To control volume, the hearing aids have to be seated in the included case—a traditional, compact device that provides 80 hours of additional charge. Two buttons—one for each aid—cycle the device through six volume levels. An LED display situated between the two hearing aids indicates the volume setting for each one as it is adjusted. (Having one volume meter for two devices is a little confusing, so it’s important to remember it only shows the status for the most recently adjusted hearing aid.)
The case also includes a small indicator that shows the hearing program setting for each aid, of which there are now four: standard, restaurant, outdoor, and tinnitus-masking, all self-explanatory. (Note that I did not test the tinnitus masking mode, as I don’t suffer from the condition.) These modes can be cycled through by tapping the device twice while it’s in your ear, and as with adjusting the volume, each ear is controlled individually. It’s strange (and inconvenient) to have to control mode and volume via two different methods, and always one ear at a time, but if you rarely change your hearing aids’ volume level, it may not be that much trouble.
Ineffective Aids
Photograph: Chris Null
The bigger problem with the Core One Pro hearing aids is that, as with the Core One, they just aren’t all that effective. Since the aids aren’t tunable, there is no way to customize them based on your audiogram, which means that all frequencies get boosted upward, more or less.
This was immediately noticeable in my testing as lower-level frequencies were amplified far more than I needed, causing everything from footsteps to running water to be uncomfortably loud, and painfully so if I turned the volume up past level three (of six total settings). I also found a steady stream of hiss underlying everything, though this was at least mitigated at the lowest volume levels. Over time, at anything over volume level one, the Ceretone Core One Pro hearing aids were more distracting than beneficial, though there’s no denying the amplification power they have. At higher volume levels, the hearing aids were downright deafening.
They’re also not as comfortable for long-term wear as the original Core One, though this probably had more to do with the eartips, which are a little rough around the edges, than the design of the hearing aid hardware itself.
As with the original Core One, I’m not entirely sure who these hearing aids are designed for, even at a quite reasonable price of $390. (List price is $700, for what it’s worth.) Without any tunability features, users are getting a very blunt audio experience that prioritizes brute amplification over everything instead of helping them better hear the sounds they want to hear.
