Starkey Livio AI

Hi, my names is Roger. As you can see, I have some age on me. I’m kind of an old guy. And if you look real close, you can see my hearing aids. Well maybe you can’t see them, because they are small and they blend in with my glasses and my hair color, they fit right in your ear socket, they’re comfortable to wear. I have significant hearing loss. Too many years working with equipment, too many years not wearing hearing protection and now I’m paying the price for it. So I got tired of saying to my wife, “what?”, it’s not that I didn’t hear her say something, I just couldn’t understand what she said. It was frustrating for her, it was frustrating for me. So I chose my first pair of hearing aids about 4 years ago, they were Starkey Halo 2s, nice little hearing aids, Bluetooth, programmable, and they were battery powered. So the downside for that is you had to change batteries maybe like once a week, especially if you’re doing lots of streaming, podcasts, or talking on the phone. What I liked about those hearing aids, and I still like about them, is that you can listen to podcasts or talk on the phone hands free, that was a big advantage. I chose, when those, when the microphones, you should know, that hearing aids aren’t forever, and my Starkey Halo 2s, the microphones finally quit working on them, and rather than having them refurbished, I wanted to get a new technology. Because they were battery powered that means you had to put a battery in them, and the little battery case was not completely water tight and if you’re like me out working in the yard in a humid environment like northern Virginia is, you sweat a lot, sweat gets in your ears, and eventually it degrades your hearing aid. I would recommend any of you who say “what?” too many times, who have trouble hearing in crowded environments to look at quality of life and get yourself a set of hearing aids. I chose the Starkey Livio AI. Why did I choose those? Because they have a multitude of new features that other hearing aids don’t have. Okay yeah they amplify sound, you have various settings that you can choose for different environments, if you’re listening to the TV you can set them one way, if you want normal you can set them one way, if you want a crowd you can set them, you can reduce background noise so that background noise around you is not interfering with your hearing. In addition, the Livio AIs also have a multitude of new features. They keep track of your steps for you, they keep track of your brain function, because unbeknownst to us, our brain is our major hearing source through our ears, and so we have to keep our brain sharp, and the Starkey Livios track the different types of environments that you’re in that are stimulating your brain. Because at our age we need to have our brain stimulated and the more we can do that the better off we are. I would encourage you to get the rechargeables because they’re more water tight, and being more water tight, you don’t have to change the batteries, #1, and #2, they’re probably going to last a little longer because the sweats not getting into your hearing aid and degrading it. So in addition to the environmental things that your hearing aid keeps track of, your steps, they also have a fall feature, which, if you fall and your head hits an object, maybe you get knocked out, maybe you slip on the ice, whatever, your hearing aids will notify chosen people, that you’ve indicated should get an alert, so it’s called a fall alert. So you know you get up in age, your balance isn’t as good, falls are part of our future. You fall, you get knocked out, your hearing aid will tell the person, and the person will also know where you are because of the GPS device that’s in them. So that’s another safety feature that’s really cool about the Starkey Livios. So I would recommend if you’re getting hearing aids, buy the most expensive ones that you can, within your budget, because they have a lot of features that make your life way more enjoyable. So, I hope this was a good advertisement for hearing aids because I have significant hearing loss and it’s all part of quality of life.

My name is Franklin and after playing guitar professionally for a number of years, standing in front of loud amplifiers, damaging my hearing, and then getting interested in riding loud motorcycles, sport bikes, I realized that my hearing had deteriorated quite a bit. About 5 years ago I was given a hearing test and told that I had 8% hearing in my left ear, and 20% hearing in my right ear, so basically I was considered legally deaf. So I was recommended to get hearing aids and I did, I got a pair of Rexton hearing aids, had them for 4 years, they worked reasonably well during that time, but they started to wear out and deteriorate and would need some expensive repairs, so I researched getting new hearing aids, and I came upon Starkey Livio AI 1600, which I show here in my hand. These are my relatively new, few months old, Starkey Livio AI 1600 hearing aids, nice champagne color, they’re very comfortable, I chose them after looking at the research on them, and reviews, because of their clarity, and also because they had great noise suppression. One of the things I struggle with is background noise, trying to hear what I need to hear, and my old hearing aids, the Rextons, did not do a good job with noise suppression and these were particularly good at that. So what I like about them is it does cancel out a lot of the background noise, they’re very comfortable to wear, the clarity is much brighter, music that I listen to with my bad ears sound amazingly great with these Starkeys, I like them a lot, I would certainly recommend them. The other thing that I like is they have several adjustments on them for different levels of sound, also different levels of noise suppression, and they’re bluetooth so they go right into my ears when I get a phone call, it’s great, I can be walking outside, the phone rings, it rings right in my ears, I answer my cell phone, and the person is talking right into my ears so I can always hear the call, that wasn’t the case with the Rextons that weren’t Bluetooth, and the clarity again is great with the Livios and that Bluetooth feature. As far as things that I do not like about it, from time to time I’ll get a message, there’s a mans voice that speaks and it says “Resolving the problem, problem resolved”, just things like that that come out of nowhere. I don’t really like that feature, it’s not terrible, but I don’t really like that, the other thing is, I’m waiting for a part for the them to adjust better to my ears, a longer wire, they came with shorter wires, which they offer, but I haven’t been able to get it yet, it’s not necessarily Livio’s fault, but I would like to have them fit better. The other thing I may not like about it quite as much as the Rextons for example is the battery life. Seems to be about 4 days, 5 if I’m lucky but no longer than that, and in the past with the other hearing aids it was a good 7 days, sometimes I got 8, but after 4 days, maybe 5, I get the message in their “battery” and it’s telling me that the battery is weak. So I’m changing batteries more often, because of convenience for me, and the different activities I do, I have battery operated, versus the rechargeable, that of course wouldn’t be an issue with the rechargeable. I would definitely recommend these to a friend, the Starkeys, I think the quality is very good, the sound is excellent, the noise suppression is excellent, so someone searching for good quality hearing aids and in fact, the Starkeys with all the clarity and suppression and Bluetooth were actually less than the Rextons 4 years ago, so I would tell you that there definitely is an improvement in the technology and yet they weren’t as expensive. And the number one piece of advice that I would give to someone who is considering purchasing hearing aids is do your research, look at the different brands, and talk to someone that has used them. I did talk to my local hearing professional and she connected me with someone who actually has used them, a Starkey customer who has had them over a year and has had a great experience and you can get to hear that first hand. So, do your research, see if you can talk to somebody who owns them, but I don’t think you can go wrong in my opinion, with the Starkey Livio AI 1600 hearing aids. Thank you