Streaming is the feature buyers ask about by name and the one sellers price most differently, which makes it a good test of what a published list can show. Two of the three sellers in this record state app control or phone streaming against particular models and publish prices for both the models that have it and the models that do not. The difference between those figures is the closest thing to an answer this record can give, and it is a different answer at each seller.
Ask providers for a written price
Jabra Enhance builds it into every tier
All three Jabra Enhance models stream hands-free calls and audio to Android and iOS, and all three are rechargeable, so there is no cheaper non-streaming version to compare against. The list is $1,195 a pair for the Enhance Select M1, $1,695 for the M2 and $1,995 for the M3, and what separates them is stated as hearing performance in noise, adaptive listening and size rather than connectivity. On this list the price of Bluetooth is effectively the price of entry: $1,195, with three years of audiology services and a 100-day risk-free trial in the same figure.
MDHearing prices app control as a step up
MDHearing's list makes the comparison directly. The NEO XS, in-the-ear, is described as clean clear sound for everyday listening and is $297 a pair. The NEO XS PRO, the same in-the-ear form factor with customized sound profiles and smartphone app control, is $597. Behind the ear, the VOLT 4 at $397 is described as excellent sound quality in noisy environments, and the VOLT MAX 2 at $597 adds adaptive technology, customized sound profiles and the same app control. Read across the four, app control and adaptive processing move the published price by $200 to $300 a pair at this seller.
Audien prices connectivity within a wide range
Audien publishes six models between $98 and $689 a pair and markets app control and touchscreen control among its features, with the ION Pro 2 at $689 as its most powerful and the ION Air at $489 as its most adaptable, against the Atom One at $98 and the Atom Air at $149 at the simple end. The seller does not lay out a feature-by-feature table on the page read here, so this record does not attribute the difference between $98 and $689 to any single feature. What it records is the range and the model names, because that is what is published.
What the comparison is worth
Only as much as the lists themselves. Two sellers price streaming and app control as a step of a few hundred dollars a pair, and one includes it at every tier of a list that starts a thousand dollars higher. That is a real and quotable finding about how the direct channel prices, and it is not a claim that streaming works equally well on any of these devices, nor a recommendation to buy the connected model. This record publishes prices and what the sellers say is included; it does not test products and it publishes no rankings.
Questions people ask about bluetooth hearing aids cost
What is the cheapest published Bluetooth pair?
Of the three lists in this record, MDHearing's NEO XS PRO and VOLT MAX 2 at $597 a pair are the cheapest models the seller describes as offering smartphone app control. Audien lists app-controlled models within a range that runs from $98 to $689 without breaking the feature out on the page read here.
Do all Bluetooth hearing aids stream calls?
The published descriptions differ. Jabra Enhance states hands-free calls and audio streaming to Android and iOS on all three of its models. The other sellers describe app control, which is not the same thing as streaming a call, and this record does not assume it is.
Is Bluetooth worth the difference?
That is a judgement about a product and this site does not make one. What it can say is what the difference is on each published list, which is $200 to $300 a pair at MDHearing and no separate charge at all at Jabra Enhance, where every tier carries it.
Are rechargeable and Bluetooth the same tier?
Not necessarily, though they often move together. Every Jabra Enhance model is both rechargeable and streaming; the other two lists do not present the two features as a single step, and this record does not merge them.