Results
Summary
As of April 2026, this procedure has been conducted on 56 earplug conditions (each setting of a device is a condition) across 31 earplugs.
- Average perceptual loudness reduction score: 4.0 (s.d. 0.6)
- Average sound quality score: 2.6 (s.d. 1.3)
- The two metrics are negatively correlated (), indicating a trend toward worse sound quality with increasing loudness reduction. However, the relatively low correlation strength () indicates that it is possible to alter one dimension and not the other.
- Median SoundScore: 3.7 (s.d. 0.6)
- Expert Choice winners: 18 conditions (SoundGrade "A") received the Expert Choice award
Score Distributions
Table 2. Summary results. First two columns show how SoundScore maps to SoundGrade. Remaining columns show distribution of metrics across the full set of 56 earplug conditions.
| SoundScore | SoundGrade | SoundGrade (Evaluations) | Loudness Reduction (Evaluations) | Sound Quality (Evaluations) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0--5.0 | A | 18 (33%) | 32 (58%) | 11 (20%) |
| 3.0--3.9 | B | 34 (62%) | 20 (36%) | 8 (15%) |
| 2.0--2.9 | C | 2 (4%) | 3 (5%) | 16 (29%) |
| 1.0--1.9 | D | 1 (2%) | 0 (0%) | 17 (31%) |
| 0.0--0.9 | F | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 3 (5%) |
Full Results
Detailed per-device results and listening simulations are available at hearadvisor.com.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures
- Andrew Sabin Ph.D. is a scientific advisor to HearAdvisor LLC and is also employed by a company that participates in the hearing device market. He does not directly evaluate products associated with Bose Corporation.