Best Hearing Aid Brands: The Top 8

At Harmony Hearing we like to emphasise that the best hearing aids are the ones most suited to your unique needs. This depends on a variety of factors including; the severity of your hearing loss, any ear health conditions you may have such as rates of wax accumulation, your communication needs, cosmetic preferences, budget, lifestyle and whether you want services delivered in person or remotely via tele-health means.

As an independent hearing clinic (i.e. not hearing aid manufacturer owned) we have the freedom to source the very latest products from all leading hearing aid brands. When selecting the best hearing aid brands to source from we take into account all these important factors:

• Quality of build, reliability & robustness (for the long run)
• Aftersales Services and Support (For timely repairs and replacements)
• Technological Advancements and Effectiveness (Are technological advancements legitimately improving performance for the end user).
• Naturalness of Sound Quality (For user acceptance and performance)
• Practicality (How easy it is to use and maintain by the daily user in the long term).

Based on all these factors we attain our greatest satisfaction rates and most successful outcomes with the following hearing aid brands in no particular order:

 

Brands Name	Parent Company	Country of Development
Oticon	William & Demant Holdings	Denmark
Bernafon	William & Demant Holdings	Denmark
Signia	WS Audiology Group	Germany
Widex	WS Audiology Group	Denmark
Phonak	Sonova Group	Switzerland
Unitron	Sonova Group	Switzerland
GN Resound	GN Group	Denmark
Starkey	Starkey Group	USA Amercia

 

A Broad Portfolio Of Hearing Aids

Each of these top hearing aid brands has a broad and fairly comprehensive portfolio of hearing aids. For example Oticon has 40 different hearing aid models and Phonak has around 70 different hearing aid models not to mention their broad accessory range.  With hundreds of hearing aid models to choose from and thousands of their accessories it is important to have professional unbiased guidance. This is best provided by an independent and motivated Audiologist that can guide and inform you as to what will best suit your unique needs.

Why is it important to choose an independent hearing clinic?

It is important to understand that most Australian hearing clinics are manufacturer or single brand owned and therefore can only recommend hearing aids from that one brands portfolio. Sure, there may be a fairly good range of options and style from a single brand, but whether it’s the ideal solution from all available options best matched to your unique needs is another story. In worst case scenarios, I have heard of some of the big chains pushing their superseded stock onto their ill-informed customers.

Our Independent Audiologists

A major role our Audiologists is to keep abreast of new developments and innovations and to know the latest hearing aid models and accessories from all these top brands. This is part of our ongoing and regulated professional development.

Your Ideal Hearing Aid solution:

Knowing the portfolio offering of all leading brands empowers us to pinpoint your ideal hearing aid solution and recommend additional accessories such as TV Adapters and Remote microphones if they are likely to provide significant additional benefit.

Your Hearing Aid Coach

You can view us as your hearing aid and communication coach. During fitting and follow up appointments we take the time to explain and show you and significant others how to effective use and manage your hearing aids, accessories and any associated Apps.

We Ensure you are confident to:

• Effectively insert and remove the hearing aids. So that they sit in the optimal position on and in the ears.

 

• Cleaning & Maintenance: Know the frequency and procedure to effectively clean the hearing aids and replace parts (consumables). For example the  frequency and techniques for dome and wax filter changes.

 

• Battery Changes or Charging: Know how and when to change batteries or for rechargeable hearing aids the durations of charge and wear time. What signals mean for battery status.

 

• Use of Smart Phone Apps and Remote controls: Most modern hearing aids give the user much control over them through the use of smart phone Apps or a remote control. We show you how this can be useful. For example, you may wish to increase the volume if someone is particularly softly or increase the relative treble to base amplification. In noisy restaurants you may wish to narrow the focus of directional microphones. Some models with super-directional microphones can form beam like focus on the speaker directly across the table from you. We show you how.

 

• Effective Use of Accessories & ALD’s: We coach you in how to set up and use accessories that add functionality to the hearing aids. These can include TV Adapters that wirelessly stream the audio from TV directly through your hearing aids or remote microphones that can be placed on a table or presentation lectern to transmit the audio directly through your hearing aids overcoming issues of distance.

 

• Trouble Shooting Breakdowns: As well as a proactive approach to minimising the likelihood of breakdowns we show you what steps to take in the advent your hearing aids lose performance or stop working altogether.

Effective management necessary to attain maximum benefit for the long term. In a relatively poorly regulated industry many ‘hearing aid dispensers’ skim over this vital training stage with their sales rather than health focus. Their short sighted approach often results in disappointment and disuse of the hearing aids and damages the hearing health care industry. You’ve probably heard the horror stories of how Mr X spent thousands of dollars only to find them useless they remain in the draw.

At Harmony Hearing we avoid this unfortunate scenario by adhering to best practices in all we do. Our gold standard fittings include real ear measurement verification (REM’s), thorough hearing aid coaching in use and management. We have a 3-4 week follow up appointment followed by a 3-4^th month “adaptation review. Beyond this an annual reassessment and adjustment is recommended. Our clients are encouraged to book in a soon as they notice a change in their hearing or if the performance of their hearing aids seems to change. Hearing aid use coaching is provided at all these appointments which can be in person or performed remotely.