In use as a hearing aid, the Melodia has two modes—all around and “hear in noise,” which is designed for louder settings. Both were reasonably effective, but I had the best results with the aids in quieter settings, as the noise reduction feature—tunable to three different levels—tended to block out more essential sounds like voices when dialed up. With noise reduction at a minimum, I encountered a constant bit of barely-there background hum and a noticeable touch of echo.
However, the biggest issue I had with the Melodia aids was that I had to turn the volume all the way up to maximum to get much of an impact, something I rarely encounter on other aids. The Kingwell app has an in-app system to ask for support if your hearing experience isn’t perfect. A tech support agent quickly suggested resetting my audiogram settings with numbers 10 points higher across the board, among other fixes. This did help with overall volume, but the echo effect got worse, with audio seeming to flux in and out, up and down in level—a problem which can make you feel a little crazy over time.
As streaming earbuds, the Melodia units sounded great, at least with music: Great instrumental depth, solid but not thumping bass, and crystal-clear vocals across the board. Strangely, I ran into a new issue when watching a dialog-heavy film with the aids: Voices didn’t seem to be in sync between both ears, creating more echo. Further testing after restarting the aids by putting them back in the case and changing modes to hearing aid mode and back seemed to alleviate the issue to some degree.
Photograph: Christopher Null
Unfortunately, Kingwell’s noise reduction mode only works in hearing aid mode. In fact, you can’t even control volume to the aids in the Kingwell app when you’re in streaming mode—although, bizarrely, you can still interact with volume sliders for each ear that don’t actually function. You’ll need to use your phone’s volume controls instead.
The promised battery life seems ambitious, and streaming really does some damage to the charge level: An hour of solid streaming had knocked the reported battery life down by a third. Kingwell says that the nine-hour lifespan is valid for hearing aid mode only, and you’ll get closer to six hours in streaming mode. But even that seems optimistic.
While the Melodia hearing aids are a little rough around the edges, they’re moderately effective and surprisingly comfortable for long-term wear. I was able to keep them in for hours on end without so much as an itch, a claim I can’t make for many other aids. At the sub-$500 level, they’re not my favorite aids, but they’re at least worth a listen.
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