Acoustic Gain and Threshold Improvement in Hearing Aid Selection

Unaided and aided spondee thresholds were obtained for 25 hearing-impaired subjects in order to examine the relationship between spondee threshold improvement and average acoustic gain developed by the aids in a standard 2 cc coupler. The hearing aids had been adjusted by the subjects to a comfortable listening level and the gain subsequently measured at that setting. The results revealed a moderate relationship between average acoustic gain and threshold improvement, though the magnitude of the improvement provided by the aids was approximately 10 dB less than the measured acoustic gain.