Hearing aids can often be a godsend. Whether you have hearing loss, tinnitus, or both, finding the right brand of hearing aid and getting them fitted correctly are important. Our team at Treble Health reviewed the Lexie Lumen hearing aids to help you decide for yourself.
How Does Lexie Lumen Look And How Is It Used?
The Lexie Lumen comes in a small case, similar in design to a glasses case. The hearing aids include a top button for environmental control, which can be toggled in situations with a lot of background noise. They also include a button to switch among the four preset programs, as well as up and down volume buttons. Finally, at the bottom of the hearing aid, there is a battery door, which accepts a standard size 312 battery capable of being taken out and replaced when necessary.
The Lumen comes bundled with a variety of accessories, including rubber tips in three different sizes, slim tubes in different sizes, an ear measuring tool (to help determine the right slim tube size), and extra batteries. Cleaning supplies also come bundled with the Lexie Lumen, including a brush, a cleaning wire (to remove ear wax from the slim tubes), and moisture beads (to eliminate moisture in the hearing aids).
The Lumen offers the option for self-fitting, meaning that the hearing aids can be programmed or adjusted to meet your needs based on a hearing test that you take on your smartphone when you first put on the hearing aids.
These hearing aids also include something called a slim tube. This is the plastic tubing that pushes the sound from the hearing aid to the rubber tip that sits in the ear canal. The plastic retention piece, shaped like a hook, is designed to tuck back in the bowl portion of your ear, which ensures that the hearing aid doesn’t fly off when you’re moving around. Overall, it looks good, even if it’s slightly larger than other modern hearing aids.
Benefits And Drawbacks
Benefit #1: Excellent customer support.
The team at Lexie Hearing are always available to field your questions, and they also have audiologists and hearing specialists on hand to help assess how their hearing aids are treating your hearing loss.
Benefit #2: Affordability.
Most modern hearing aids cost over $1,000, ranging as high as $3,000 per ear. In comparison, the Lumen retails for about $800 for a pair. Lexie Hearing also offers a low cost-subscription model where you only have to pay $50 a month to use their hearing aids. This option, which can be canceled at any time, offers a very low risk to the patient, and shows that Lexie Hearing has confidence in their hearing aids.
Benefit #3: Elegant design.
It has all of the basic functions that you would want in a hearing aid; preset programs, volume control, but with limited Bluetooth compatibility.
Drawback #1: Not rechargeable.
The Lumen uses a standard hearing aid battery, while other modern hearing aids are rechargeable. If you’re a senior or someone with reduced vision or dexterity, changing the battery on these hearing aids may be difficult.
Drawback #2: Appearance.
The colors offered for them are somewhat shiny and glossy, which might draw too much attention for some folks.
Drawback #3: Size.
The Lumen is larger than an average hearing aid. For comparison, they are 30% larger than Phonak’s standard hearing aid.
Drawback #4: No Bluetooth capability.
Most modern hearing aids offer folks the ability to take phone calls through their devices via Bluetooth. In comparison, these hearing aids cannot take phone calls or stream other audio from music, podcasts, or videos.
Drawback #5: Self-fitting (potentially).
The Lumen’s self-fitting process may be difficult for some folks, since it entails a self-administered hearing test conducted via smartphone. In this situation, it might be helpful to seek out an in-person hearing test conducted by an audiologist, or to even take advantage of the expertise offered by Lexie Hearing’s customer support team.
Comparable Products To Consider
The Lumen are online hearing aids that are around the same price as Bose Sound Control hearing aids and offer a similar setup. The Phonak Paradise hearing aids are more expensive, while offering best-in-class streaming features and rechargeability.
On the whole, these hearing aids can provide good quality hearing, without many bells and whistles provided by most modern hearing aids. If you do decide to go forward with purchasing them, we at Treble Health recommend getting an in-person hearing test and having them fitted in person.
