Find the Best Hearing Aid for Music Quality
Not all hearing aids reproduce music the same way. Take our interactive listening test to compare how different hearing aids handle your favorite music genres—based on real lab recordings.
Music sounds different through hearing aids
Streaming music through hearing aids involves complex digital signal processing, Bluetooth audio codecs, and amplification algorithms. Each hearing aid handles this differently, resulting in significant variations in music quality. Some excel at preserving the richness of classical orchestras, while others better handle the dynamics of rock or jazz.
How We Record Music Through Hearing Aids
We use lab recordings and scientific metrics to objectively evaluate music quality, presenting results on a simple 0-5 point scale that anyone can understand.
Laboratory Setup
Our custom acoustic testing laboratory features an 8-speaker array in a quiet, non-reverberant room. We use a KEMAR acoustic manikin with anthropometric ears and high-fidelity microphones to capture exactly what you would hear.
Music Streaming Tests
We stream five genres of royalty-free music from a paired smartphone to each hearing aid. The streaming level is calibrated to match a reference level of 70 dB SPL—a common comfortable listening level.
Scientific Metrics
We use the Hearing Aid Audio Quality Index (HAAQI), a scientifically-validated metric that models the impaired auditory system and predicts subjective music quality ratings from individuals with hearing loss.
Realistic, Repeatable Recordings
Designing appropriate recording methods is complex. We target a standard moderate sloping hearing loss (N3 configuration) that is common and appropriate for both prescription and OTC devices. Each hearing aid is tested in two configurations:
- Initial Fit: Approximates settings a user would experience following basic setup instructions—representing the out-of-box experience.
- Tuned Fit: Optimized settings matching prescriptive targets for quiet and loud inputs—representing a professionally-fitted device.
All recordings are processed for headphone presentation using diffuse field equalization to remove the acoustic effects of the manikin's anatomy.
Understanding the HAAQI Score
The Hearing Aid Audio Quality Index (HAAQI) was developed to predict subjective music quality ratings from individuals with hearing loss. It captures the influence of both linear distortions (like frequency response changes) and nonlinear distortions (like compression artifacts).
We compute each device's average HAAQI across both ears and all recordings of streamed music, then scale the results to our intuitive 0-5 point scale.