A Comparison of Behind-the-Ear High-Fidelity Linear Hearing Aids and Two-Channel Compression Aids, in the Laboratory and in Everyday Life

Eight patients suffering from sensorineural hearing losses with recruitment took part in a trial comparing their own hearing aids (or no aid if they did not normally wear one) with 'high-fidelity' linear aids and with aids incorporating two-channel syllabic compression. All aids were worn behind the ear. Speech intelligibility was measured both in quiet and in noise, and the patients were given questionnaires enquiring about the effectiveness of the aids in everyday situations. Both the intelligibility tests and the questionnaires indicated that the linear aids were substantially better than own/no aid, and the compressor aids were substantially better than the linear aids, allowing good speech discrimination over a wide range of sound levels. Six out of the eight patients derived significant benefit from being fitted with two aids rather than one. The use of directional microphones in the linear and compressor aids allowed a significant improvement for speech intelligibility in noise when the speech and noise were spatially separated.