What a $199 Hearing Aid Can and Cannot Do

A private hearing aid fitting in New Zealand commonly costs somewhere between $3,000 and $4,800 for a pair. That price buys a proper hearing test, a professional fitting and follow up appointments. For people with significant hearing loss, it is money well spent.

Over-the-counter hearing aids are a different thing at a different price. You buy them yourself, you fit them yourself, and there is no clinician involved. Revival Hearing sells two of them from New Zealand. The One is $199. The Plus is $299.

Because the gap in price is so wide, it is fair to ask what you actually get. Here is a plain account of what these devices do, what they do not do, and who should not be buying one at all.

Revival Hearing devices sit in the ear, amplify speech and cut background noise.

What You Get for $199

The One is $199. It amplifies the sound around you, with settings you adjust yourself, and it reduces background noise so speech is easier to pick out in a busy room. It is rechargeable and sits in the ear.

The Plus is $299. It does everything The One does and adds Bluetooth, so you can take phone calls and stream audio straight to the device. Bluetooth is on The Plus only. If that matters to you, choose The Plus.

Both come with free tracked shipping anywhere in New Zealand, a 30-day money-back guarantee and a 12-month warranty. Your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act apply on top of that.

Best suited to mild to moderate hearing difficulty. Conversation, television, phone calls.

What They Cannot Do

They do not treat, cure or relieve tinnitus, and they do not treat any other medical condition. Anyone selling you a device on that promise is selling you something they cannot deliver.

They do not restore hearing you have lost. They make the sound reaching your ear louder and clearer. That is a real help for mild to moderate difficulty, and it is not the same thing.

They are not right for severe hearing loss. If you cannot follow a conversation even in a quiet room, you need a hearing test and a professional fitting, not a device off the internet.

See your GP or a qualified audiologist first if your hearing changed suddenly, if one ear is much worse than the other, or if you have pain, discharge, dizziness or a history of ear surgery. None of that is something we can help with.

Revival Hearing is New Zealand owned and operated. The devices themselves are manufactured overseas, like almost every hearing aid sold here, but the stock is held in New Zealand and posted from here.

That is the practical difference. Your order goes out from a New Zealand warehouse, so it arrives in days rather than weeks. If you need to send it back, it goes to a New Zealand address. If you have a question, a New Zealander answers it.

We are a small operation and we would rather have a customer who knows exactly what they bought than one who feels sold to.

Stock is held in New Zealand and posted from here, so delivery takes days rather than weeks.

This is an advertorial published and paid for by Revival Hearing. It is not independent editorial. Revival Hearing devices are over-the-counter hearing aids intended to help with mild to moderate hearing difficulty. They are not a substitute for professional medical advice. If you have concerns about your hearing, please see your GP or a qualified audiologist.