Miracle-Ear Hearing Aids

I had no idea that hearing loss could be about the reception of an actual word. That I was hearing the word "tune" when she was saying the word "tube." And then a light went on in my brain. I realized why I was making mistakes at work, or why I had to always have subtitles displayed when listening to the TV! Because I was mistakenly hearing another word instead of the actual spoken word. Like I was hearing "Get my hit," when my friend was saying "get my hat!" Because I was only picking up some of the frequencies and not hearing other frequencies. I used to think that hearing loss only had to do with the volume of sound being turned down, not the loss of certain frequencies. I used to think the person speaking to me wasn't enunciating his or her words, and I would get frustrated with them! But it was me. I had lost the ability to hear certain frequencies.

I didn't need amplification, I needed to be able to fine tune the channel of the radio station. I had lost access to certain frequencies, like losing access to a radio channel or not being able to receive certain channels that I was able to tune into before. So my ears had lost certain channels and if those frequencies were present in a word, I was not hearing "all" of the word, and my brain just thought, 'Ok that sounds like "tune" because the frequency for the "b" sound was gone. So if someone asked me "Can you tell me what's inside that test tube?" I heard "Can you tell me what's inside that test tune?" Which didn't make sense to me. So I was always saying, "What did you say?" And they would say it again and still I didn't understand. So I'd just give up, and let it pass.

When Jaqueline put a pair of hearing aids in my ear that she had fine tuned according to my hearing loss which she was quickly able to diagnose through testing, I couldn't believe that I had heard so many words incorrectly. The whole experience was so enlightening and the actual hearing test is absolutely free. You better believe I walked out of the Miracle Ear office with hearing aids in my ears. And that very night I watched a movie without having to read the subtitles! Plus, with the bluetooth capabilities of the hearing aids, the sound came right through my hearing aids!

Now for the high tech features (fun stuff) review. I love how they connect with my iPhone and allow me to take telephone calls, listen to music, and hear mapping instructions from my iPhone thru the hearing aids without having to disturb people around me. I have truly enjoyed the overall experience with Miracle Ear fitting them to me. They had me in several times they readjusted them at the beginning of the process to get everything right. They truly do make a huge effort to help you get through the initial getting used to process of having the hearing aids and make sure everything works out well.

One complaint that I have is the Bluetooth drops out from time to time on my hearing aids when I’m talking on the phone. If you walk away from your phone and then come back later, many times one of the hearing aids won’t connect. At that point I have to turn my phone off or turn the hearing aids off, or both, to get everything to reconnect properly so that I have sound in both ears. This only happens when I’m trying to use Bluetooth.

Also I purchased the TV connector that goes along with the hearing aids. My wife truly enjoys that as I can listen to the TV with either the volume up so that everyone can hear it or with the volume of the TV completely turned off and only I can hear it. However, the Bluetooth connection between the TV controller and the hearing aids drops out from time to time. It’s a minor annoyance although it needs to be addressed. Another issue is the Miracle Ear app for iPhones. It doesn’t work very well and my technician told me to take it completely off my phone until Miracle Ear gets it fixed. This is sad as the app is useful when it works, but is too buggy.

The only other thing that I have noticed that I don’t like is that the charger has two green LED lights that are extremely bright. I keep the charger for my hearing aids next to my bed. They are so bright, that they light up half of the room at night such that it keeps us awake. I have to cover the charger with a sock or some type of cloth so that it isn’t so bright. It would be nice if they would incorporate a feature that would allow you to turn the brightness down on the charger LEDs. However other than these minor issues my experience with Miracle Ear and with the new hearing aids has been tremendous. And I highly recommend them and the staff at Miracle Ear.

What most people do not realize is that when you buy a hearing aid from Miracle Ear they service it for free for the life of the device. That aid is five years old and it stopped working last week. They got me in quickly and Doug tested four different parts and the last one was it. Once he replaced that part it was good as new. About a year ago my hearing in my right ear was starting to decline and rather than buy a new one I decided to get a refurbished one. It works great and I receive the same service for it as the one I bought new.

If you have hearing loss and are hesitant about wearing hearing aids consider this. Doug explained that when our hearing deteriorates we lose the ability to understand consonants. They represent 21 of the 26 letters. And while hearing aids can’t restore hearing loss they can slow the decline. Also, for ladies who worry about how ugly they are, I have very short hair cut over my ears and it literally disappears behind my ear. Anytime I have mentioned my hearing aids the reply is I never knew you had them. Miracle ear is a wonderful bargain!

The hearing aid I had gotten were over $5,000. I was able to pay it off a lot sooner than expected because I was working full time and I'm 68 so I got the full benefits of my Social Security. I had the income coming in to add an extra payment each month. Now, I'm working part-time and I'm collecting Social Security. If I were to get new hearing aids, I would have to probably get the same style but cheaper ones if they are available. That aside, Miracle-Ear's customer service was excellent and they worked around my schedule when I had to come in every so often to be tested. They were very informative and their guy Mike was good at explaining things.

We can hear a little better now. Our hearing aids are adjusted periodically whenever we're supposed to go back. They retest our hearing and everything. My husband has hearing aids that don't have batteries in and he charges them at night. Mine has batteries and I replace them all the time. My husband's hearing aids had to be sent out somewhere around two weeks ago as they had to be fixed. On the whole, Miracle-Ear is a great product and I would recommend it. I love mine.