In this article, I'm looking at the Core from the hearing aid manufacturer MD Hearing Aid.
Hearing aids have traditionally been prohibitively expensive. As a result, too many of those with hearing loss have not been able to afford the help they needed. MDHearingAid was founded to solve this issue. Based in Illinois, the company sells hearing aids created by a doctor and approved by audiologists at a fraction of the cost of conventional hearing aids.
For more than a decade, MDHearingAid has disrupted the traditional brick-and-mortar hearing aid sales channel. MD Hearing Aid does not custom-build or custom-fit its products to people's ears; instead, it offers them straight to consumers. I like to imagine the difference between this business model and a normal hearing professional approach is like the difference between acquiring prescription glasses vs. buying reading glasses at a drugstore. MD Hearing Aids are much cheaper than products prescribed by hearing doctors, just as non-prescription glasses are much less expensive than prescription glasses.
With that, let's take a look at one of their marquee hearing aids, the Core.
There are two options for setting up any hearing aid from MD Hearing Aids. The first method is to purchase them online and change the volume yourself.
The second option is to purchase the hearing aids online, connect them to your phone using the MDHearingAid app, then take a hearing test. The hearing aids will then alter the amplification levels in your ears based on the hearing test results. As an audiologist, I understand the need to perform a thorough hearing exam before fitting hearing aids. Unfortunately, this app hearing test isn't as accurate as an actual hearing test conducted in a hearing booth. The requirement to go through the app means you also can't use an audiologist-conducted hearing test for programming the hearing aids.
Another relevant issue to consider is that they may be challenging to fit on your own. When you're attempting to fit these by taking an online hearing test, make sure they're correctly set up before putting them in your ear. If fitted incorrectly, you might be missing out on 30% of the noises because it's not at the right spot. It can also start whistling, which makes for a very unpleasant experience.
The Core, like all of MD Hearing Aid's products, is a basic behind-the-ear hearing aid. This style is easy to wear and often has the most extended battery life out of all the styles.
Worryingly, however, the Core only seems to come in a beige color. I am aware that most patients strive to match their hearing aid to their skin color. But the Core is only able to match the skin of a white person. So if you have darker skin, this isn't for you. If you're trying to match it to your hair color, there is a similar issue. So that's a disadvantage.
These hearing aids adapt according to your sound environment. As you move around, you'll be exposed to various amounts of noise, which will impact your hearing abilities. The MDHearingAid CORE can modify its four audio settings automatically when you go from one place to another, so you can hear clearly without having to fiddle with settings or buttons.
This hearing aid contains two directional microphones to help distinguish between the noises you want to hear and the sounds you don't want to hear. This works with noise reduction to help you hear better in noisy environments. When I ran the noise reduction for multiple speakers talking at the same time, it worked perfectly. The hearing aid significantly reduced the voices behind me. It also kept the voices in front of me clear. This was done in a test box using audiology equipment. It was encouraging to see that the hearing aids minimized background noise and concentrated on sounds from the front.
A disposable battery is included with these hearing aids. However, today's top hearing aids have rechargeable batteries. MDHearingAid has a hearing aid called the VOLT, which uses a rechargeable battery. For comparison, please take a look at our review of that hearing aid too.
The following features are included in the smartphone app:
I've used the app and find it very intuitive. Connecting my hearing aids to my phone was simple and effortless. It was great to be able to control the volume through the app. Even if you don't consider yourself a smartphone expert, I found the MDHearingAid app to be very user-friendly.
These hearing aids are probably right for you if you have mild to moderate hearing loss. If, on the other hand, your hearing loss is severe, then these hearing aids most likely do not have enough gain or amplification to provide you with the best possible hearing.
The pricing of these hearing aids is fantastic for a pair of Bluetooth hearing aids. They are $1,000 for the pair, so that they will do well for budget-minded consumers. Also, the app is a joy to use.
But be wary of the drawbacks we mentioned in this review, such as the lack of rechargeability, a clunky self-fitting process, and the lack of color options.
Overall, the Core is the best hearing aid offered by MD Hearing Aid, and it gives you a better hearing experience than the Volt. True, the Core isn't a custom-made hearing aid fitted to your specific needs, which means these hearing aids may never provide you with the best hearing possible. You will, however, likely be able to afford these hearing aids, and you''' probably get good value for your money.
Today we're here to review the MDHearingAid Core. Behind the ear hearing aids. A pair of these hearing aids is sold for a $1000 that has our attention. But I wanna make sure we do our research. And I wanna make sure you have all the information to decide whether these hearing aids are of good quality, of good value. And if they're going to actually treat and improve your hearing ability.
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Today we're going to review the core product from MDHearingAid. This is a Bluetooth behind the ear device. So let's start with the look and feel of the hearing aid and see how it looks. Inside of the case for the MDHearingAid VOLT. You get two of these behind the ear hearing aids with a slim tube. This is the color of the hearing aid it's beige. You can see here there's the volume control. Up for louder and down for softer. This is also how you change the programs from one to the other.
The top of the hearing aid, it goes into this slim tube, which goes into this plastic tip in the ear its called a comfort tip. It comes in different sizes. This little plastic hook goes into the bowl part of your ear. In order to keep the whole hearing aid secure and in place. Underneath here there's the battery door. So these hearing aids use a standard size 312 battery just looks like that. To turn the hearing aid off. You open this door. And to turn the hearing aid on. You close this door that's pretty standard. It comes with an extra comfort tip there. Of a different size as well as a brush in order to clean the device. This is the app manual. You would use this manual to set it up.
Your hearing aids also come with a quick start guide encouraging you to download the app. The hearing aids come with three of these boxes. This is a box of batteries. There's 40 batteries. The hearing aids go in this case like that. Those are the MDHearingAid core. Now let me show you how this looks on the ear. When I put this piece up and behind my ear. I then put this small slim tube and rubber tip, into my ear canal like that. And then there's this little plastic hook. I take that plastic hook and I put it in the bowl part of my ear. And I push that rubber tip in tucking it back. That's how it looked from behind. And then there's the hearing aid on the side of my ear. Overall it fits my ear well. If you have a hearing loss that's in the mild to moderate range then these hearing aids would probably be appropriate for you. However, if your hearing loss is in the severe range. Then these hearing aids likely do not have the gain or the amplification sufficient to give you the best hearing possible.
There's two ways to get these hearing aids set up. The first way is if you just buy them online and then adjust the volume yourself you're gonna notice some benefit. The second way is if you buy the hearing aids online and then connect them to your smartphone through the MDHearingAid app. You can take a hearing test. And then that hearing test through the hearing aids will adjust the levels of the amplification in your ears. That is not as valid as a legitimate hearing test inside of a clinic with an audiologist. But overall their online hearing test is an okay fair representation about overall how well you hear. And that's likely going to be more personalized than if you just put the hearing aids on and adjusted the volume in the programs without doing this hearing test. These hearing aids only have this rubber tip. If you have a severe hearing loss you would need an actual earmold, a custom-shaped ear mold of your ear by a local audiologist.
So let's talk about the price of these hearing aids. They're listed online to be sold at $1,000 for the pair. If you're considering buying these hearing aids online. And if you go on MDHearingAids website be cautious because they have some misleading numbers with the actual cost of the hearing aids. First, they say there's $1,600. And then they say that they're giving them to you at a discount for a $ 1,000. Now every time I've been on their website they always make this claim. So just be aware with that. The smartphone app for these hearing aids is called MDHearingAid app. And you can find in an App Store or in the Google Play Android Store overall the app has great reviews. It has an average four-star rating of over 700 users. And that's pretty good for an app.
My own personal experiences connecting the hearing aids to the app was that the app really was excellent. It was very easy and seamless to connect the hearing aids to my phone. Using the volume control through the app was excellent. As well as changing the programs. It was all very intuitive. Even if you don't think you're that good with smartphones. I would say the MDHearingAid app was very easy to use. It's not necessary to use the app to get benefit from the hearing aids. But if you'd prefer to use the app to control the quality of sound and the loudness of sound. You can do so either via the buttons on the hearing aid itself or through the app which connects Bluetooth to your smartphone.
The smartphone app allows Institute audiometry to create a personalized program for your hearing aids. It also has an equalizer to control basements in trouble and also has a button for noise reduction. And then finally, you can request some adjustments to the hearing aids through telehealth through the app. When we're working with hearing aids there's typically different programs. And if you change to a certain program that means that the sound quality will be different. Depending on that environment. The four programs in the MDHearingAid core are quiet conversation, restaurant and automatic. So the four different programs change the hearing aid settings. And I actually verified this in a hearing clinic with technical equipment that the different sound settings did change when I did change for the different programs. And that's what I would expect. When I ran the noise reduction for different speakers talking at the same time. The hearing aid did significantly turn down the sound of the voices behind me. And it kept clear the voices in front of me. Now this was done in a test box with technical audiology equipment. So that was good to see that the hearing aids were reducing sounds from the back and focusing on sounds from the front. So it passed that noise reduction test.
These are Bluetooth hearing aids. They do connect to iPhone and Android. So that's great. They do use a disposable battery, so they are not rechargeable. Although the company does have another rechargeable model. I didn't see any tinnitus features inside of this hearing aid. So there wasn't any integrated sound therapy. But if they are connected to Bluetooth and they're able to stream then you could play sound therapy for tinnitus through the streaming of the phone. If you've made it this far thank you for being with us. And we're about to get to the really exciting part. Which is the pros and cons of this hearing aid. For the MDHearingAid core. The first pro is that these hearing aids have a great price. For a pair of Bluetooth behind the ear hearing aids. They cost $1,000. That's a great price. When we compare other hearing aids that you would buy in person, usually costing upwards of $2,000. So that definitely has our attention. And that's the first pro is the actual price of these devices. The second major pro is that the MDHearingAid core connects to the MDHearingAid app. And through Bluetooth that app is outstanding. It's one of the better hearing aid apps I've used through a smartphone.
So if you're someone who is tech savvy or if you're someone who uses their phone constantly then having those adjustments through the phone is gonna be a big upgrade whether you're considering trying hearing aids for the first time, or if you're considering different models of hearing aids, having good Bluetooth connection to a smartphone is important. And sometimes the app itself, that the company uses is a big factor for how well your experiences. Now let's get into the cons. The cons things that I want you to look out for.
Things to be cautious about.
If you're considering these hearing aids, the first con is that the company does not accept previous audiogram for programming. You have to rely on the MDHearingAid apps hearing test or you have to take the hearing screening online to determine how to set up the hearing aids. Now although that might help you somewhat. It's not as valid and reliable as a real hearing test inside of a hearing booth. As an audiologist I know how important it is to make sure that the hearing test is accurate. Before we fit hearing aids.
The second con for the MDHearingAid Core is the color correct me if I'm wrong. But I believe they only offer this beige color. If you have beige color skin and you're trying to match this hearing aid to your skin, then it should do okay. But as an audiologist I know most people try to match the hearing aid to their hair color. This is designed to match the skin of someone with white skin. So if you have black skin, if you have dark skin, if you have very tan skin. This hearing aid wouldn't blend in that well. And again if you're trying to match it to the color of your hair. Most people have Brown, black, white hair. This also wouldn't match the hair. So that's a con.
The third con here is the risk of an error. When you're trying to fit these yourselves by taking the online hearing test. Put them in your ear, making sure they're set up properly. A common mistake when you're setting hearing it up yourself is that if they're half hanging out of your ear, you think they're working properly but you're missing out on 30% of sounds. 'Cause it's not in the proper position. When it's like that it might start whistling and it just creates a really bad experience. So whenever you're doing online hearing aids, there's a risk of a self fitting error. And certainly with these hearing aids that's a risk. That said they do have a call center.
They do have some support. So if you do get into trouble you can contact someone from their company and they will be able to help you to some degree. The last con here is that these hearing aids have a disposable battery. That's not a horrible thing. But the best hearing aids today have rechargeable batteries. Think about electronics in general. The best electronics today have a rechargeable battery that you charge every night. And then it lasts you the next day in full. Modern hearing aids that are the best hearing aids out there. They have rechargeable batteries. Even MDHearingAid themselves has another rechargeable battery. Hearing aid that we did another review video on this channel on. So that's a con is to have to worry and fuss with those small hearing aid batteries. When there are products out there that have rechargeable batteries to help you.
Now you've made it through this video. So how's it been so far? I wanted to now move on to explain some other different kinds of hearing aids. That we talk about. And review on this YouTube channel HearWeb. To help you decide about MDHearingAid core versus other online hearing aids. And which products make the most sense for you. The first product I wanna compare with the MDHearingAid core is the MDHearingAid VOLT This is MDHearingAid is rechargeable hearing aid. It's not Bluetooth. It's much larger than the core but it is cheaper. So it's about $600 for the pair. And that's something that we did a full video on. You can check that out. If you're looking for a cheaper hearing aid through MDHearingAid that one is something to consider. The MDHearingAid core overall is much better. It's a much better experience than the MDHearingAid VOLT.
Another hearing aid to check out which we also did a full video review on is the Lexie Lumen hearing aid. This one is definitely one you wanna consider checking out. They have a great balance between the actual sound, the style, the app. It's not rechargeable. It's similar to the core. The Lexie Lumen hearing aid costs $800. Make sure to check out that full review video. If you're interested in the Lexie Lumen hearing aid. Additionally, we have the Audicus wave hearing aids. We did another video review, a full video review of the Audicus Wave. The Audicus Wave hearing aids cost $1,800 for the pair. They are Bluetooth behind the ear hearing aids. Little different style, a little more modern style to them. With different colors. The Audicus Wave also comes with a rechargeable. And that's $2,100.
Now at HearWeb we don't sell these hearing aids. What we do is review them. To help you make a better decision, about what's right for you. So if you've enjoyed this video make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel Here Web. Give this video a thumbs up. If you've learned something. And I'm going to now recommend you check out another video here. Additionally feel free to go to hereweb.com to learn more about the most up-to-date coupons and discounts on these hearing aids. To my side. There's another video you can check out. Which will give you another detailed review of some hearing aids. Thank you so much for watching this video. I've really enjoyed it.