I don’t think you can go wrong
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