actually some decent alternatives avaliable on alibaba and other Chinese outlets. I helped my father with getting a pair, they were 125 and have been performing well for 1.5 years now. Sure, I wouldn't trust alibaba for most medical devices, but something like hearing aids should be safe enough. His insurance wouldn't kick in anything, and while he could afford the price he would never spend it. Since he so badly needed them, I suggested he try a pair of the cheaper ones, and the difference in quality of life was staggering.
- throwaway2048 8y agobeware of cheap hearing aids, hearing loss is almost never uniform, so if they aren't adjusted properly they can be far too loud in the parts of the audio spectrum where hearing is less damaged, and can in fact cause further hearing loss. Not that this is any excuse for them costing $20,000, but its something to keep in mind, cheap abibaba ones likely just make all frequencies louder.
- rhinoceraptor 8y agoIt seems like this could easily be solved by selling the hearing aids with a smartphone app to test your hearing and tune the aids, and a pair of flat frequency response headphones for testing.
- pkaye 8y agoRead about the OTC hearing aid law signed 2 years ago. http://www.hearingreview.com/2017/08/president-trump-signs-otc-hearing-aid-legislation-law/ http://www.hearingreview.com/2017/08/president-trump-signs-o...
- computator 8y agotl;dr: The gist is that, by near year I think, people with mild-to-moderate hearing loss will be able to buy hearing aids without having to see a doctor or get a prescription. (I'm always amazed when the bureaucracy makes something easier rather than more difficult.)
- Scoundreller 8y agoRetirees have lots of time to vote.
- chris1993 8y agoThis is essentially the system sold by Blamey Saunders in Australia. My pair work reasonably well.
- rhinoceraptor 8y agoWow, it's crazy that those are still $3000 for essentially a microphone, DSP chip, maybe a small microcontroller and a BLE chip, and a driver. Something like the Airpods are probably on the same level of technical complexity, but an order of magnitude cheaper.
- Karupan 8y agoCan you post a link to the model you got? Looking for alternatives for my dad as well. Thanks.