signia 7IX hearing aid

Youre looking at a selection of brands there that would all be considered high end HAs. You'll find each of them will have their users who love each one and consider they're the best, while some dislike them for whatever reason.

I tried an earlier Signia and they were good. I ended up getting Phonak Marvel and later, Paradise more for cost reasons than anything.

IMO, the clincher at these technology levels is choosing a brand where the audiologist cares enough about you and your hearing that they put the time and knowledge into programming them to extract the best help the HAs can offer for your circumstances. A poorly programmed premium HA is going to be less helpful than a well tuned mid range unit.

There's also a lot of vapour around that inflates one HA over others, and it's important to drill into that by viewing fairly reliable reviews. For me, the lads at Hearing Tracker as well Cliff Olsen on YouTube give helpful reviews that seem to explore the various brands quite well.

Also, you need to be fairly clear on the social, work and home environments that need the most assistance and focus each offerings capabilities to resolve problems for those environments. You might have a 'whispering' spouse that needs to be amplified in certain frequencies, so that would need to be a part of the menu. Or you may be a very socially outgoing person who finds it very hard to hear in crowded or noisy settings, and a speech in loud noise technology level (such as Infinio Sphere) would be very important. In order to help you navigate all the various tech offerings, a chart of YOUR needs, in some order of importance will guide a good audiologist to help you choose between competing brands.

Nowadays I dont believe that there's a bad HA on the market for long. There are however, lots of poorly fitted HAs and that's the nut to crack by getting a best-practice using, caring HA fitter to adjust them to meet your needs.

HTH.

https://www.hearingtracker.com/hearing-aids/phonak-audeo-infinio)

Dr Cliff gives good guidance on what a best practice audiologist should do, including sound box testing, and Real Ear Measurement as part of the fitting regimen. Sadly, too few audiologists practice those best practices.

Prospective users need to ask if they carry out:

1. Word Recognition testing at initial consultation along with the standard air conduction, bone conduction and uncomfortable listening level testing

2. Validation of any selected HA's performance using sound box (to ensure it's operating within manufacturer's tolerance range)

3. Adjustment of initial 1st fit from the audiogram using Real Ear Measurement that adjusts the hearing aid to ensure that ear canal size and shape are accommodated within the programming regimen

This link is a useful read also;

https://www.ishaa.ie/best-practice-guidelines/

That ISHAA also has a useful 'Find an Audiologist ' search function...