Top 5 Hearing Aids: Affordable & Budget Friendly
Your hearing plays a significant role in the safety and quality of your life. People born deaf learn to compensate through increased use and efficacy of their other five senses. People born with full hearing who lose it to varying degrees during later years need high quality, affordable hearing aids to restore a sense of normalcy, safety and pleasure to their lives.
There are top-tier and budget hearing aids on the market. Some advanced aural-enhancing technology is expensive to incorporate into marketable products, and price points often reflect when better tech is used to make a hearing aid. Many available budget hearing aids are adequate, however, depending largely on the severity of hearing loss needing to be corrected and their amount of intended use.
There is a common bottom line among many people suffering from hearing loss. Most people desire a high-quality hearing aid at an affordable price. Read ahead to learn pros and cons of the top 5 best-rated hearings aids available, along with affordable budget alternatives on the market today.
Top 5 Best-Rated Hearings Aids
Deciding on a hearing aid is an obviously important decision. Knowing which hearing aid is best for you is dependent on your budget, the degree and severity of your hearing loss, and features needed to compensate. The top 5 best-rated hearing aids available today are:
- Eargo.
- MDHearingAid.
- Audicus.
- Widex.
- ReSound.
1. Eargo
Eargo hearing aids cost $1,850, $2,350 and $2,450 for three different high-quality models. Affordable financing and monthly payments are available on all three models. Eargo hearing aids are nearly invisible due to the Eargo Flexi design, which allows them to fit deeper into the ear than most other hearing aids. Because Eargo hearing aids are suspended and not plugged in to your ear canals, higher pitches are amplified as applicable but natural bass tones enter your ears unaffected. No Eargo hearing aid is Bluetooth enabled and their products are some of the highest priced hearing aids on the market. The Eargo Max model also does not facilitate audio personalization like the two more advanced and expensive models. Overall Eargo still makes the most popular and highest quality hearing aids on the market. Their products have almost no competition pursuant to comfort level, natural sound quality and customer satisfaction.
2. MDHearingAid
MDHearingAid offers affordable, high quality and popular hearing aids. Free hearing evaluations are conveniently provided online and four styles of hearing aids are available to purchase. Single hearing aids run from $199.99 to $799.00 but significant discounts are provided when buying pairs. Hearing aid pairs run from $399.98 to $999.99 depending on the model selected. The less expensive models are not Bluetooth enabled and only The Volt+ is rechargeable. The Pro and The Air do not have directional microphones and The Pro also does not have feedback or noise reduction capabilities. MDHearingAid products are also not custom fit. These are analog products with three and four channel settings, making them quite popular with many customers. The Air features a telecoil, is almost invisible and provides high quality sound reproduction on batteries capable of lasting up to twenty-six days in even high noise situations. Overall MDHearingAid provides reliable and popular products at affordable prices, including a zero percent financing purchase option.
3. Audicus
Audicus provides hearing aids and a business model approach unique from many other hearing aid companies. They offer a hearing aid subscription-based membership at an affordable monthly rate. The membership costs as low as $39 per month. There is an initial $100 fee to join, but the benefits include new hearing aids every eighteen months, insurance/replacement on all your Audicus products and all applicable needed supplies. Audicus has four models from which to choose and holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Audicus hearing aids do not automatically come with rechargeable or Bluetooth enabled features. The Clara and The Wave have upgrade options for both, however. The quality of the Bluetooth features is possibly the best in the business and competitive pricing makes Audicus the best Bluetooth-enabled hearing aid provided on the market.
4. Widex
Widex is a hearing aid company popular for its use of advanced, high-end technology in all of its products. Widex recently merged with Sivantos, which is a newly founded health care provider of significant size. This makes Widex not only the most technologically advanced hearing aid company on the market due to its superb artificial intelligence features, but also the largest. Telecoil is not available on certain models and the Fusion and MOMENT products do not have microphone openings. The EVOKE line, however, is the first smart hearing aid in existence and offers numerous styles, features and color options from which to choose. Widex uses a proprietary SoundSense technology to facilitate the EVOKE line hearing aids with machine learning abilities. No other hearing aid brand uses this technology to-date. The AI in Widex hearing aids learns the sound preferences and habits of its users and adjusts accordingly to provide a superior hearing experience. Widex prices range from $750 to approximately $3,000 and are suited for mild to even severe hearing loss issues.
5. ReSound
ReSound was founded in 1943. To this day the company provides some of the best noise reduction and sound isolation features on the market. One thing putting ReSound hearing aids on the consumer popularity radar screen is the proprietary ReSound Smart Fit feature. ReSound Smart Fit uses smartphone technology, which allows customers to receive convenient audiologist assistance, excellent customer service and a finely tuned custom sonic fit. All ReSound products are pre-adjusted prior to use, meaning the customization is not immediately available when purchased. ReSound hearing aids are also not available directly through ReSound, making the prices more expensive than other companies offering direct wholesale options. Prices vary and are affected by individual retailers, and even COSTCO and ZipHearing do not list specific prices online. A price range of $1,000 to $1,600 per hearing aid is expected, however. The high prices are justified to many consumers by high quality hearing experiences and access to convenient and advanced telehealth features from the convenience of their own smart phones.
Ways to Save on Hearing Aids
Enrollees in the AARP Hearing Care Program receive twenty percent off all hearing aid purchases. Many hearing aid manufactures also provide the ability to purchase directly from their companies, eliminating increased middlemen and retail markup prices. Hearing aid companies also offer holiday and special sales events discounts. Hearing America also offers discounts on hearing aids to qualified buyers. Medicare does not cover hearing aids, unfortunately, but Medicare Part B does cover certain diagnostic testing order by your doctor due injury or illness-related hearing loss. Some insurance policies do provide limited coverage for hearing aids so it is good advice to check with your insurance provider for coverage options.
