Just went through this with my wife last December. She had worked with Clair Brothers Audio back in the day and is quite particular. Touring with the Dead can do that to a person. She hadn't been happy with anything she'd looked into so kept putting it off. To the point that it started affecting her work. Couldn't hear folks in conference calls anymore. Our home life had become a bit strained too.
Searched the forums here and spent a lot of time researching things online. Discovered that hearing aids are actually manufactured by only a handful of companies. Siemens, Oticon and Phonak are the big 3 as far as I could discern. Siemens private labels everything (e.g. Costco house brand) while Oticon and Phonak also sell more fully featured units under their own names (I believe they are also both owned by huge holding companies). Manufacturer information like audio specifications and performance data is very hard if not impossible to find for laypeople.
A good buddy who has worn hearing aids for many years and also performs in a band suggested Phonak as a good place to start. His son runs a recording studio and is pretty firmly convinced that they were a significant improvement. What little hard data I could find indicated that Oticon had the best frequency and dynamic range performance out there at the lowest noise floor.
We finally found a good audiologist (they are NOT easy to find) that carried both and was willing to provide purchase price up-front (another very hard thing to discover). They told us that while the Oticon was an excellent product, their firmware platform was a few years older and didn't work as well with Android or Bluetooth as it could. Showed us a few examples of some very awkward pairing processes and a real PITA of a firmware update process. That convinced the wife to go with Phonak.
Since then, we've cranked my system several times, been to see a few concerts, done some very loud outdoor events (e.g. Indy 500) and she's used them daily at work. After getting used to them (a steep learning curve), she's happy and so am I. A very solid improvement in our quality of life.
You pays your monies and takes your chances with this stuff, but good hearing aids can be a real gift. Do your research and find a good audiologist. Understand that hearing aids are expensive no matter what, so it really pays to get as much info as possible.
Good luck in your search and happy listening!
