I’ve been using Signia Pure C&G T 7IX hearing aids since October of 2024. Since I’m a technology nerd, I thought I’d share my experience. My hearing loss is not horrible, but it was definitely affecting my day to day living and social life. As someone in their late 50s, I have a lot of family and friends around my age or even older who should be using hearing aids but simply refuse to get them or if they already have them, they refuse to wear them. Personally, I see them like reading glasses, you’re getting older so your body needs help. Might as well get them. Hearing aids are practically invisible if you’re worried about your vanity. You can’t say the same for reading glasses! Not to mention, according to Johns Hopkins University, “The latest aging research not only shows the two are connected, it’s also leading scientists to believe that hearing loss may actually be a cause of dementia.”
The Tech
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m mainly an Apple ecosystem (Mac, iPhone, AppleTV) user, but I tend to be skeptical of products claiming to be compatible with macOS. Maybe that stems from when USB was adopted in the 1990s and companies claimed their product was compatible. But compatibility has come a long way with computers and mobile devices, especially with technologies like Bluetooth. These days with Bluetooth devices, they will pair pretty easily to mobile devices and computers, it’s usually a matter of holding down a pairing button until your computer or mobile devices sees it.
For the Signia Pure C&G T 7IX, users need to add them to the Hearing Devices tab of their Accessibility’s settings and they will let you use them for phone calls, video calls or conferencing (Zoom, Google Meet, MS Teams, etc.), using the hearing aid’s mics and routing the phone or computer’s audio right into your ears. This works on my MacBook at home and at work as well as my iPhone and iPad. Install the Signia iOS app and you can fine tune your experience on your mobile device by choosing which program to use (Universal, Musician Setting, Recorded Music, TV, Noisy Environment and Tinnitus). I believe these were preloaded by my audiologist when I first bought the hearing aids but I wish I could tweak them. More on that later.
According to Johns Hopkins University, “The latest aging research not only shows the two are connected, it’s also leading scientists to believe that hearing loss may actually be a cause of dementia.”
I like the Tinnitus setting and seem to use this the most, you can even dial in the amount of white noise. Not sure if it actually works in reducing the ringing in my ears, but it’s what I like. I use the Tinnitus program unless I’m in a noisy restaurant or bar. With the Noisy Environment program, you can choose which mics the hearing aid uses and direct the hearing aids to amplify more of the sounds in front or to the sides with the use of a slider in the app. It’s works pretty well, especially if you have extra noisy people at other tables around you.
There are external accessories you can buy that might make these even more useful. One is the StreamLine TV which lets you route your TVs audio into your hearing aids. While Signia (or at least A.I. assisted internet searches) say you can pair your Signia hearing aids with an AppleTV, I have not been able to get that to work. And I do tech support for a living, so I tried for hours to get it to work. It doesn’t. If I really want an immersive sound experience while watching TV, I’ll put in my AirPods. My home theater is on when the TV’s on and it’s full surround, not just a sound bar, so I don’t really think I need the StreamLine TV.
Things They Should Fix
- Compatibility
- On my Mac the user experience has mostly been good, but lately with macOS Sequoia 15.6.1, it seems to be broken but still works with my iPhone running iOS 26.3.1 (as of April 8, 2026). Every month or so I will need to re-add the hearing aids to my Mac, but after this last macOS update, I can’t even re-add it. It adds it then disappears. So weird.
- On my iPhone, the app is okay. I’d say every couple of months I’ll need to re-add them in my iPhone’s Hearing Devices settings.
- For listening to music, they work fine. In the iPhone Music app’s settings, you can change the EQ mode to something that you prefer and it changes the music the way you hear it through your hearing aids. That only affects stuff from your Music app, not any other audio from your phone. I’m a musician, so I often listen to songs I’m working on using my hearing aids, then route the audio through my phone’s built in speakers to get a different perspective. That works well, but I have found if you try to use your hearing aids with an audio or video editing app, the hearing aids don’t do uncompressed audio very well. For some reason the hearing aids can’t handle the uncompressed signal and I often get an error that comes up that complains about the audio device not being compatible. But for most users, they probably won’t run into this.
- Customizability – I wish I could make the Tinnitus program the default. Sometimes it starts with that program when I put the hearing aids on in the morning, sometimes not. Seriously, give me the app the audiologists use. Hell, even dumb it down or lock some settings out, I don’t care, but give me access to settings I can customize to my own liking.
Recommendation
I like them. When the audiologist came to my house I tried a couple different brands, she recommended the Signia Pures and they’ve been good. I understand like many health-care related things in the US, it’s a bit of a racket, but there’s lot of hearing aids out there. Do a Google search and you’ll be inundated with hearing aids from many different headphone or mobile accessory companies that you’re familiar with. Go try one and don’t settle for something you’re not happy with. If they aren’t comfortable, try different ones. The sales people in the stores in the mall probably aren’t worried about your satisfaction, they just want a sale. It’s your money and your health. Get what you like. Try different ones.
I will say try different ear tips. The tips that are like silicone ear plugs (like kid’s play stethoscope ear pieces) are not good; the ones that are the size of your fingertip. Those don’t fit inside your ear canal properly and block out ambient sounds around you like earplugs. My coworker said her husband tried that style and they were horrible. Once he switched to smaller, different in-canal tips, it made all the difference in comfort and his experience. I have a friend who doesn’t wear his because he has those bulky silicone ones but won’t switch them out. Every time he can’t hear me, it makes me sad for him. Get the tips that fit inside your ear canal, the ones that are small, smaller than a Q-tip tip.
Seriously, if you have hearing loss and are missing out on conversations or don’t like to be in social situations because you can’t hear, get hearing aids! There’s no excuse, especially with FSA plans and health insurance that will pay for it. What are you waiting for?! WHAT? I said get them! And don’t forget about the dementia link.
-Terry, April 2026