Indiegogo-backed Ceretone is another hearing aid company aimed at people looking for a low-cost, low-complex way to enhance their hearing. At $349 for a pair—or $229 for a single-ear hearing aid—the tiny hearing aids are designed to be just one modest impact on hearing. Luckily, they have an equally modest impact on the wallet.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Core One is how small the hearing aid is. I weighed them at 0.96 grams each (with a small ear tip), which makes them probably the smallest aids I’ve ever had. tested so far—just a strand of hair brighter Sony CRE-C10. The glossy white aid slides completely into the ear canal, with only the recovery thread protruding a few millimeters for removal. Unless you closely examine your ears, they are functionally invisible.
To the ears, they are not too ostentatious. The color-coded cone earrings (one blue, one red) provide a somewhat colorful indication of which aid goes where. Just six ear tips, each pair in three sizes, are included in the box—though Ceretone also sent some clear ear tips on the side that I found a bit more comfortable. All of Ceretone’s ear tips are considered “closed” domes, which produced a moderately distorted, echo-like effect in my testing. At the very least, having more ear tip options, including open dome styles that are more suitable for users with mild hearing loss, would help improve audio fidelity.
Photo: Cereton
That aside, I found the Core One experience a bit rough at first, mainly due to the noticeable, screeching feedback whenever I touched the support device or recovery thread even slightly. Although the amplification effect is clear, supporting devices are hampered by this high-intensity interference. This was exacerbated by the problem of placing the aid in my ear properly. It may not look like it at first, but these aids have a “right side” because the restoration thread is supposed to point down into the ear canal. I found this surprisingly difficult to achieve partly due to the small size of the aids, which resulted in me constantly having to fiddle with them.
Core One hearing aids are not adjusted to your audiogram nor do they have any frequency equalization options. Like many cheap hearing aids, comprehensive volume boost, provides steady yet straightforward amplification of all sounds across the spectrum. You’ll need the mobile app to control supporting devices as there are no built-in hardware controllers (and no way to reach them anyway).
Even these controls are pretty simple: Six volume settings and two program modes (standard and restaurant) are available in the app—and each mode must be set separately for each supporting device. Oddly, there’s no indication that program or volume settings work in the app. Instead, you have to tap a control button (say “Volume Up”) and listen for a beep to guess whether the sound is loud enough; Three beeps mean you are at minimum or maximum volume. The same goes for program mode: One beep means you’re in standard mode, and two beeps mean you’re in restaurant mode. Again, visual indications of the immediate status of these settings appear to be the minimum requirement, even in a budget hearing aid product.
