If you’re looking into getting a hearing aid for the first time, you might be surprised to find out just how much some of the higher-end models can cost. For the highest rated hearing aids, you’ll often find yourself looking at a price tag of more than £1,000, and it’s very easy to be put off by this.
However, a hearing aid is a worthy long-term investment for you. Getting your hearing choice right can mean a hugely improved quality of life, with your hearing loss no longer being something hindering you on a day to day basis.
As well as finding high cost hearing aids, it’s likely you’ve also come across products at the opposite end of the scale. In fact, some companies sell hearing aids for less than £100, but the common idiom “you get what you pay for” is something to keep in mind.
Low-cost hearing aids – are they worth it?
The lowest cost hearing aids are very basic pieces of equipment. If you’re paying £100 or less for your hearing aid, you’re definitely not going to be getting the optimum results for your situation.
Many of these hearing aids have one simple feature – amplification. They will simply emit the sounds from around you at a louder volume, in an effort to break through your hearing loss and enable better hearing. This sounds like exactly what you need, but the reality is, you’ll still have a major struggle on your hands when it comes to conversation.
While these cheap hearing aids do increase the volume of everything around you, they don’t filter out the sounds you don’t want. If you’re having a conversation in a busy location, or there’s lots of wind or traffic around you, you’ll be hearing all of these extra sounds at a loud volume, effectively drowning out the speech you’re trying to hear.
Not all cheaper hearing aids are like this though. There are plenty of models available at reasonable prices of around £500-700 which can provide you with a better hearing experience, from many of the leading manufacturers.
However, the best hearing results are going to come from the higher-end hearing aids, where you’re likely looking at costs of more than £1,000 per hearing aid. But why are these prices so high?
Why are some hearing aids so expensive?
The price of each hearing aid is partly inflated by the technology within it – with high tech processors and chips used to get the best result, it’s understandable the hardware might be costly.
However, this isn’t the main reason behind the higher costs of the best hearing aids. While the technology behind products such as mobile phones has improved at an accelerated rate over the past couple of decades, the progress has been considerably slower when it comes to hearing aids.
The sector is beginning to catch up now though, with the main hearing aid manufacturers investing heavily in research and development to create better, more effective technology.
Unlike other types of technology development, the process behind creating new hearing products is more expensive, due to the fact the hardware, such as chips, is unique to hearing aids and not used in any other applications.
The investment in this development has been well worth it though, with the technology offered by hearing aids coming on leaps and bounds compared to just a few years ago. Hearing loss solutions work better than ever before, with more innovative features and consistent results.
Modern features in high-end hearing aids
One of the biggest improvements seen in hearing aids in recent years is the technology used to make them work. Manufacturers have developed better quality processors, to properly receive and improve the sound around you to create a clearer, easier to understand result.
Artificial intelligence is something you hear about regularly across multiple technology sectors, and it’s something that’s being heavily utilised in hearing aids now too. Hearing aids now take into consideration how the brain processes sound, using AI to get the balance perfect. There’s a focus on speech, with the technology working to process the sounds around you to give you the best chance at clear speech understanding.
The technology isn’t just used to improve the quality of sound though – in fact, a big part of the development has gone into making them more convenient to use. Users with traditional hearing aids often have to change the batteries, something which can be a particularly frustrating experience due to the small size of the equipment. Many modern hearing aids are now easily rechargeable, coming with a charging case. It means you can simply take your hearing aids out at the end of the day, and pop them into the case by the side of your bed – the next morning, they’ll be fully charged and ready to go for another full day of use.
Bluetooth technology has been another important addition to hearing aids. While previously users would have to adjust their settings to properly hear the television or understand a phone call, they can now leave them in for direct streaming. By connecting your hearing aid to your phone, or other devices such as a tablet, you can stream the audio directly from them into your ears.
Hearing aid models & their different price levels
If you’ve been browsing different hearing aid models and their prices, you might have noticed that many models come at different levels. The Signia Xperience for example is available at five different levels – the Xperience 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, and 7x, but what does this mean, and why are they all at different prices?
The Hearing Specialist offers the Signia Xperience 1x at a starting price of £948 per hearing aid, but this increases to £1,598 if you want the Xperience 7x.
SImply put, this is a way of making the high end hearing aids more affordable for people. The highest level of the hearing model (the Xperience 7x) is the best one, and provides the clearest audio and background noise filtering. The Xperience 1x is the lowest level option, and although it’s a high quality hearing aid, it provides an inferior performance in comparison to the higher level options. This is because the lower the cost of the hearing aid, the lower the quality of processor within it – when you pay a higher amount, you’re paying for more expensive technology that provides better results.
Making the best hearing aids more affordable
With the costs of many hearing aids being over £1,000, it’s understandable you may be put off. It’s likely you have concerns about the affordability, and don’t want to have to dip into your savings for better hearing.
As such, The Hearing Specialist offers easy financing plans to make the best hearing technology more accessible.
We ask for a 30% deposit on all single hearing aids, after which you’ll follow a 12-month payment plan, breaking up the cost into smaller chunks. Best of all, we offer interest free credit on all hearing aids, keeping your costs as low as possible.
Want to find out more about our hearing aid range, or need more information about our finance plans? Call The Hearing Specialist on 020 8150 7178 or send an email to [email protected].
We offer mobile audiology services across Wimbledon, Banstead, Croydon and Sutton, making safe, COVID-secure home visits for hearing tests, hearing aid fittings, and earwax removal.