Why Invest in The Best?
Investing in Premium hearing aids from the world’s best brands is a long term investment in quality technology and communication ability. A quality pair of hearing aids should last a good number of years. We suggest people aim to upgrade on average every 5 to 7 years as the technology evolves. It is quite common for people who maintain their hearing aids well to have them providing great benefit for a decade or longer. It is recommended that hearing aids be worn the full waking day. In terms of your hearing ability and comfort all day, every day for years to come, we strongly recommend going for best you can. As an analogy if you needed a replacement heart valve or knee joint would you choose a cheaper metal just to save a few dollars in the short term? We didn’t think so! So why would you choose anything less than the best for your primary sense of hearing?
Avoid hassles
We minimise your frustrations and hassles associated with using sub-optimal hearing aids. People who opt for lower end technology often need more frequent visits to a hearing centre to have a clinician try and improve their performance. This is often a futile exercise.
Poor quality devices are prone to frequent breakdowns, down time for repairs and sub-optimal functioning. Sadly, people often continue wearing such devices unaware they aren’t working properly. They may have to reinvest more often due to premature device failures which may actually result in greater long term cost. Or unfortunately give it away all together due to the bad experience and never know what they are missing.
Poor sound quality, comfort or effectiveness in competing noise often results in disuse of sub-optimally performing hearing aids in environments where they are needed the most. They are simply left at home. This inopportune wearing is a complete waste.
Our top brand hearing aids are manufactured to the highest standards of quality control. They are made to function optimally for many years to come.
Become an Advocate for the Best
In striving to help you obtain the best possible outcomes wehope you become an advocate for our business model and recommend Hearing Aid Hero to your friends and family who may need affordable help with their hearing. We are confident that when you experience the best you won’t give a second thought to the rest.
Premium Hearing aids from the World’s Best Brands.
As our mission is to ensure the best outcomes for all our clients, we only fit the very top-end Premium hearing aids from the best and most trusted brands. We engage in continued professional development and research to source only the latest and best hearing aid solutions from world leading hearing aid manufacturers including; Oticon, Siemens Signia, Phonak, Starkey, Unitron and GN Resound and upon consultation accurately match the very best solution to each individual’s needs.
What are Premium Level Hearing Aids?
Means there is no higher level of technology or quality of build.
World leading hearing aid manufactures are continually striving to give their Premium models the competitive edge. Many millions of dollars are spent annually in research and development by top engineers and innovators. Top end (Premium) hearing aids are infused with their very best technology and feature sets so as to maximise positive outcomes for end users (You). They are designed to handle life’s complex sound situations. For example hearing the wife’s voice whilst the T.V. is going. They deliver the best speech clarity, acoustic comfort and most natural sound quality.
Some less well informed “dispensers” will say you don’t need all the “bells and whistles” or extra programs. Their priority is to get a sale by selling you anything within your budget. Their margins are often about the same whether they sell you a budget basic hearing aid or a higher end model.
From our extensive experience in independent clinics and through on-going professional development, we know that these are not merely “bells and whistles” but legitimate technological advantages that attain better performance and satisfaction rates in the daily lives of our clients.
My colleague Dr Cliff Olsen from Applied Hearing Solutions in Phoenix Arizona sums it up nicely in the following video
Premium Performance Characteristics
Superior performance can include; improved background noise suppression, increased speech clarity, reduced listening effort, more natural sound quality (Less Echoey’, Tinny or Metallic Sound Quality), Increased localisation (Identification of where sounds are coming from and separation of those sounds from one another). More Automation (Less requirement for manual adjustments by the user for different environments. More Physical and Acoustic comfort and Increased user acceptance and usage rates. Best brand reliability with less frequent breakdowns and down time for repairs.
Why Go for the Best or Premium Hearing Aids;
Going for the best maximises your chances of hearing with confidence and comfort one to one and in social environments with competing background noise. You will be able to relax and enjoy social gatherings more knowing you can remain confidently engaged in the conversation without having to strain or concentrate on what others are saying. Invasive competing background noise being minimised and speech clarity maximised using the best technology available.
The truth is they do perform better in all situations and especially when you really do need to maximise benefits in social settings with competing background noise.
Challenging the Status Quo
Just because something has been done for a long time doesn’t mean it’s right. For years when hearing aid manufacturers launched a new model of hearing aid they release it onto the market in up to 5 or 6 technology levels and price points. Why? They do this because they know that across the world there’s different levels of socio-economic status and wealth distribution. Rather than price out the less wealthy markets they’d rather sell de-featured lower end levels of technology to make sales volumes whilst being still being able to charge a high price or a premium to the wealthy or more affluent of society. We don’t believe this practice to be entirely fair or ethical. Is one person’s hearing worth more than another’s? Does your hearing warrant anything less than the best? We don’t think so!
Vague Counselling Guides
Because hearing aids brands realise how confusing it is for a client to select a level of technology they produce generic counselling guides for the clinician to try and help. Please see the following examples.
Simply the Best for Much Less!
With Hearing Aid Hero you avoid the confusion and controversy and simply acquire the best hearing aid technology available for your needs. You can expect to acquire the latest Premium level hearing aids at about the same price you would pay for most of our Australian competitors mid-range hearing aids. You will literally save around 50% or up to $6000 on a pair of Premium hearing aids and have access to professional services to help them work optimally. Most of our competitors adopt confusing names for the tiers of technology they offer such as Premium, Advanced, Upper-Mid Range, Lower Mid, Basic and Essential. Some use the names of precious metals to represent the technology levels for example Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver, Copper & Bronze. Some chain dispensers such as those that sell both glasses and hearing aids use re-named or ‘white labelled’ versions of models to make it difficult for the consumer to compare like for like levels of hearing aid technology. With us you aren’t overwhelmed or confused by Mega menus showing every hearing aid model and level of technology ever made. You don’t risk attaining sub-optimal or super-ceded models. You can be confident you are attaining the latest and very best for your vital hearing sense.
It’s the same hardware!
The Irony is that it’s all the same hardware made in the same factory for a model of hearing aid i.e. The same chip platform (unless a super-ceded model), the same microphones, receiver units (speakers), amplifier and consumables. What is modified between the hearing aid levels is the software that is loaded onto or unlocked within the chip platform. One leading manufacturer Unitron is quite upfront about this with their Flex-Upgrade range of hearing aids. If a user isn’t financial at the time of purchasing the hearing aids (the Harware) they can later pay to have their hearing aid technology level upgraded with software and firmware updates. This represents a unique and somewhat controversial attribute. For example new Phonak Marvel comes in Phonak Marvel M90 (Premium), M70 (Advanced), M50 Mid-range and M30 Basic. New Oticon Opn S comes in Opn S 1 (Premium), Opn S 2 (Advanced) and Opn S 3 Midrange and their lower end/de-featured versions of the same device are called Siya 1 & 2. (All on the same Chip Platform!) In 2019 leading German manufacturer Signia (formerly Siemens) released new models of their hearing aids the Signia Silk and Signia Pure for example on their Nx Chip platform which came in 5 levels of technology. Five! There is the premium 7Nx (Premium), 5Nx, 3Nx, 2Nx & 1Nx (Entry level)
Pursue Your Best Hearing
In the pursuit of best hearing ability why should you pay many thousands of dollars more to have these software driven features unlocked. Conversely if you can’t afford the premium prices charged in many hearing aid clinics why should you settle for a de-featured or performance limited technology.
With think it hinges on being offensive to suggest you settle for low end hearing aid technology as you can’t afford to hear better. To emphasise how ridiculous this is here’s a couple of analogies; Would you buy a pair of cheaper spectacles with less clear lenses to save a few dollars. Or if you needed a knee replacement would you settle for a metal less expensive than titanium to save a few dollars in the short term only to need the knee replaced again sooner. I could go on.
How Others Justify Low End Stuff
Some hearing aid dispensers try to justify selling lower levels of technology by claiming to match the level of hearing aid technology to your lifestyle or communication needs. They may state “that’s all you need for your lifestyle” or “you don’t need all the bells and whistles” or the “Rolls Royce of Hearing Aids.” Not True! Premium hearing aids have been developed to perform what are called complex listening environments. Places where sound and speech sound come from different directions and there’s competing background noise. Even your living room with a T.V. going and the Spouse talking from across the room can be considered a complex listening situation. Even a TV show itself with background music and sound effects is complex.
Legitimate Features to Hear Better!
The technology suite and features of Premium hearing aids aren’t merely “Bells and Whistles” but legitimate features that translate to real world benefits in everyday life. For example the biggest jump in technological features occurs as you move from the Advanced Oticon Opn S 2 to the Premium Opn S 1 models. You go from a bandwidth of 8KHz to 10KHz in Premium. This enables you to hear higher frequency speech cues known as harmonics which provide further separation of speech from competing noise. You also attain an improvement in localisation of where sounds are coming from and reduced listening effort. You move from a 48 Channel instrument to a 64 channel one which enables more accurate shaping of the amplification to your hearing levels across the frequency range as well as improvements in the signal to noise ratio with more frequency bands. Binaural coordination of features including multi band adaptive directional microphones is enhanced is also improved with more processing channels as more information is wirelessly shared and coordinated between the hearing aids. Premium hearing aid features and how they translate into real world benefits will be further described & Illustrated in the next section of our website.
Higher end technology has been engineered to create the best sound quality, speech clarity, listening comfort and reduce listening effort. Why would you want less than that?
An Audiologist’s Experience
Having worked as an Audiologist for around 10 years in Australia in the Harmony Hearing & Audiology Clinics. I have become an advocate for people going for the best hearing aid technology they can within their budget. We find people who go for Premium hearing aids are the most satisfied, wear their hearing aids more of each waking day and report that they follow speech better in social gatherings where there’s more competing noise.
Hearing is after all a primary sense and this is your hearing all day, every day for years to come. A quality pair of hearing aids can last around 10 years if well looked after although I encourage people to consider upgrading every five to seven years as the technology evolves.
In a nut-shell we believe that your vital sense of hearing deserves the very best hearing aid technology, it should be affordable and that you have easy access professional services to maximise benefits.