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He Thought His Wife Was Exaggerating — Until a 2-Minute Test Showed He'd Been Missing Half of Every Conversation for Years

Published by Reewfy | Health | 👁 12,256

My name is Gary Foster. I'm 68, I live in Adelaide, and for years my wife Denise told me I never listened to her.

I always had a comeback. She mumbles. The telly's too loud. Everyone talks too fast these days.

It became a running joke in our house. Forty-one years married, and half our arguments started with "you're not listening to me again."

Then at my granddaughter's birthday, my son-in-law told a joke at the table. Everyone laughed. I laughed half a second later — because I hadn't actually heard it. I'd just copied everyone else.

My daughter noticed. She leaned over to Denise and said quietly, "Dad didn't hear that, did he?"

That one stuck with me.

A few days later Denise left something on the kitchen table without saying a word — a two-minute hearing test she'd printed off the internet. I did it purely to prove her wrong.

I wasn't fine. I'd been quietly losing whole words — especially higher-pitched sounds, women's voices, kids' voices — for years, without realising it, because my brain had just learned to fill in the gaps.

So I did what anyone would do next. I looked into every option available in Australia.

Here's what I found.

Hearing Australia (Government Subsidised)

This was the first place I called. They're subsidised — free in a lot of cases if you're a pensioner — and the technology itself is apparently decent.

But the wait was 6 to 18 months. Denise pointed out, fairly, that we'd have been divorced by the time they called me back.

My mate Col, who's had his for three years, warned me they're the big behind-the-ear kind. Batteries die every few days, they whistle when you're on the phone, and everyone at the bowls club can see them from across the green.

He said about half the blokes he knows with them stop wearing them after a few months. Not because they're broken. Because living with them is a hassle.

Specsavers, Connect Hearing, Audika, and the private clinics

Next I rang around. Average quote at Specsavers: $3,100. Connect Hearing: $4,800. Audika: $5,500. Bay Audio: $6,200.

I nearly hung up on the last one.

A mate of mine used to work the sales floor at one of these places for a few years. He told me straight — the hearing aid itself, the receiver, the chip, the microphone, costs somewhere around $80 to $100 to actually make.

The rest of that $5,000 is the shopfront, the sales commission, the head office, and the ads you see during the footy.

Then there's the ongoing costs nobody mentions upfront. Batteries, around $40 a year. Repairs, $400 to $600 a pop. Over ten years you're looking at close to $9,000 — for parts that cost about $100 to manufacture.

Denise and I looked at each other and agreed — that money was earmarked for our grandkids, not a shopfront on the high street.

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Amazon, eBay, and the cheap online stuff

This is where I nearly made a $50 mistake.

My first thought was — why not just grab one off eBay for $49 and see if it works? Denise talked me out of it, thank God.

Turns out these aren't hearing aids at all. They're amplifiers. They make everything louder — the fridge, the traffic, your own breathing — all at the same volume, with no way to separate Denise's voice from the telly running in the background.

A real hearing aid has a digital chip that filters sound, so voices come through clearer while background noise gets pushed down. Completely different thing.

That chip alone reportedly costs around $80. If a whole device is $49, that chip simply isn't in there — you're getting a speaker and a battery in a plastic shell.

Col from the bowls club tried one of these years back and said it was worse than not wearing anything at all. If you've tried one and given up, you weren't trying a hearing aid — you were trying an amplifier. Don't let that put you off the idea altogether, like it nearly did for me.

Direct-to-Consumer: AuriVox ($147)

This is the one that changed things for us.

My son-in-law mentioned it after I told him what the clinics were quoting. $147 for a hearing device? I assumed it was the same cheap amplifier nonsense as the eBay stuff, just with better marketing.

So I did what I do with anything before I spend money on it — I read everything I could find, checked what was actually inside it, and asked around.

Turns out AuriVox uses Knowles receivers — the same supplier the big clinics use — with proper digital processing chips, not amplification. It's TGA-registered as a medical device, same as anything you'd buy at a clinic. Same inspections, same registration process.

Rechargeable too, no fumbling with tiny batteries over the sink.

I ordered a pair mostly to prove to myself the whole thing was rubbish.

First time I put them in, I heard the tap running in the kitchen and the car going past out front — sounds I didn't even realise I'd stopped hearing properly.

But the moment that actually got me was a few days later. Denise and I were in the kitchen, no telly on, just talking. She stopped halfway through a sentence and said, "You're looking at me differently." I was — because for the first time in years I wasn't lip-reading or filling in gaps. I was just listening.

60 day returns, two year guarantee if anything goes wrong. I emailed them one technical question and a real person, not a chatbot, answered it in a few hours.

I've got no more excuses left in our arguments. Best money I've ever spent on myself, and honestly, the best thing I ever did for her.

What I hear from real people

Since I first told this story, I've heard from a lot of Aussies in the same boat. The same things keep coming up:

"My wife had been saying the same thing to me for years. Wish I'd listened three years ago." — Robert, 78, Brisbane

"Paid $4,800 at Connect Hearing two years ago. These are better, and cost a fraction." — Colin, 72, Melbourne

"Wore my Hearing Australia aids for six years. Put them in a drawer after three days with these." — Roy, 74, Perth

"Nearly wasted $200 on eBay before my son talked me out of it." — Keith, 71, Sydney

My recommendation

I'm not a hearing specialist. I'm just a bloke who nearly let forty-one years of marriage jokes turn into something that mattered.

If you can wait 6 to 18 months and don't mind the big behind-the-ear style, Hearing Australia is a perfectly fine option, and it won't cost you anything.

If money genuinely isn't an issue, the private clinics will look after you properly, at a price.

But if you're like me and Denise — can't justify thousands, can't wait over a year, and don't want to waste money on amplifier junk — AuriVox is what actually made sense for us.

Same core technology. A fraction of the price. And an actual difference at home, not just on paper.

If someone in your life has ever said you don't listen to them — do the test before you argue back. I wish I had, years earlier.

Check availability and current pricing for AuriVox →

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