Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Review of Phonak, Rexton and Starkey Hearing Aids

By Barb Hicks

# Phonak Review:

Phonak is a Swiss manufacturer of hearing aids that are small, light weight, and possess generous power. They automatically adjust when the sounds from the environment change. These heating aid devices come in many colors to match most all skin and hair colors. Phonak makes hearing aids for persons with mild to moderate hearing loss.

Most Phonak customers were satisfied with their hearing aids, although some complained that background sounds were filtered along with the voice sounds.

Phonak has 8 hearing aids to choose from: Exelia, Naida, Andeo, Savea Art, Eleva, micro Eleva, Extra Unio and Micropower.

Phonak also has a focus on the needs of hearing impaired children, and offers warranties of one to two years. Their Savia hearing aid was awarded the Medical Design Excellence Award. A customer commented on Amazon that he is having trouble getting it adjusted properly. Whether this problem is with the audiologist or the device itself is unknown. The poster further warns that if buying this hearing aid from Amazon, or anywhere else, to plan on spending at least $1000 in visit fees to get it properly adjusted. He also says to find someone who knows what they are doing, as this particular hearing aid is complicated to adjust.

At a price of $2,295.00 on Amazon, with the regular retail being #3,999.00, customers can purchase the Phonak Micro Savia Art CRT Hearing Aid by Phonak AG Hearing Instruments.

#Rexton Hearing Aids:

Rexton has been in business for over 50 years making affordable hearing aids for the hearing impaired. They have a range of audio friendly hearing aids including BTE (behind-the-ear), CIC (completely in the canal) to Full Shell models. Their catalog currently includes the Revera, the Calibra, and the Targa. They come in half shell, ITE, mini canal and completely in the canal shells.

Rexton offers hearing aid warranties from one to two years depending on the product. All Rexton hearing aids carry a TWO-YEAR loss policy. Rexton's home base is located in Minneapolis, and they offer hearing aids for the needy, as well as programmable analog hearing aids.

Silkfair.com offers Rexton's most affordable hearing aid, the Rexton Arena 1P Digital BTE for the small amount of $319.00.

Rexton HearClearly hearing aids set of two with remote for $1989 also at silkfair.com

# The Starkey Hearing Aids:

Opening its doors in 1973, Starkey now operates 35 facilities in twenty-four countries.

The mid-level Destiny hearing aid is offered by Starkey as well as the ELI which is high end and is Bluetooth compatible. A new device called the Destiny 1600 has the ability to inform the wearer of the devices performance.

In June 2008, Starkey was chosen as the brand of the month for the Destiny 1600. It is available in BTE, ITE, ITC and CIC models and has the ability to automatically adjust to the sounds of the environment.

Starkey offers its customers a free trial and one year warranty. All of Starkey's hearing aids are programmed to eliminate whistling. They also feature low battery warning, autophone, memory and adaptability and logging.

These hearing aids are found at precisehearing.com, and due to their low prices, they say, they do not list the prices of their Starkey hearing aids. You have to call them to request their hearing aid prices.

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