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CES® 2017, the largest consumer electronics showcase in the world, sets the stage for the Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) 2017 Semi-Finals taking place January 7th at 1PM PST. Ahead of the Semi-Finals, the masterminds behind XTC, MaiTai Global, are thrilled to reveal the Top 10 who will pitch their venture live on-stage at CES in hopes of being one of three companies selected to move onto the final round taking place on Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island. A hotly-contested battle thus far, the Top 10 Semi-Finalists were announced December 3rd at MaiTai Global's annual Ocean Gala in San Francisco and now forge on to the glittering backdrop of Las Vegas.

When buying a car, for example, the consumer not only can choose between a Lexus and a Chevrolet, but also decide on particular features, such as wire wheels or gold trim. Patrick Freuler, chief executive of Audicus, an online company that partners with a German manufacturer to sell private-label hearing aids, makes the point that consumers are not being offered the low-cost choices, but are being presented with only luxury devices.

When Medgadget was offered a chance to test drive a new direct to consumer personal audio amplifier from Audicus, we picked up on the invitation. You see, one of our editors, just like Charles Darwin, is a life long sufferer from Ménière’s disease, with the resultant tinnitus and bilateral low-pitch hearing loss. So for this editor the idea of a discounted behind-the-ear device is a matter of personal necessity.

This year, hearing aids (finally) got the aesthetic overhaul they deserve, thanks to Audicus' collaboration with Advanced Style, the blog (which begat a documentary) celebrating an older, wiser set of style muses.

Audicus, a startup that sells hearing aids through an online shop at much lower prices than its storefront counterparts, has a vast team of representatives readily available to hop on the phone with its customers -- a rarity in Silicon Valley, which almost exclusively handles questions or complaints through digital channels.

I see Audicus completely changing the hearing aid industry over the next few years. Providing affordable hearing aids fills a huge void in the market that will affect millions of people.

Audicus hearing aids, it's worth noting, sell for a significantly lower price point (between $500 and $700) than traditional hearing aids (around $2,000). The startup cuts out the brick-and-mortar clinic, or "middle man," to sell products at a discounted price.

Developers at Audicus said they were shocked by the high cost and ugly design of traditional hearing aids (they typically start at about $2,000 per ear) so they streamlined the process to offer modern-looking hearing aids at a fraction of that cost. Audicus sells hearing aids for about $500 per ear. It reduces cost by lowering overheads and linking customers directly to a hearing aid manufacturer in Germany.

Technological advances are making some medical devices like hearing aids more affordable.

Audicus founder Patrick Freuler appears on episode 3 of Ask Marcus Lemonis, a weekly Inc. video series in which an entrepreneur asks Lemonis a question about his or her most pressing business challenge.