When the United States Food and Drug Administration opened the door for hearing aids to be sold over the counter In 2022, I was everything. Prescription hearing aids are criminally expensive, and several OTC models have proven that you don’t need to visit a hearing aid store in a mall to get a product that gets the job done. I tested 38 Hearing Aids So far, and 29 have been available over the counter. All my favorite audio products were OTC models. Until now.
Starkey is main name In the business aid, and it is not some white-label company that slaps a logo on someone else’s product (an epidemic in this industry). Starkey has been around since 1967, and while it no longer designs or manufactures its own digital signal-processing chips, it’s intimately involved with hearing aid development – and famously boasts that it’s set everyone from Ronald Reagan to Mother Teresa with its headphones.
Now, with its new edge Ai Ric RT audio headphones, Starkey takes a position at the top of the pack in product quality and performance thanks in large part to a new audio processor that includes an integrated neural processing unit – just like our laptops And Telephones. Starkey says this is the only NPU powered audio line on the market.
Receiver in Channel
There’s nothing particularly inventive about the way the Edge Ai Ric RT (which stands for “receiver in channel, rechargeable with remote control”), built on the classic, teardrop-shaped back design, although it’s available in your choice of seven colors. Each aid weighs 2.62 grams, which is competitive for rear audio volume. (To compare, the Jabra improve select 500 weighs 2.56 grams.) A single button on the back of each aid controls volume: Down on the left aid, up on the right aid.
Photo: Christopher Null
Since these are prescription aids, you will need an audiologist to fit and adjust them. Rather than send me to a local doctor, Starkey took the unusual step of flying his chief hearing health officer, Dave Fabry, to my home to perform this task. Fabry brought a suitcase full of equipment to recreate what the doctor’s office experience would normally be like, just at my dining room table. Then he gave me a training session on AIDS and walked me through the My Starkey programjust like a standard audiologist.
Fabry also fitted me with custom eartips molded to fit the exact shape of my ear canals. (This type of service would be at the discretion of your audiologist.) This is a simple process that involves stuffing your ears and waiting for them to harden. This well can then be used to create a tailored eartip that fits perfectly – although the usual collection of open and closed flats in various sizes are also included in the box.
Photo: Christopher Null
