Buying Hearing Aids

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#3420255 1-Oct-2025 13:55

I'm not sure if people are aware of a new subscription service for hearing aids which is been offered in NZ by resonate health. For 90 a month you get the latest Resound Viva 9 which retail around $7500 a pair , no contract or deposit so you can try them for a month or so to see if they work. im booked in next week for a fitting so will find out if top of the range hearing aids are worth it.

https://www.resonatehealth.co.nz https://www.resonatehealth.co.nz/resound-vivia-9

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johno1234

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#3420262 1-Oct-2025 14:41

vexxxboy:

I'm not sure if people are aware of a new subscription service for hearing aids which is been offered in NZ by resonate health. For 90 a month you get the latest Resound Viva 9 which retail around $7500 a pair , no contract or deposit so you can try them for a month or so to see if they work. im booked in next week for a fitting so will find out if top of the range hearing aids are worth it.

https://www.resonatehealth.co.nz https://www.resonatehealth.co.nz/resound-vivia-9

My neighbour is on this or something very similar and it sounds like a great option. 4 years comes out at about the same price as a purchase but with all the risk removed. My HAs now over 3 yrs old and due to the rechargeable battery life are close to their end. Will be looking at the above once the battery life is too short. I hope they offer a BICROSS mode or option.

mattwnz

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#3420322 1-Oct-2025 15:41

johno1234:

My neighbour is on this or something very similar and it sounds like a great option. 4 years comes out at about the same price as a purchase but with all the risk removed. My HAs now over 3 yrs old and due to the rechargeable battery life are close to their end. Will be looking at the above once the battery life is too short. I hope they offer a BICROSS mode or option.

Does that risk include loss or damaging them? For mild hearing loss, it makes the airpods pro 3 option look very very cheap, as that amount would pay for them to keep after less than 6 months. I don't know why normal hearing aids are so expensive but guessing they is a big margin on them. Apple could really disrupt the market if they wanted to.

Eva888

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#3420325 1-Oct-2025 15:46

johno1234:

"The AirPod pros need to be within Bluetooth range when in transparency mode..."

Are you sure? I don't have them as they lack BICROSS capability... but my reading of the specs says you only need to connect them to a device for configuration and can enable/disable transparency mode (with stored audiology config) with a button press on the airpod without a connected device..

When I leave the room where the Bluetooth device/phone is, pods makes the clunk sound which means they are disconnected. The transparency button is in the hearing section of the phone. That’s where the buttons to change config are so the orders must come from there.

I know the pod stems have some features like volume etc but they are so fiddly to twiddle with I don't bother, but as far as I know the pro 2s don’t have the ability to change transparency modes via the stem.

I'm just happy they work so well pretty much out of the box, so haven’t bothered to delve much deeper than set up and a few other features like 'live listen' where you put your phone near the person speaking and the pods hear crisper.

If you know someone with a pair to try out you might be very surprised. My hearing is much worse on one side than the other yet I hear perfectly when both pods are in my ears. They sound equal.

mattwnz

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#3420327 1-Oct-2025 15:53

Eva888:

johno1234:

"The AirPod pros need to be within Bluetooth range when in transparency mode..."

Are you sure? I don't have them as they lack BICROSS capability... but my reading of the specs says you only need to connect them to a device for configuration and can enable/disable transparency mode (with stored audiology config) with a button press on the airpod without a connected device..

When I leave the room where the Bluetooth device/phone is, pods makes the clunk sound which means they are disconnected. The transparency button is in the hearing section of the phone. That’s where the buttons to change config are so the orders must come from there.

I know the pod stems have some features like volume etc but they are so fiddly to twiddle with I don't bother, but as far as I know the pro 2s don’t have the ability to change transparency modes via the stem.

I'm just happy they work so well pretty much out of the box, so haven’t bothered to delve much deeper than set up and a few other features like 'live listen' where you put your phone near the person speaking and the pods hear crisper.

If you know someone with a pair to try out you might be very surprised. My hearing is much worse on one side than the other yet I hear perfectly when both pods are in my ears. They sound equal.

My understanding with the pro 3s is you can change mode with the stem. I will have to look at it in more depth. But the person I got them for set them up on their ipad, not a phone, and uses them as hearing aid when she doesn't have the ipad with her and they are normally in transparency mode. So don't know if transparency mode is disabled or not when away from the ipad.

I like how you can actually get a graph of the hearing loss in the health app. They had lost a lot of hearing from the higher frequencies, and when I put them in my ears, I could hear that the higher pitch frequencies were being amplified a lot. It is amazing that Apple have made this so accessible at a reasonable price. A lot of people wouldn't buy hearing aids due to the high cost and many are fiddly to install and look like hearing aids, unless you buy the expensive models. My dad got some expensive hearing aids 2 years ago and he decided to save some money my getting them with button cells rather than rechargeable, and he regrets it because it is a hassle to keep changing the batteries.At least the pro 3s are rechargeable and have an ok battery life.

Eva888

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#3420334 1-Oct-2025 16:17

After the comments, I thought I better test them out since never tried them without Bluetooth. Turned off bluetooth on iPad and iPhone. Turned on TV, purposely had it low and it was a bit muffled. Put the pro 2s in my ears…What magic is this! They worked, I could hear clearly as when Bluetooth was on.

Can’t understand it. Looked at my hearing settings on the phone and Live Listen was greyed out and the ability to change transparency mode was not there, but the pods are doing their job as aids.

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robjg63

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#3420337 1-Oct-2025 16:26

johno1234:

vexxxboy:

I'm not sure if people are aware of a new subscription service for hearing aids which is been offered in NZ by resonate health. For 90 a month you get the latest Resound Viva 9 which retail around $7500 a pair , no contract or deposit so you can try them for a month or so to see if they work. im booked in next week for a fitting so will find out if top of the range hearing aids are worth it.

https://www.resonatehealth.co.nz https://www.resonatehealth.co.nz/resound-vivia-9

My neighbour is on this or something very similar and it sounds like a great option. 4 years comes out at about the same price as a purchase but with all the risk removed. My HAs now over 3 yrs old and due to the rechargeable battery life are close to their end. Will be looking at the above once the battery life is too short. I hope they offer a BICROSS mode or option.

I wasnt keen on rechargeable HAs when I bought several years ago. Experience with small appliances and rechargeable batteries really put me off that idea.
Easy to pop fresh batteries in each Monday morning and know you are good for the week (assuming use of around 7am to 10pm each day).

Resonatehealth state you get a new pair every 3 years - so that would be $3240.

They state that you get an new pair every 3 years - Seems too good to be true ... But those HAs seem to get good internet feedback.

For the record, Resound is part of the Danish group that also make Jabra audio/video products.

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johno1234

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#3420341 1-Oct-2025 16:35

mattwnz:

johno1234:

My neighbour is on this or something very similar and it sounds like a great option. 4 years comes out at about the same price as a purchase but with all the risk removed. My HAs now over 3 yrs old and due to the rechargeable battery life are close to their end. Will be looking at the above once the battery life is too short. I hope they offer a BICROSS mode or option.

Does that risk include loss or damaging them? For mild hearing loss, it makes the airpods pro 3 option look very very cheap, as that amount would pay for them to keep after less than 6 months. I don't know why normal hearing aids are so expensive but guessing they is a big margin on them. Apple could really disrupt the market if they wanted to.

It's unclear what their policy on loss is.

As good as the Airpods pro 3 aret hey are still significantly behind high end hearing aids in a few ways: Hearing aid batteries last all day vs maybe 6-8 hours for Airpods. Hearing aids are very small and effectively invisible vs Airpods which look like bits of macaroni in your ears. Hearing aids support CROS and BICROSS modes and Airpods do not - that's a deal killer for me. Hearing aids are/will support Auracast for public spaces.

Regarding price - it used to be a lot worse. Top spec models used to be $10k but there are now have options with the same features for $4.5k.

johno1234

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#3420347 1-Oct-2025 16:52

robjg63:

I wasnt keen on rechargeable HAs when I bought several years ago. Experience with small appliances and rechargeable batteries really put me off that idea.
Easy to pop fresh batteries in each Monday morning and know you are good for the week (assuming use of around 7am to 10pm each day).

Resonatehealth state you get a new pair every 3 years - so that would be $3240.

They state that you get an new pair every 3 years - Seems too good to be true ... But those HAs seem to get good internet feedback.

For the record, Resound is part of the Danish group that also make Jabra audio/video products.

I just know that if I had replaceable battery HAs they would run flat and I'd find I have no batteries! As for battery life - my current HAs are coming up 4 years old and the battery runs out a little before bed time which didn't use to happen. I stream audio to them a lot which is known to be a battery drain. But putting them in the charger at night is so easy and convenient. Personally I would never consider replaceable battery models.

I'm not concerned about replacing hearing aids after 4 years. The technology just keeps getting better so it's worth it for a life-enhancing product. And I mean life-enhancing. It's an absolute life changer so not a priority for saving money on.

The Resonate subscription model appears to be slightly cheaper than replacing every 4 years and much cheaper than replacing every three years. It's a super deal.

johno1234

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#3420348 1-Oct-2025 16:54

Eva888:

After the comments, I thought I better test them out since never tried them without Bluetooth. Turned off bluetooth on iPad and iPhone. Turned on TV, purposely had it low and it was a bit muffled. Put the pro 2s in my ears…What magic is this! They worked, I could hear clearly as when Bluetooth was on.

Can’t understand it. Looked at my hearing settings on the phone and Live Listen was greyed out and the ability to change transparency mode was not there, but the pods are doing their job as aids.

Cool - that's as I expected from reading up. Apple have smart product designers.

Bluntj

586 posts

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#3420470 2-Oct-2025 08:36

Do HA's help with Tinnitus?

Mine has got so much worse and is probably linked to a little hearing loss.

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johno1234

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#3420483 2-Oct-2025 09:17

I would ask an audiologist about that - I do see the vivia-9 model above has a tinnitus feature but can't comment on how effective it is.

Eva888

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#3420502 2-Oct-2025 09:52

Bluntj:

Do HA's help with Tinnitus?

Mine has got so much worse and is probably linked to a little hearing loss.

The AirPod pro's have this feature and you can choose a sound to use from many. I have never used it even though I have mild tinnitus, have learned to ignore it and co-exist.

Bluntj

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#3420627 2-Oct-2025 11:55

Eva888:

Bluntj:

Do HA's help with Tinnitus?

Mine has got so much worse and is probably linked to a little hearing loss.

The AirPod pro's have this feature and you can choose a sound to use from many. I have never used it even though I have mild tinnitus, have learned to ignore it and co-exist.

I learned to ignore mine for many years, but as I have aged it has got quite bad and difficult to ignore.

linw

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#3420658 2-Oct-2025 12:51

I have had Specsaver HA's for 2.7 years and am pretty happy with them but if/when I need to get new ones, I would go the Resonate route. The Ai aspect sounds interesting and your payments stop when you don't need them anymore!

Interested to hear from people who have experience with them.

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