[Wonder Warthog]

"The court said it’s a hearing aid if you get it by prescription and it’s a hearing amplifier if you don’t involve an audiologist. My buddy paid $1700 for a hearing aids last summer. I copied the make and model number from his and bought the same device for $69."

That's just fine, as long as your hearing loss is even across the sound frequency spectrum. If you have a "notch", or low or high end loss, and the aid is digital, the aid needs to be programmed to match the gain curve of the aid to your specific loss curve. Which requires an audiogram, and specialized software and hardware to do the programming.

If the above is the case, then your best shot is Costco. Their techs can do the audiogram and aid adjustments.

(proudly wearing hearing aids since the 1980's).

[BuffaloJack]

> If you have a “notch”, or low or high end loss, and the aid is digital, the aid needs to be programmed to match the gain curve of the aid to your specific loss curve.

Or you spend $200 for a device with 20+ band settings and just walk through the different filters until you find the one or two you like.