"Robert Morein" wrote in message


I maybe paranoid and very much skeptical of the cost of hearing aids
since they are part of the 'medical profession'. Is there any value
in buying a $2000 hearing aid compared to a $500 hearing aid?

My hunch tells me profit margin is in the hundreds of %.

AFAIK it gets spread over several layers of distribution.

Comments please. I need to buy some, just trying to figure out how
much to spend.

I like Trevor's idea of building up one of your own.

Forget about going overly cheap, though.

Use some better-grade mics - the Panasonic electrets that show up all over
the web in mic construction projects are still under $5 each and really
pretty good.

Use some better-grade earphones. I'm thinking about high-grade IEMs.

For amplification, it seems like you want a higher-gain version of something
like this:

http://www.fixup.net/products/pktamp/smini.htm