Signia Silk X

Hi, my name is Tim B. and I’m from Louisville, KY. I’m approximately 72 years old. About 5 years ago I received in the mail, as perhaps many of you do, a notification about free hearing tests that are available through local audiologists. I took advantage of that, went in and had a test and confirmed that yes my hearing was now at a moderate level, and also I had some concerns because I have tinnitus in my left ear. I tried one of their products, and about the only products they had available at that time were over the ear, which was not of interest to me at that time. And I thought well maybe in years to come the technology will get better. And what I found in September of this year was that it was in fact getting better. Again I received a notice on a card from Miracle Ear, went in and had a discussion with them and talked about their products. However they were very expensive, and I was quite concerned that the people were not able to address some of my questions and provide additional information about some of their products which I found on the internet. I then went to Oticon and although a better experience, the only thing that they could fit me in, or suggest to me, was what is referred to has a half-shell device and I thought well I’m still seeing a lot of information about better technology and smaller devices. Continuing my research I came across ZipHearing and I had a conversation with them and found out that yes in fact one of their key manufacturers, Signia, was known for making small products and putting a lot of technology in a small device. I likened it very much to how Sony used to do that with many of their electrical audio devices and players and so forth that they had through the years, kind of a specialist in miniaturization. I spoke further with the Zip people and found out that they had a couple of products that I was interested in. One was the Insio device, which is again, a half-shell type device that was gonna fit in my ear, but most interested also in a device they called Silk which fits very much inside the ear. After many conversations with them I was hooked up with an audiologist and I was able to actually try both products and I ended up with the Silk product, and let me share with you what that product looks like. You can see that it is very small and it fits inside my ear. One of the reasons I went with the Silk product is because my, the sound of my voice when I speak was much more normal and natural and they actually have a tip, a vented tip on the device that makes that sound of your own voice much easier and not as offensive as something that’s entirely blocking the ear. I love the small size, I love the natural sound and I found that the battery replacement which I do about every 3-4 days is not a real problem versus rechargeable units that were in the half shell. Some of my wishes would be that there was more options on their app to be able to adjust the various programs, perhaps in the future those features will be added, I think also as a customer being able to label those different programs that are set up by the audiologist would be a great help, right now they’re called Universal, Program 2, Program 3, Program 4. Allowing the customer on the app to be able to input the name of those programs for example Outdoors, Restaurant, Sporting Event, those types of things, certainly also I look to the future when perhaps maybe rechargeability, not having to use the batteries, and Bluetooth technology will be compact and be able to be put into the Silk device. I definitely recommend the Silk product, I look forward as a matter of fact to any new technology with the Silk product they make, and I’ve actually offered my name to the Signia people to be able to test any new products that they might come out with, late newer versions of the Silk product, perhaps with new features and functions and technology. There’s not a lot of information available on the internet that I could find when I was doing comparisons. One I did find that you may be interested in also is a site called HearingTracker.com, that was at least able to compare on a very high level, products from different manufacturers, again it’s at a very high level but it was the only independent site I seemed to be able to find. Overall, one other recommendation is certainly to find an audiologist that you’re comfortable with and will answer your questions. I found it interesting in that, the time I spent with the audiologist is probably more time than I spent with my GP in the last few years. Thank you very much.