Couldn’t agree with you more! As someone who uses them, and I have “buds” (aka “in ear”/not visible), I have a very expensive yet “simple” device. It is “tuned” specifically based on an audio test.

Wouldn’t it be extremely gratifying if we could simply “download” a test from our doctor and have that “tune” our aids? Just like any audio app on a device, we can then “adjust” to our preferences — no different than working with an equalizer app. We could set “preferences” and tune to a particular situation (not some “static” setting). A conversation with someone who’s voice is unfortunately a frequency that I have difficulty with vs listening to music, and so on. Our doctors’ setting could be the “default” and we could simply go back to it with a tap on our device.

I wear a variety of audio headphones — on/over/in ear, wired/wireless, (because I work for a company that makes them) that I can tune and adjust and still enjoy the music that I feared I would never enjoy again. It’s gratifying. If only I could extend that experience to life. I’d love to have conversations where I don’t try to “fill in” context because I could “miss” some words…yes, that approach does have the same pitfalls as a Siri or Cortana, or Google “auto complete” or a “spell check” gone horribly wrong :)

If I’m not mistaken, it’s a “captive market” served only by a handful of providers. That’s why it’s extremely expensive. My buds are the most expensive device, necessity, I carry with me everyday — nothing comes close, yet leaving much to be desired.