Phonak hearing aid models, prices, and reviews

Hi there, my name is Nick and today I’m gonna talk to you about my Phonak Lumity 90s. So for a brief introduction on my hearing loss history, I am very new to hearing loss, my hearing loss is mild and I’ve been experiencing it probably for the past 4 or 5 years, but have not really jumped into the world of hearing aids until this past November of 2022. I went to my audiologist and I was diagnosed with a mild hearing loss. My biggest complication is really in crowded areas with lots of background noise, I have a very hard time hearing the thing that I want to hear, instead I hear everything else. So having a job that requires a lot of conversation with people in those kind of environments , prior to the hearing aids it was almost impossible because I could not hear the person 2 feet in front of me. I heard everything else, but not that person, which is not that great. So I was recommended to get hearing aids by my audiologist and I did. They recommended 2 different models, they recommended the Lumity 90 by Phonak and they recommended the Widex Moment. I did a fitting with my audiologist, well not a fitting, I did a consultation and both seemed to work fine, I didn’t really know what to look for, I didn’t know what was good, what was bad, I just knew what was important to me. And what was important to me was music, right, I’m a musician, I play music, I listen to music, I experience music all day long, I also play guitar and I work on guitars so it’s important to me to be able to hear the little things, right, is there a decrease in the treble, is there an increase in the bass, I need to be able to hear these things so that I can properly diagnose what’s going on with the instrument. Finding a hearing aid that was going to allow me to do that was very important. So choosing between the 2 was going to come down to a couple different things- the technology, the accessories, and the ability to do the things that I do, whether it’s connecting to things via bluetooth or having zoom conference calls or talking hands-free, those were important things to me. So I chose the Phonak Lumity 90s for a few reasons. Number 1 is their hands-free calling and Bluetooth connectivity. So let’s start with the Bluetooth. These can connect I believe it’s up to 8 different Bluetooth devices at the same time, or sorry it can make those 8 connections but have 2 at the same time and you can switch between them easily. And for me that’s a big thing, I want to connect them to my phone, I want to connect them to my watch, and I want to connect them to my computer. Also, I have an Apple TV, so I can connect them to my Apple TV and beam that sound right into my hearing aids. So having those multiple connections was actually really important. Other devices use a different Bluetooth standard, like if they’re built for iOS, and it doesn’t really allow you to do that many connections at the same time, specifically the other hearing aid I was looking for like I couldn’t connect it to certain devices without having a secondary Bluetooth connectivity dongle, and I didn’t want to carry that around, I want everything kinda hands-free. The other benefit was making calls on the Lumity it’s a two way connection, I can hear through my hearing aids and also the microphone on the hearing aids picks up what I’m saying. Other devices I would’ve had to have another piece of technology maybe on my lapel or my collar or my shirt that would act as the microphone and the receiver and I didn’t want that, A it’s more money, and B it’s just another thing to carry around. So I guess now that I’ve been talking about these, let’s go ahead and show you what they’re like. This is the charging case for them, it does have a USB-C connection, and the bass is a little grippy, and this green ring lights up to show you that they are in fact receiving power. You will put your hearing aids in this to charge them, which is great, opening it is fairly easy, it’s a magnetic enclosure so there’s no latches. And there you can see the hearing aids, in their respective charging areas, and there’s an area for your domes. So I’m actually going to go ahead and take them out give you a little close up, I got them in the gun metal grey, sort of graphite looking finish, not because I wanted it to match my hair or my skin, I just like grey. I’m also using open domes so they are not closed, they are allowing quite a bit of the external sound into my canals and just providing some of that assistance. So I’m gonna go ahead and turn these on, both of them are the same, I’m gonna press and hold the button on the back for 5 ish seconds and you can see they start to blink green, letting you know they are in fact on. When you turn them off, they’re gonna blink red. As with most hearing aids these days, these are very low profile. You can tell me, but I can’t really see anything, you’d have to really go in there and look. Even the tube is really low key. If being subtle with your hearing aids is important to you this is a great option. They’re one of the smallest behind-the-ear receivers on the market, which is pretty cool. So why did I choose this? We talked about the Bluetooth connectivity, we talked about the hands-free calling and having it be two-way, I don’t need another accessory to act as a microphone, these act as a microphone. I can connect to a lot of different devices, my Apple TV, phone, watch, computer, I can do zoom calls, I can do everything. I can use these as headphones, which we’ll get to in a second, because that’s probably one of the downfalls for me. What do I like about them? They’re very light, I have a hard time remembering that they’re even on, not that they’re not working, that they’re on my ears, I can’t feel them, they’re not annoying, they don’t feel intrusive, they feel very natural, so that’s a big thing, knowing that they’re comfortable and knowing that they’re not going to bother you all day in terms of like a rubbing or an itching or a weight issue is fantastic. Here’s another thing I love about these hearing aids. The battery life is phenomenal, I use these from about 7, 730 in the morning, to probably about midnight, 1am, everyday, without fail, and by the end of the day, this is my experience, I put them away and they’re at about 20 to 25 percent battery left. So these things will last you all day without an issue. The battery life is fantastic. The one thing I did notice is it did decrease the battery life on my phone because these things are Bluetooth connected to your phone all day long, so that Bluetooth connection will consume more battery on your phone then usual, so just keep that in mind. One of the things I don’t like about this hearing aid, and I know it’s not the purpose, the main purpose is not to be a headphone and I understand that, so it’s just something I’m gonna live with, but the audio quality when streaming music from your phone into the hearing aids as a headphone with the open domes leaves something to be desired. There’s no real low end, it’s kinda tinny, it almost sounds like it’s from a distance, it’s kinda muffled, and I know yes, that’s the open dome letting the bass escape my ears and it’s really interfering with a pure music sound. There are things you can do to resolve that, you can work on that issues with your hearing specialist or hearing technician or audiologist to fine tune them via software, you can also go ahead and you can mess around with the app, which is kinda fun. Speaking of, the app, the Phonak app is interesting. It’s a little clunky, it feels almost a little dated, but, the functionality is fantastic, you can have multiple different presets for different environments that you’re in so that you can create custom profiles for these hearing aids. So for me, I have a restaurant mode which will really really block out most of that background noise and allow me to focus a narrow field in front of me so I can focus on what people are saying and hear them. I have a music mode which allows a lot more musical and noise data to come in so I’m not losing that low end or high end or whatever. So you can tailor as many presets as you want to certain environments and you can just go in and click the preset and it’ll switch real quick. The buttons are very responsive and clicky on the actual device themselves, so if you want to adjust the volume a little bit during the day, you can. One more really cool thing is these have a tap feature, so you can tap on the top of your ear and it will activate your software client, your assistant on your phone, so if you’re an Apple person, that’s the Siri thing, or if you’re google it could be the Hey google thing, so this if you double tap will activate that. It will also allow you to answer phone calls when they come into your phone. You can end phone calls with double tapping, you can start and stop music or a video, or pause something with the other ear and you can set that in the app. You can also set the sensitivity so you’re not slamming on your ear in order to make it work, you can make it very sensitive. Like I said, I have had very minor experience with one other hearing aid, I really wouldn’t count it as an experience as more of an exposure, it was just a few minutes, so really this is the baseline for my hearing aid experience, is the Phonak Audeo Lumity 90s that I own. I have thoroughly enjoying using them. I really, I would 100 percent recommend these to a friend, yes they are expensive, yes they are worth it. These are going to stay with me for a long time, they are going to grow with me, they are going to be able to handle any additional hearing loss that I incur in the future, which will probably happen, hopefully not too fast. If I were going to offer advice for someone who is considering purchasing hearing aids it would be to really think about what’s important to you. Is it connectivity, do I want to be able to connect to my technology seamlessly and without flaw? Is it audio quality of music or movies or TV? Is it the size, the color, the weight? You need to find your priorities, you need to figure out what’s important to you, and how you can get that to work in those hearing aids. Now, some hearing aids aren’t, they’re not going to be a good fit for you because they don’t punch those tickets, they don’t fill those requirements, but when you find one that does, get it, because I’m sure it is worth it, it will change the way you experience life, it will change the way you hear the things around you, and it will change the way you’re interacting with the people you choose to interact with. So, that’s my advice, pick what you like, focus on what you like, and make it work. So that is it for me. This is the Phonak Lumity 90, this is the super high premium top tier version of the Lumity’s, I love them, they’re great, they’re fantastic, I would recommend them to a friend absolutely, so make sure you check out the Lumity 90, the Lumity series and speak to someone whose able to help you out and guide you through the things you’re interested in learning about in terms of your hearing aids. Thank you

Good morning, my name is Roy and I’m 70 years old, I live near San Francisco, and I want to tell you about my experience with hearing aids in general, and with the ones I decided to purchase. I’ve been using hearing aids for about 12 years and I have a very severe hearing loss, so I need a very good device, and the highest technology. In the past 12 years I have tried two other companies, their names are not important, but they were in the top 5. I’m a very active person, and I need to hear people from all different types of situations, such as group meetings and family gatherings, and especially from my youngest grandchild. Like everyone else I’ve had trouble hearing people with all types of background noises. I’ve heard so many good reviews about Phonak and I wanted to check them out. I had ordered the Audeo Paradise, but the Lumity R Life had just been put on the market. So I used the Audeo Paradise for 3 weeks, and then I switched to the new Lumity R with the highest level 90 to get the best level of technology. Let me show you what they look like. I went for the black color because I always wear glasses and they look like the back of my glasses, talk about good camouflage. I use custom earmolds for my severe hearing loss, and I need to point out that the air vents need to be small so the hearing aids can work its full magic and not get distorted with other ambient sounds. Here’s my charger, I chose rechargeable batteries for my hearing aids so I bought a portable Phonak charger called the Go, so I can disconnect from electricity and I can carry it with me. It can carry 5 nights of charge before I put it back to electricity, I find this extremely convenient. Here’s my next accessory, which is the Roger On, and it helps me a lot in hearing in difficult situations, one-on-one, group meetings, and chatting in a party. I can put the Roger On on three different positions and it will amplify the voices directly to my hearing aids. You can attach it to someone and you can hear them across the room. You can point this small instrument, not too intrusively, in a person’s direction to hear them better, or you can simply put it on the table, and you can pick up all sounds, from all sides of the table. This was great for Thanksgiving, I can simply put it between the cranberry sauce and no one even noticed it. I chose this type of hearing aid for its highest performance of 90, so that I can get the full use of the features of the AutoSense 5.0, which has over 200 different combinations of settings to optimize the performance of different hearing situations, from close echo chambers, to big noisy restaurants, to people who talk softly. The changes are very subtle, so you don’t know it’s actually working, but you do get the results. It even has SpeechSensor and StereoZoom 2.0 in the hearing aids, which are pretty fancy words and I don’t think I know how to describe it exactly, but basically it can detect human speech and again focuses on understanding each word from all sides of your head. I would also like to say that this unit is waterproof. Many of the new lines of Phonak hearing devices are IP 68 rated, but the Lumity R Life is off the charts in waterproof, which allows me to know at least that they will not turn off if I accidentally go into the shower or if I swim. I saw a video of a woman putting them in her husband's jeans and washing them in the machine and then putting them back in her ear. Well I’m not gonna do this but I’m convinced that they are waterproof. I am very happy that I spent the extra money to get the highest level of hearing aids mostly because of the natural sounds I get from them. Also I love using the Bluetooth, which allows me to listen to music, podcasts, and especially my audiobooks so clearly, this is just fantastic. Even answering the phone with the tap of my ear is so effortless, also this hearing aid allows me to use the microphone of the hearing aids to send back to the person I’m talking to, other companies don’t do this. I have it programmed for 2 devices at the same time, so I don’t have to switch them on and off. I have it connected to my Apple TV so when I turn on the TV all the sounds go directly to my ears. The other device is of course my smartphone, so I get all my music, audiobooks, etc, directly to my ears, and this is all without turning one off and starting the other. This is just outrageously convenient. The only downside of this product is their mobile app is slow in responding to the Bluetooth for fine tuning, but since most of the changes I do are done automatically by the hearing aids, I don’t use it as much. Also the battery is not that strong, due to the great power that it’s doing, I get maybe 4-5 hours of streaming with a normal use up to 12 hours, I often take a nap so that if I know I’m going to be out late talking to other people, that extra hour gets me 3 hours more, so I work it out. I would totally recommend Phonak Lumity and this level of technology to my friends and family. The main advice I have for people who are looking for hearing devices is to make sure they fit your needs as best possible. If your hearing loss is not severe, then maybe over the counter is a good fit, but as time goes on, you will need to get a better hearing aid and you need to get to a local audiologist for an evaluation so you can be part of the hearing society. I have seen too many friends who separate themselves from life because they can’t hear a simple conversation from a good friend. It used to be a stigma to wear hearing aids, and yet now in our modern society you see so many young people with Apple AirPods or some kind of hearing device, so now it’s considered to be cool and we all like to be cool. In conclusion I feel people don’t know the miracle it is to hear until they lose it, and have no idea what a marvel the human ear is until it no longer functions normally. Only now with my Phonak hearing aids do I enjoy talking to people and hearing everything so normal as I did in my youth. I hope this review has helped you in knowing more about this product, and I want to thank you and say goodbye.

Hello my name is Doug, I live in Bloomington, MN, Minneapolis, and I’m about to be 64 years old, and I’ve suffered hearing loss for many years, ever since I was a youth, shooting guns, shotguns, duck hunting with my family, and I’ve been interested in hearing aids for a while now and the hearing aids I chose were the Phonak PR90s, rechargeable, I didn't want to mess with the batteries. I have a close up of my hearing aid here, come out real easy, but they stay in, I guess I can show you. And they got the little kickstand there, and the left and right, I need one in each ear. There’s a little maintenance to them, that’s okay, and then I just pop it back in, a little easier with my glasses off. The main reason I chose this hearing aid was, based on the information I found out, my cousin has Oticons and he really loves them, but they’re not for me, and I have an Android phone, and the Phonaks connect to them very easily, and I do recommend local service. I thought about buying them online, and after talking with Jeff at Zip, I can see how the value of having local help really makes a difference. I’ve had my two week check up and I’ve got another scheduled in two weeks, and again, I like the fact that they’re little, they’re lightweight, I’m getting used to them. I do feel like I have an itch in my ear, but I’m getting used to it and it’s going well. I would recommend Phonaks to other people, I’ve talked to family and friends about them already. I do enjoy the Bluetooth technology and how they connect to each other, and the quick charger and portable carrying case, and they give you some tools to help keep them clean. I have not had any experience with any other hearing aids, I’ve just done a lot of research online, and the number one piece of advice, which my cousin gave to me, which was definitely see an audiologist, a doctor of audiology. Thank you, and good luck with your choice.

Hello my name is Hank and I have the Phonak Audeo, I believe it’s the P90, anyway it’s their top of the line hearing aid in that series and I replaced some almost 6 year old Siemens hearing aids and I would have to say they are far superior to those, which I would expect, being so much newer technology, and there’s really nothing I do not like about them. They, as advertised, connect very well with Bluetooth, I have an iPhone, I don’t know about Android, but the iPhone connects very well. I guess if I did have one complaint, sometimes when I scratch my ear or something it activates the siri as it’s supposed to do, but I guess I’m complaining about it working too well. They’re behind the ear type, this is what they look like, they are totally comfortable I don’t even know I’m wearing them. They stay in the ear well, the app has some features, one that I like is if you’re in a relatively small room with a half dozen or so people and there’s people in there that are what I call low talkers, it’d be hard to hear even if you had good hearing, you can adjust the focus in to just towards that person and you can adjust it where soft sounds are loud and so I’ll go into the app and manually make those settings for a meeting of that type. And then the rest of the time I just leave it on the automatic, it’ll sense and it does, I’ve read some people having complaints about that switching off and on but I haven’t had that. It’ll switch when you get in your car, or it does for me, and watching tv sometimes it’ll switch. Usually I don't even notice that. But the automatic setting is where I keep it most of the time. The sound quality to me is really good, the only thing I have to compare it with is my six year old hearing aids and it’s just way better than that. So I’m happy with them. No complaints. Maybe the app could use a little work, but as far as the hearing aids themselves, they just work really well. If you’re watching a youtube video on your iPhone it just automatically goes through the hearing aids and the sound quality is quite good. So you’re not bothering people, which is nice, if you’re watching something on a Youtube or facebook video or something like that and it does it seamlessly automatic, haven’t had any issues with Bluetooth connectivity at all. So that is my rating of these, I guess if I had the opportunity to go back in time and decide to do something else I’d still go with these, I think they were worth the price difference for the top end. So that is all, thank you, hope this has been helpful.

Hello, my name is Bob and I’d like to give a little review of the hearing aids I got from ZipHearing. These are my first set of hearing aids, I’ve never had hearing aids before, and I’ve had a hearing test from a local audiologist where I live in Amsterdam, NY and they gave me the hearing test and tried to sell me the hearing aids that he sells for like $5000, $5-$6000 I think it was, and it was just too expensive for me, I couldn’t afford that. So I did some research online and found out about ZipHearing and saw that their prices were like half of his so did some research and only read good things about them, so called them up and they suggested an audiologist that’s not too far from me, it wasn’t right in my town but it was about a 30 minute drive which wasn’t too bad. Went there, I got another hearing test which matched my first one and told them I was looking to get either the Oticons or the Phonak Lumity hearing aids, and he suggested the Lumity, he said that’s what he has himself. I wanted to like the, not the top tier, but the second from the top tier, and he said with my hearing loss I don’t even need that one, I can go for the third one down. So I went with his recommendation and I guess in about three weeks they came in and went back there and got fitted, and uh, everything went well, he had to you know check my ears and see what size domes I needed, and my left ear got a small vented dome, and my right ear got a medium sized dome. First he gave me the vented dome also but then after a few weeks I noticed I was getting a lot of feedback in it, so gave him a call and went back there and he changed out the vented dome to a power dome which I guess blocks the sound from escaping my ear canal and getting back to the microphone, so it cut out the feedback like 99%. I was very happy with the service they provided along with my hearing aids I got the charging case and uh, I mean, there’s nothing I really, that I do not like about the hearing aids at all and nothing but good things to say about ZipHearing. Their price was right, they gave me the documentation I needed to submit to my insurance company so I could get some money back, I don’t have full coverage but, everything worked out great and I would just suggest for everyone else to choose ZipHearing. Thank you, buy bye.

Hi my name is Chris, this is a review for the Phonak Paradise P90 hearing aids. Now I will say, my history with hearing aids, I wore a CIC variant before, I wore it for about a week and ended up returning it. I’d been to a couple audiologists, the one recommended by ZipHearing was great, and he recommended these, these are an RIC version, I think they only come in the RIC. I was hesitant at first, I wanted them to be very discreet, I’m younger, just didn’t want people at work to know I wore hearing aids, as I imagine most of you are like. My audiologist convinced me, “hey, just give it a try you would be surprised.” I would say these are very discreet, the RIC style even, they are by far, worlds better sounding than the others that I have tried, they sound very natural, it doesn’t sound like there is a speaker, and they’re so light and small, I frequently forget that I’m wearing them. I’ve showered with them 3 times in a matter of 4 months since I first got these, but, you can see, couple things I wanted to point out, I think the ZipHearing description mentions there’s a vented dome, this is the style, you can see the tip that I go with, it is great, there’s a ton of airflow, I have about 60% hearing loss, so, he mentioned a CIC version would restrict the hearing that I currently have, and this would help kind of, accent it, or compliment my current hearing. So I like it, it’s really really tiny. I really wanted one with Bluetooth connectivity, these have it. I will say it’s easy to make calls on them, you can hear pretty clearly. Now, the Bluetooth does have room for improvement, don’t think it’s the end all be all, but there is that connectivity, you can stream music through them and hear it perfectly. It really doesn’t eat battery life. One of the features I like the best is the rechargeability. So this case is actually how you charge them, there’s no battery you have to replace at any given time. One piece of advice, or recommendation I should say, if you do get these, in order to recharge them, there’s a plug on the back. Now, you can buy an accessory which I have, on here, this bottom piece is actually a battery pack, but this way, when I take them out, you can see the battery pack charger, this piece, covers up what the current case looks like, but I like it because I can put them in the case without it being on the charger, and they automatically start charging and disconnect from my phone. If you were to just have the case itself, it would have to be plugged in. And really they’re great, I would highly recommend these. This is my third pair of hearing aids to try and like I said I returned the two others, this is over the course of a few years, within the 100 day period, but these are definitely a keeper, I use them 10-12 hours a day, I’ve had no problems with it sounding kind of stereo-like. I will stay occasionally it will pick up, if there’s really heavy wind, you’ll catch some wind noise, but that’s about all that I notice. Another excellent feature of these hearing aids is they have a setting that auto adjusts based on your on your environment, so with the hearing aid versions I had before, if I was in a restaurant it would be one setting, or watching TV another setting, or a conference call for work would be another. These I have, I’ve messed around with the settings a little bit, via the iPhone app, but I will say the AutoSense, the AI feature, is what I go with about 100% of the time. So pretty amazing, if you’re on the fence between two pairs I highly recommend this one. You can see mine look a little unique, the color of these I think is chestnut, because I have brown hair. I was worried about these sticking out, I wore them for 5 stays in the office, no one had said anything, and then I casually brought up that you know, I had to get hearing aids, and pointed to them to someone that works and sits right behind me and she was shocked and said oh my gosh I did not even notice you had them in and it had been a full week like I said, so again, very discreet and very very tiny. I love these things and highly recommend them.