The New Starkey Signature Series Custom Hearing Aids

Dr. Egan explains the latest launch of custom discreet/invisible Starkey hearing aids.
Transcription:
Hi, I’m Dr. Egan from Now Hear This, and today I’m excited to talk to you about some brand-new hearing aids from Starkey and it’s called their Signature Series. This new device platform was released in March of 2024, and it is specific to custom in-the-ear style of hearing aids.
You may ask: ‘what are custom in-the-ear hearing aids?’ These are hearing aids that are molded via an impression silicone material to be made to the shape of the person’s ear canal. The nice thing about Starkey is that they have been at the forefront of custom hearing devices for many years, and they are my go-to when someone wants an in-the-ear custom product. They just seem to get that perfect fit better than anyone else.
What’s exciting about the new Starkey Signature Series is that they are releasing the industry’s first completely in-the-canal rechargeable hearing aid. And What I mean by that is that there is no other hearing aid manufacturer who is able to create accustom rechargeable hearing aid this small ever before, so yes, we are really excited!
We work with all seven hearing aid manufacturers because I like to find the right device for each person, so by no means are we tied or married to Starkey, but I just find I’m going back to them over and over again for their custom hearing aids, and now that they have this new product, they’ll definitely be my go-to.
Now, you may be wondering, ‘What is a completely in-the-canal hearing aid?’ So, let’s talk about the size difference in their newly released product. This is the size of the smallest rechargeable custom hearing aid previously. So I’m going to put it in my ear. Most people get a skin tone, but this gives you a good idea of what it looks like. And you can see it fills up a good amount of that ear canal, but it’s rechargeable, and it was the smallest rechargeable option until now, and so that was a good device for a lot of people. What’s exciting is now the in-the-ear, completely-in-the-canal style, is this small! So, let me put this one in my ear for perspective. You can’t even see it- you have to turn your ear all the way around to be able to notice it. So, it’s much more discreet. And if I hold both of them up together, you can see the size difference. The completely-in-the-canal one right here is nearly half the size of the previous smallest rechargeable version. So, basically, rechargeable hearing aids have been cut nearly half in size, making it a much more discreet option for most people’s ear canal anatomies.
Another thing I’m really excited about with the new Starkey Signature Series is it has an incredible battery life. Up to 38 hours of use on a single charge. That’s really nice because life happens! Sometimes, we accidentally fall asleep on the couch, and we don’t charge our hearing aids overnight, and it’s nice that it’s able to get through the next day if that happens.
On top of that, the pull string, so this tiny little piece right there has a Bluetooth antenna built into it, so now, this incredibly tiny hearing aid can also Bluetooth stream directly with a cellphone, so you can hear your phone calls wirelessly and crystal clear in both of your ears.
On top of that, Starkey has another happy surprise. These hearing aids have an IP68 water resistance rating, and that’s really exciting because these tiny in-the-ear hearing aids live and breathe in your ear canal that is a humid place, especially in North Carolina, where everything is humid. And so that their new hearing aids have that IP68 rating is really exciting, because, hopefully, those people will have less water damage and moisture issue repairs over the course of the lifetime of their hearing aid.
If you haven’t figured it out, we’re really excited about the new launch of the Starkey Signature Series. Very excited for what it can do for our patients who are looking for a more discreet option that’s still rechargeable because a lot of people don’t like changing those tiny little batteries every couple days. I hope that you learned something from this video, and if you could like it or subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on all other hearing aid and audiology news, we’re happy to be a part of your hearing community. Have a wonderful rest of your day!

[@workingTchr]

I've had Starkey IIC's for many years, and I was just about to get the Genesis IIC when it came out last year but noticed that, for the highest amplification matrix (which is what I'm getting into now), the Genesis had a steeper dropoff in the 6K and higher frequencies than the previous Evolve series did (for the IIC). So I was excited when I heard about the new Signature series, but comparing the martices of the Genesis and Signature IICs they seem identical. At the same time, the "fitting range" for the Signature shows as being better than it is for the Genesis. How could they have the same output but have different fitting ranges? For me, Starkey's IICs have been great but again, how could a HA with 6 times the number of transistors (Genesis) have lower output than its predecessor? The battery life values are the same, so it can't be that. Also, FWIW, I just noticed that Starkey seems to have removed the detailed technical data sheet for the Evolve series. Maybe I better get a pair before they discontinue them altogether! Anyway, if you could shed any light on any of this, I'd be interested to know. Thanks...