Started the hearing aid search this spring based on my kids and grand kids complaining I was always saying "huh". Went to a professional hearing aid center recommended by a few folks I knew. Took the hearing test and was prescribed a behind the ear hearing aid, cost was $3500.. I am outside most of the day and found that the wind noise was awful. I also found out that all this Bluetooth connection stuff to your phone is basically useless. Playing music over your hearing aid is just terrible. Get a pair of AirPod Pros and you can make them into decent hearing aids using transparency mode. And then stream music on them and it is wonderful as they play the music based on your ear test that you entered on setting up transparency mode. The other Bluetooth features like restaurant setting, television viewing, vehicle setting, just did nothing for me. So, I decided to take them back and give Costco a try. I went in knowing I did not want Bluetooth and not behind the ear. I ended up with a Complete-In-Canal(CIC) hearing aid and they work well and are good in the outdoors with wind, cost was $2500. Started looking at over the counter hearing aids(OTC) and found out that Sony had released their OTC hear aid in December and it is a repackaging of my current Costco hearing aid at $1000. But, in looking at the specifications closely the Sony hear aids have been dumbed down in terms of frequency range and DB range. So, the OTC version is not the same. And this makes sense, OTC may work for you but the quality of the aid is not going to be what you get from a professional. OTC hearing aids at this point sound appealing but in the end the hearing aid racket still wins.