Embrace Hearing

When I first got the hearing aids, I was initially contacted to make sure everything was working well. I had some concern on how long the batteries worked with these hearing aids compared to my previous hearing aid, and got some suggestions. The second time, I missed them. They left me a voice message, but I never got back with them. Embrace would do a random call now and then. And if I was in the middle of a work call, I couldn't take it right away. They could do better on scheduling consultations.

The more I've worn the hearing aids, the more I've gotten used to them. And previously wearing hearing aids, I'm more comfortable experimenting with these and trying to figure it out. I switched batteries and found out that buying the more expensive batteries was more expensive, but I was getting more time on one set of batteries. Also, the sound quality is good compared to my previous brand. It was a good sound quality also, but they were a lot more expensive. So, I liked that over that, and that was one of the items besides the Bluetooth connectivity that the previous pair that I tried out. The quality wasn't there either, even after a few adjustments. But I'm happy with these.

The representatives were terrific and the customer support was excellent. I got the one that goes over the ear. It has Bluetooth and I definitely like it. I found when I used it though, the sound of the TV was a little overwhelming. Still, that's not a bad thing. If you had trouble hearing the TV, you could definitely hear it with the Bluetooth. My hearing aids are great, but I don't use it every day. This one doesn't run on batteries. I have to charge it and if I forget to do that, then I don't have it for the day. I find that I only use it when necessary, when I go to a movie or when I'm having lunch with people where I need to hear what they're saying closely.

The gentleman on the phone walked me through and he was really very helpful and very gentle. I purchased and they sent them to me, and less than 24 hours after I received, someone called and did the follow-up to see if I have I charged it or if I have any questions. Three months after that, one of my hearing aid did not light up at all. I sent in the question, then the following day there was a doctor calling me back and she asked me a few questions and she thought the charger case was an issue with my hearing aid. So she went ahead and ordered. I waited for a few days, I didn't hear, but I received a letter from Unitron. Unitron said, "It's in backorder. We'll send it to you as soon as we get it."Another few days after I got the charger, I plugged it in. I put it in my hearing aid. I called the doctor. I left a message and I told her that everything worked.

I wanted the hearing aids rechargeable and to make sure they had noise reduction. I have horrible tinnitus that I've had for most of my life, so I wanted something with tinnitus reduction. I wanted it to have my own voice memory. I wanted it to have smartphone controls. In other words, I wanted to be able to control it not with a separate remote, but with my phone, which I already have. I definitely wanted directional microphones. I also wanted to make sure they had wind reduction and feedback reduction. I wanted an open air receiver so I could hear bass sounds as naturally as possible. I started looking for hearing aids that had all of these capabilities.

I looked at all of the models that were available and what I should be able to expect to use with my hearing loss. In doing my research, I was pretty well convinced that I was going to have something that was over the ear because my hearing loss was too great. Embrace Hearing was one of the few, if not the only company, at the time, that offered hearing aids online and recommending for me the things that I wanted, and using the hearing test that I had already had so that I didn't have to go in there. So it was a good fit for me.

I have had such really good service from Embrace. They called me weekly or sent me an email to check in and make sure that everything was going well. I called them when I had some problems and they were able to solve it and tell me how to fix it. When I downloaded software for my phone, everything worked perfect. I could answer phone calls but then, my phone died and I had to get a new phone. With the new Motorola phone, I could not answer phone calls. It was frustrating. It took the longest time to figure that out. Embrace Hearing worked with me and they could not solve it. There's no Motorola store. But they contacted Motorola for me on my behalf. They couldn't have been better. The resolution to that was I had to uninstall the software and reinstall the software. Right now, the controls do not work for my phone, but the Bluetooth does. So it's not the hearing aid, it's the software, and the software is not made by Embrace. They utilize a third party software. But I can manage the controls just fine with the buttons on the hearing aid, which I had thought would be awkward, but it's not awkward at all. It is much easier than digging out a phone or a remote control to operate that.

I'm wonderfully happy having solved the issue of the Bluetooth, and I am so thankful to have the Bluetooth. I'm very satisfied with Embrace. My recommendation to anyone is get the best technology you can possibly afford. If you're not a complete technological neophyte, trust Embrace to do a good job for you. Even ordering by phone and having them sent to you by mail, that saved me $6,000. Why wouldn't anyone want to do that to have the best hearing aids they could possibly get?

The technology of the signal processing is improved such that noisy background is better handled by the hearing aids. My older ones didn't have Bluetooth. My phone is Bluetooth and it's connected to my hearing aids, which is a nice thing. The other huge advantage for me is that my wife has perfect hearing. The television set to the appropriate volume was way too loud for her, but not loud enough for me. So, I stream from the TV into my hearing aids. I turn them down pretty low and I just pick up the high pitched sounds that I miss. So, I don't use subtitles anymore.

The Bluetooth has been a real game-changer. I was a little skeptical. I have a nice relationship with the new owner and he said, "Well, try them. If you don't like it, you can send them back." I didn't think twice about sending him back after the first couple of days. As a physician in this small community, everybody knows me and I know everybody. So, they ask me questions about the hearing aids and I sent Embrace a bunch of customers because I'm very happy with the product and the service. The turnaround for repair is very fast.

The only downside is that the battery life on them is about three days while on my old hearing aids, the battery life was six days. So I go through a lot of batteries. They're not outrageously expensive but that's a little disappointing. Embrace pointed me to a good source for batteries that are reasonably priced. The hearing aids have Bluetooth connectivity so I don't even have to take my phone out of my pocket. I look on my watch, see who's calling, and then answer from my watch and talk.

I got used to it. Only at the beginning, sometimes I don't know if there was a delay because my understanding is that it changed the program based on the environment. And one time, someone was talking to me, but there was a TV on at a certain distance. I was more able to hear the noise coming from the TV than the conversation next to me. So at that point, I don't know if this is working. But that was the only situation. I'm satisfied and I really find it very useful.