My son has profound loss in his left ear, and mild loss in his right ear. He wears a hearing aid in his right, and was implanted in January with a cochelar implant.
The technology out there is incredible. Particularly the use of multiple microphones to aid in identifying where sound is coming from, as well as communicating between the two devices (provided you’re using compatible brands… my son doesn’t.)
But a consumer version will never meet the same level of quality. Hearing aids are finely tuned to the exact shape of your individual ear canal, and mapped for specific frequencies and tones to your hearing. A few default features means that you’ll likely miss a lot of what it’s filtering that it shouldn’t. There’s new technology just coming available that was developed by Apple using bluetooth to communicate directly with hearing aids, and CI’s that they’ve actually made open source. Now it’s just up to each brand to develop a product with that technology on board. Phonak just recently unveiled their rechargeable bluetooth HA’s, and Cochlear America just released their version.
Besides that, 2 hours usage time is pathetic. Rechargeable battery tech for this field is out there for at least 12-14 hours run time. Using something like zinc-air batteries will get you weeks of constant usage.
Of course, cost is everything… my son’s hearing aid was in the $2800 range, and his implant comes in around $10K for the processor. (All in, it’s about $125K for one ear)
(Side note: Mike, glad to hear about the tumor. Long term will you be needing hearing aids?)