Audio News & Opinion

Finding the best, affordable hearing aid can be an exercise in frustration. There are many online options to choose from. But something significant happens before someone begins researching hearing aids, and that is the life-changing experience of coping with the news or discovery of hearing loss. 

As hearing aids become more widely available, you may have seen them for sale at the ubiquitous warehouse shopping center, Costco, as part of their commitment to bringing customers a one-stop shopping experience. In addition to bulk groceries and office supplies, Costco also provides health services such as optometry, pharmacy, and hearing aids with hearing tests and follow-up hearing aid care. In this article, you’ll learn:

The AARP says that the average price of a hearing aid a few years ago was $2,300. Some models sold by audiologists even reach into the $12,000+ range. Hearing aids tend to be expensive for two main reasons: lack of consumer choice and lack of pricing transparency.

Would you have guessed that more than 1 in 10 American adults over 18 have reported some form of hearing loss? While that might be surprising, this next statistic is far more sobering: research from the WHO (World Health Organization) states that only 17% of the people who need a hearing aid actually use one. 

Hearing aids aren’t just for older Americans. According to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), they’re far from being the only ones at risk: approximately 15% of American adults over 18 have reported some trouble hearing. While age is correlated with an increase in hearing loss, unfortunately not all people with some form of hearing impairment choose to use hearing aids. They’re missing out in more ways than you might think. 

More families are spending more time at home due to COVID-19 - and watching more TV. But flat-screen TVs use tiny speakers with tinny sound, so it's often hard to understand dialogue, particularly for those with hearing loss. 

ZVOX has solved this problem for over 300,000 families with AccuVoice hearing aid technology.

Wax can block your ear canals, and it can literally disable hearing aids. We frequently have customers return their ZVOX hearing aids saying "they stopped working." But when we examine them we find that the ear domes are clogged with ear wax! (And the hearing aids were working just fine.)

Two solutions...

Unless you've taken a long airplane flight while wearing good noise cancelling headphones, you can't understand why they are so important. That's because your brain will trick you. It will convince you the jet engines aren't THAT loud.

But they are.