Signia Active Hearing Aids Review: For People Who Love Earbuds

Signia Agile Hearing Aids Review: For People Who Love Earbuds

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Signia Active Pro with case

Information technology's no secret many adults endure from at to the lowest degree some loss of hearing. In the US, the rate is near 15 percentage overall and much higher for men. For those for whom hearing loss is a significant problem, hearing aids are an obvious solution. For those of us who only have minor problems — oft age-related high-frequency loss — it's a tradeoff between simply living with it and dealing with the cost, ergonomics, and often perceived stigma of wearing hearing aids.

Exploded view of Signia Active Pro earbuds Signia has introduced a new line of Active hearing aids in an earbud form factor, with the goal of reaching a new audition for their hearing aids. Their target is people who aren't comfortable wearing traditional grade-factor devices merely are familiar and comfy with earbuds. I've been working with a pair of Signia Active Pros for a few weeks now, and they're definitely novel, with some unique strengths and a few drawbacks.

Note: Similar about hearing aid companies, unfortunately, Signia doesn't release pricing. But I'd expect to pay between $ane,500 and $iii,000 to get a pair, fitting, and ongoing customization and service from an authorized audiologist. That prices them below the very top models when purchased from a traditional audiologist, and in the same ballpark as high-quality hearing aids purchased from a Costco hearing center.

Signia'south Active Earbud-Shaped Hearing Aids

Signia offers a range of products in its new Active family of hearing aids. The Actives requite you all the hardware, with built-in car learning that works to adapt to each situation. The Pro version adds a lot more customization options. Unfortunately, without pricing, it is a bit hard to compare them. From what I can tell, the premiere experience of the Pro version costs about 50 percentage more. If you can afford it, I think that makes a lot of sense. If you lot can't, and so it might be worth thinking twice nearly what you're getting and what else is out there.

Signia Active versus Active Pro

Customizing Signia Actives

In addition to the amazing amount of tech medical-class hearing aids pack into a very small package, the primary selling point is the customization in fit and function provided past an audiologist. Historically, thanks to legal regulation, they had the market mostly to themselves. Now that it'due south becoming easier for hearing devices over the counter, oft for much less, the value of those services is an increasing part of the sales proposition for hearing aids approved as medical devices.

Signia works hard to make that case for its Active earbuds. As office of purchasing them, you work with an audiologist who tin load up a number of customized programs that are besides tuned to the results of your hearing test. They can also tweak the devices' most powerful "Universal" programme to aid tweak it to your liking. As a simple example, when I'chiliad streaming music, I don't want to hear the exterior world any more than than necessary, so the audiologist I worked with turned off the external microphones for that situation.

You definitely don't want to skimp on this procedure, as it tin can make all the difference in the earth to the quality of your feel. As another instance, I'm often in front of a computer and found that the fan racket was getting amplified in some modes. Via the Telecare adequacy born to the Signia app, I was able to work live with an audiologist while I sat at my computer and she reduced the book of the distracting racket.

Long Battery Life With the Charging Example

A major pattern tradeoff for earbuds and hearing aids is power versus battery life. That's especially true for listening to music and videos. High-finish consumer earbuds typically only last a few hours on a charge, cheers to their relatively powerful speakers. Hearing aids, in contrast, are expected to final at least x and ideally closer to twenty hours on a accuse.

Signia's Active family tries to span that gap by having their case double as a charging station. The earbuds' own batteries can be used for listening for up to 26 hours, but streaming uses the battery at a slightly faster rate. However, the case holds another three full charges. You can recharge the case wirelessly or using a USB-C cable.

Bluetooth Streaming, With Limits

The Agile devices are officially certified every bit "made for iPhone" so they should operate seamlessly with an iOS device for streaming music and making phone calls. Unfortunately, the aforementioned isn't quite true of Android. To stream music or brand phone calls with Android, you lot need to apply the optional Streamline Mic, which you pair with your phone or some other device. It is a loftier-quality directional microphone that also doubles equally a remote control, and so every bit accessories get, information technology's pretty slick. All the same, it is definitely an inconvenience to have to dig around for it whenever you want to stream music.

Speaking of streaming music, Active earbuds include a high-allegiance music streaming adequacy that modulates signals up to 12kHz, instead of a lot of other medical devices that top out at 8kHz. I could hear the deviation when listening in that way, with more precision in detailed sounds. Signia offers another accompaniment called Streamline Tv, which allows you to stream directly from your TV, but nosotros didn't take a adventure to test ane in time for this review.

Living With Hearing Aids: Everyone Else Is Suddenly Deafened

I plant that the Agile Pros also amplified the sound of my voice, especially outdoors at a distance. So I spoke more quietly and was, therefore, harder to understand than usual. If you lot wear the earbuds consistently, I recollect that would be pretty easy to compensate for, merely if you merely article of clothing them sometimes, it might be a piffling trickier. This issue isn't unique to the Agile Pros, merely because they fit so well, I was more comfy wearing them when playing sports than I have been with some of the other pairs I've reviewed.

My Hearing Experience With the Agile Pros

At that place was no question I could hear better in many situations when wearing the Active Pros. In particular, the "Face Mask Style" helped me better understand the oral communication of those wearing masks, simply also that of people who speak softly or with an accent. As the visitor said they would, the Active Pros stayed in place nicely even while playing sports.

However, I didn't discover that I could put them in my ears and forget about them, the way I could when reviewing more traditional hearing aids. They were great for a few hours, but then I'd observe myself wanting to accept them out for a bit. If you have mild hearing loss and simply want to employ them for specific circumstances, that'due south probably fine. If you need to clothing them all mean solar day, I'd definitely also attempt out a more than conventional set to come across which you adopt. One great affair yous get by working with a quality audiologist is that you should exist able to demo 1 or more than pairs of hearing aids before you buy.

Are Signia Actives Correct for You?

From my perspective as an Android user, I'd really like to run into both some ability to command the volume or program using touch, and direct streaming from my phone for that price. However, the customization options and sound quality are fantabulous once yous've worked with an audiologist to get them set upwards to your liking, so I accept no problems with them on that account.

If you're on the fence about whether you're prepare for a traditional hearing assistance, but don't have a problem wandering around with earbuds for hours at a time, a pair of Actives or Active Pros might be a bang-up choice for you.

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