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@judyca7 You mentioned that your audiologist let you demo a remote mic. I believe ALL major brand hearing aids have a remote mic option. It typically costs about $250 (some remote mics have telecoils so the price may be higher). The AVERAGE cost of a pair of hearing aids is about $4700 and can go up to about $7000. They probably didn't mention a remote mic because of the shock of the cost. In my opinion, the remote mic should come with the hearing aids because of the benefits. As I've mentioned in the past, a remote mic ties you into that manufacturers brand of hearing aid. If you decide to go with a different brand in the future, you'll need to buy their brand of remote mic. Also, there is a universal solution if you have a telecoil. That would be an FM system with the receiver connected to a neck loop. FM's are pricey though. I have a telecoil but wanted the convenience of a remote mic. I wear two Resound's and purchased the remote mic about a year afterwards. It turned out to be a good thing though. Recently, I wanted to buy the Resound TV Streamer device since my wife doesn't need the TV as loud as I need it. (BTW, an FM system could also be used for this application, which offsets the price of the FM system. One device for both applications). As with the remote mic, the TV Streamer is tied to that brand of hearing aids. To get back to my point of a remote mic even though I have telecoils, I found the Resound TV Streamer on eBay. It costs $85 as opposed to the $250 that the audiologist would have charged. The device worked but it may have been because I already had a remote mic program in my hearing aids. I did not have to see the audiologist to set it up. The TV streamer used the program that was set up for my remote mic.
Tony in Michigan
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In response to Tony's post about remote mics and TV streamers: This is what makes is so difficult for us to decide what to buy! We hear that a particular brand of aid has better add-ons, or that this or that add-on will work in more situations, but we don't really know enough to make good decisions. I've heard a lot about neck loops, but really don't know exactly how they work and whether they're the best add-on, so I've not purchased anything, waiting for better information. Right now, I have more than enough to figure out with new software, made necessary when I reluctantly and stupidly upgraded by devil box to Windows 10 to avoid viruses months ago. That means the HD is wiped clean, and you lose all software. Because of Covid, I had almost no design work, so kept putting off buying new software, but the time finally arrived and, over a thousand dollars later, I'm struggling to learn entirely new versions of software I'd used for decades. Much of the old software (which did everything I needed to do) is incompatible with Win 10, so it's learn or do without. The next time there's a forced upgrade, I'll buy an inexpensive new system, remove my existing system from the world at large to avoid viruses, and use the new system to communicate, the old one to do actual work.