Hi All,
I currently have these hearing aids. They are called Starkey Xino. I'm on day three, and this is the first day of relief from my T. (The first two days were terrible; my auditory cortex went crazy from all the stimulation, I guess!) The hearing aids--I hate to say--are cheaply made. At least, they are compared to Widex's Zen2Go.
Starkey's hearing aid gives you a white tone tailored to your tinnitus; and you are encouraged to fine tune this into three separate sounds that provide relief. The concept is great, but the execution is painful! You have to tap on the hearing aid to cycle through the tones. To modify the volume of each sound, in addition, you have to tap and hold while the sounds go up or down three levels. Now neither procedure is difficult, but the execution is awful. The hearing aid is quirky and mostly unresponsive. You end up in "tapping purgatory," praying for responsiveness!
I do love the sounds that the device emits. The white noise is soft, unlike the harsh stuff you may get with phone apps. And the fine-tuning process is actually cool. You are given an iPad that has numerous blocks that represent variations of your noise. You navigate through the blocks, which adjust for both pitch and volume. As you wear the hearing aid, moreoever, the sounds alternate ears--flowing from one ear to the other. The experience is actually quite nice!
Though the sounds are pleasant, people whose tinnitus fluctuates--like myself--may not receive the benefit of masking, unfortunately. While getting fitted, my tinnitus was acting very well--being ever-so-quiet. This is despite having drunk a few cups of coffee earlier to "wake it up." The result was I could not match my tinnitus to the white sounds. I had to "estimate" how loud it gets when it spikes. And, of course, I was wrong! For two days, my tinnitus was raging while my Starkey was whispering sweet nothings into my ears!!
I'm going back Friday for another fitting. But I'm happy to say my tinnitus is greatly improved--even from its most quietest days. I have no idea if this will last, or if I'll start spiking in a few days. From what I've researched, the hearing aids should continue to help my tinnitus--and perhaps lessen its spikes--as my auditory cortex gets rehabilitated. (BTW, I only have very minor hearing loss, and it's in both ears while my tinnitus is just in one ear.)
I just wish Starkey had considered usability, rather than just efficacy. Why take a great product and put it in a cheap package! Because of usability issues--not just the tapping, there's also a few more quirks--I might return it and try the Widex Zen again. If I do, I won't be using the Zen for masking. They have one anemic white noise tone. The rest are fractals that sound nice for about five minutes--then they are irritating. (Or at least, they were to me; I know others just love the fractal sounds.)
Have a wonderful day!
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