Back in February I announced details on this blog about the new 'made for iPhone' hearing aid, ReSound Linx. We have tremendous feedback from our patients regarding this product, and as a hearing care professional it is a dream to work with.Rather than me keep telling you about what our patients think, I thought I would let one of our patients talk about it themselves.
Written by Hearing Care Centre patient Mr Parkinson...
I have resisted buying a hearing aid for nearly 10 years as I thought it probably wouldn't make much difference to my hearing and be far more faff than benefit. I also wasn't keen on the hearing aid 'look' either as I'm still only 41! But when I temporarily lost the hearing in my other 'good' ear at Easter, I started researching the options fast.
I initially chose the Resound LiNX 9 because it reportedly had
great sound quality and it looked small and discreet. And as a bit of a techie
geek, I also liked the idea I could integrate it with my iPhone to hear calls,
music and audio books - directly in my ear.
I was nervous about paying so much for a hearing aid as a 'first
timer' and probably only committed because of the money-back guarantee. However,
the product is awesome.
Why do I like it so much? Well, I can now hear much better for a
start! In particular, I find I no longer struggle to hear colleagues at work -
even during large meetings. And whilst other hearing aid users I know complain
of feedback and issues with background noise, I haven't experienced these with
the LiNX. Most of the time I forget I’m
even wearing it as the ‘softswitch’ mode manages the sound
levels so well that the result is natural with no unexpected surprises.
And I do like its style and compactness. I chose a black one and no-one notices I'm wearing it, especially as I don't need to touch it once it's in my ear because all the settings are controlled from my iPhone.
And I do like its style and compactness. I chose a black one and no-one notices I'm wearing it, especially as I don't need to touch it once it's in my ear because all the settings are controlled from my iPhone.
I've put the ‘Resound
Smart’ app
on the bottom bar of my iPhone so I can access it quickly from any screen. This
makes it easy and discreet to change the volume
or switch between different modes such as 'restaurant' or 'traffic' or 'music'
etc. I don’t do this very often but
sometimes if there is a lot of ambient noise behind me, a quick switch to
restaurant mode can help me hear the person who's talking to me more clearly.
I have a couple of little niggles with the app. The battery-life
indicator could be better. After 3 weeks of showing full power, it suddenly
went from full to flat in a day. A problem if you forget to carry spare
batteries. The other issue is that when the iPhone first connects with the LiNX
via Bluetooth, the app shows a spinning indicator that implies it's taking a
while to make a connection. In fact it is connected, it is just synchronising
and updating the data from the hearing aid to the iPhone - maybe a ‘connected
and updating’ message
would communicate this better as I certainly found the
Bluetooth connection to be fast, reliable and consistent.
In short, because of its cost and the promise of technical
excellence I had extremely high hopes for the LiNX, and I certainly haven't
been disappointed. The irony is, despite
it's small size and discreet management my colleagues and friends do know
that I’m wearing it as I can’t help but show the thing off.
For more information on ReSound Linx, please visit www.hearingcarecentre.co.uk/linx
No comments:
Post a Comment