Are hearing aids worth the price? I asked an expert

by Kate McNamara | at 6:27 AM | advertorial

As a journalist, my whole career depends on listening well. So when I started having trouble hearing last year, I went straight into research mode. And what I found really surprised me…

First, hearing loss is way more common than I thought. 1 in 4 people over the age of 50 have it in the U.S. And 500 million worldwide! Clearly, I was not the only one looking for answers. But here’s the thing: it’s not that easy to find those answers online.

So I did what I do best: I landed an interview with the most knowledgeable expert I could find and asked him to tell it like it is. Paul Crusius is the co-founder and CEO of the world’s fastest-growing online hearing aid company, hear.com. In the conversation that follows, we get real about hearing loss and hearing aids, and find out once and for all: are they really worth the price?

Paul Crusius

Co-founder & CEO of hear.com

If you would have told me a year ago that my most highly anticipated interview of 2023 would be about hearing aids, I might have laughed… but people want answers! Is that how you feel working in this industry?

Paul Crusius: Haha, it really is one of those things you don’t think about until it becomes a problem, isn’t it? And by then it’s a real problem. But that’s part of what drew me to hearing care in the first place.

There are millions of people out there with hearing loss, and most of them think they just have to live with it. But to me, that’s like walking around without glasses when you have bad eyesight. There is a solution! I want to empower people to go out and get it.

When you say “solution,” it’s hard not to think of the big beige hearing aids my grandfather used to wear…

Paul Crusius: Yeah, that’s what most people picture when they think of hearing aids, but there have been some groundbreaking innovations over the last ten years… Take the new Horizon Mini IX for example; that’s a hear.com device. It’s smaller than a coffee bean and fits inside the ear canal, so it’s virtually invisible to others when worn—pretty slick.

But there are also these incredible technological features like Speech Focus, which lets you literally zoom in on a person’s voice from across the room.

It sounds like something from a Bond movie or sci-fi, but our customers use it every day in places like restaurants, where it helps to be able to cut through the noise. With this kind of technology, there’s no reason to miss a word.

Listen, I could go on and on about the high-tech features—and how life-changing they are—but you really have to hear it to believe it. I think that’s why our 45-day trial has been so popular with customers… you can try before you buy.

Horizon IX hearing aids offer amazing speech clarity and smartphone connectivity in a virtually invisible design – and all that for a reasonable price!

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: price. Hearing aids aren’t cheap. Why is that?

Paul Crusius: Well, I think it helps to understand how hearing loss actually works, because it’s not just about turning up the volume… Typically, people have trouble with the higher-pitched sounds responsible for understanding speech—especially consonant sounds like H, K, P, F, S, TH, CH, and SH.

For example, you might confuse: “What time is it?” with “What kind is it?” Hearing aids are designed to amplify the specific frequencies you struggle with to provide the clarity you’re missing. That requires medical-grade technology— meaning it needs to be programmed by an expert to your exact hearing loss pattern. No two hearing aids are going to be the same.

For the best outcome, you’re going to need a comprehensive hearing test, professional programming, cleanings and fine-tunings, device support, aftercare, a warranty… At hear.com, all of that is baked into the price. It’s an incredible value and a recipe for success that we’ve seen work for hundreds of thousands of people.

Okay, all of that makes sense. But how can people know if it’s actually worth it?

Paul Crusius: Well, it depends on how you look at it. Hearing aids will be the most-used device you own. You’ll wear them from morning ‘til night, racking up 12 to 16 hours per day.

You have to ask yourself: how much is my hearing worth? Is it worth $2 or 3 dollars a day?

If that seems reasonable—and it does to me—then that’s your answer. It’s the price you’d pay for a cup of coffee each morning, for something that 7 out of 10 people say noticeably improves their relationships and, according to Johns Hopkins, makes you 3-5 times less likely to experience cognitive decline.

Modern hearing aids can be worn for over five years and cost less than a cup of coffee per day.

Any tips or final thoughts for our readers?

Paul Crusius: Two things: First, take care of your hearing. If you can’t hear well, you can’t communicate well and remain engaged in society. Don’t accept hearing loss as a part of getting older.

Second, I’ll just say that I don’t take for granted that our customers have a lot to cope with… beyond just accepting their hearing loss. Finding an audiologist, finding the right hearing aids, figuring out how to pay for them—it’s hard to know where to start.

But we have experts waiting on the line right now to help people with all of that: to take what could be a complicated process and make it really easy. And as far as the price tag goes, it really comes down to what you value in life...

Study after study shows that hearing aids improve relationships, increase energy and longevity, and keep you sharp as you age. I can’t think of a better investment.

**Post-Interview Update:

After talking to Paul, I signed up for the 45-day trial. It couldn’t hurt, right? I was skeptical about how well they’d work and wary of the price, but in the end, I cannot recommend the new Horizon IX hearing aids enough!!

I’m not sure how long hear.com will be running this no-risk trial, so do yourself a favor and give them a try while you have the chance! Being able to connect with my friends, family, and interviewees again really is PRICELESS.

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