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From MiddleAgedWoman.com Hearing So I have had the Songbird Ultra Hearing Aid for 25 days now. I have 5 days left to decide whether I plan to keep it. Well I have to say I am going to keep the Songbirds. Since my last write up, I have worn the Songbird almost everyday. I am getting so used to wearing them that sometimes I forget that I have them on. Before I go on let me clarify that I have never worn the more expensive hearing aids which are adjusted for an individuals partiuclar hearing loss needs. I am giving you my opinion only. What I like about the Songbird Ultra Hearing Aids are they are very small. Today my oldest daughter commented that they are hard to notice. My younger kids don't even comment on them. I have adjusted the volume on them throughout the weeks. When I first used them I think I had them too low. I experimented with them at different volumes. I have to admit I don't notice them much sometimes I wonder if they are doing anything sometimes. However, when I take them off what I notice is the world seems much more dull and bassy (i.e. less treble??). I also notice my tinnitus more when I am not wearing the hearing aids. My hearing is not completley normal though. I still have trouble understanding people at times both men and men. I am not sure if it is due to have the hearing aid in my ear or if my hearing is poor in other frequencies not covered by the Songbird. In meetings it seems to help. I think I had the hearing aids set too low in one particular meeting earlier in March. I need to test this out more. The volume control is a little bit of hassle because I cannot adjust them when I have them on. The push button though does allow increases in the volume to 3 settings higher. I wish it had a dial knob to adjust the volume but maybe this would require the device to be larger. When I increase the volume with the buttons I notice the sound in the ear pieces to go up. Interestingly the sound becomes much more natural. I assume this is because the hearing aid adjusts to the increase sound or volume. My point here is that this is impressive to me. The part that goes in your ear is comfortable. As I said somethimes I forget I have them on. However, I wish they fit on my ear better. Sometimes they seem to come out and the thin tube also does not always stick close to my face. Sometimes they do though. I gently push the ear piece into my ear but I have to be careful as I do not want to damage my ear by pushing too far. I do not know if I could damage my ear, but I am still careful. Another thing I do not like is that to turn the Songbird Ultra off you have to open the battery compartment. This concerns me because I do not like to leave this part exposed. If this part gets damaged or breaks off somehow, then I think this could reall put a damper on the functioning of the device. I do not know what turning off the hearing aid does to conserve battery power on a zinc air battery though. I sometimes put the Ultra's in my jacket pocket and opening the battery compartment concerns me. Sometimes I don't bother to open the battery and just leave them on. The batteries seems to have a pretty solid battery life. I ma on my third or fourth set of batteries (3 - 4 per hearing aid) since I have had the hearing aids...so that is 25 days. I am pretty impressed. Today I wore them for about 12 hours. If the volume is to high they do squeal if your hand is near the hearing aids. The last thing I noticed is the hearing aids seem to sometimes set off store security devices at the entrances. I noticed this twice but I am not sure if it was due to the hearing aids. I think it may have been though. So, overall, I am very happy with the Songbird Ultra Hearing Aids. They came with batteries, a carry case and since I have two hearing aids I have extra ear pieces. Again, I do not know how well the expensive customized hearing aids work so I cannot compare the Ultra to these devices. I have listed some of the issues I have with the hearing aids above, but I still like them. Twenty five days may not be enough time to pass full judgement on these, but I am not returning them. I am writing this article because I could find nothing useful on the web when I was trying to decide what to do. I kept going back and forth to the Songbird site and finally decided to go for it. Let me emphasize that this write up is an honest assessment of the Songbird from my own experience. I do hope it is helpful. If you are interested in this device you can checkout the Songbird website. You can also order the disposable Songbird flexfit through this affiliate link at Drugstore.com. I think you will get free shipping. The flexfit is a disposable hearing aid which I have never tried. It is cheaper but you cannot replace the batteries. It also appears bigger. This may be a good item to try or perhaps to use when you are worried you may dage or lose your hearing aid. You can read the reviews that are available. Songbird Disposable Hearing Aid
This article is written by an independent person. I do not work for the company that manufactures Songbird. I spent hours and hours researching hearing aids and the Songbird so I decided to write about my own experience with the Ultra. Most of the other articles I found were only based on the flexfit and were not from actual users but more like summaries of the features generally available. © Copyright by MiddleAgedWoman.com |