What Products Serve as a Hearing Enhancer?

Hearing amplifiers, also known as personal sound amplifiers or PSAs, are wearable audio devices that serve as hearing enhancers by raising the volume and improving the quality of the sounds around their wearers to help them hear better. Unlike a hearing aid that’s customized for its owner and requires an audiologist’s prescription based on a hearing test, a hearing amplifier is sold over the counter and doesn’t need any custom fitting or prescription.

Hearing difficulty affects tens of millions of Americans. According to a 2019 National Center for Health Statistics study among American adults aged 65 and older, 26.8% experienced hearing difficulty, and 14.4% used a hearing aid. Moreover, 28.8 million adults in the United States could benefit from using a hearing aid, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

Hearing amplifiers are standardized consumer devices that make sounds louder and clearer to improve their wearers’ hearing. They’re suitable for people without severe hearing loss who may struggle to hear clearly in certain situations (for example, at a noisy restaurant.) Hearing amplifiers cost $50 to $1,000, don’t require a prescription and aren’t regulated by the FDA.

Hearing aids are individualized medical devices tailored to meet the needs of their wearers based on a hearing test conducted by an audiologist. At prices between $2,000 and $4,000, hearing aids are more expensive than hearing amplifiers and can only be bought with a prescription. They’re regulated by the FDA and best suited for those with medium-to-severe hearing loss.

Some vendors use the term “hearing aids” as a generic term to describe hearing amplifiers, which may mislead those seeking to enhance their hearing. If a hearing device doesn’t require a prescription, it’s a hearing amplifier, not a hearing aid.

Hearing amplifiers come in a wide range of prices with varying capabilities. Some hearing amplifiers feature feedback cancellation and dual or multidirectional microphones to better capture sounds even in noisy environments. Intelligent amplification technology picks up the most important sounds, such as human conversations, from the background and focuses on them for boosting and enhancement. Many hearing amplifiers come with a noise reduction feature to further reduce background noises while amplifying human voices.

Some people have difficulty hearing in specific situations, such as a noisy bar or a quiet outdoor space. Many hearing amplifiers offer multiple preset environmental settings — for example, “quiet,” “restaurant” or “conversation” — so that the wearer can quickly select the environmental mode best suited to their surroundings. The more advanced hearing amplifiers can even adapt to the wearer’s situation by automatically switching to the most suitable setting as they go from one place to another.

With the smartphone app that comes with many hearing amplifiers, a user can adjust the volume, environmental settings and other aspects of their device to improve their product experience. While a smartphone app is a convenient way to configure a hearing amplifier, many users may still want a device that also features physical buttons for controlling volume and settings.

The battery is another important element of a hearing amplifier. Those equipped with rechargeable batteries save their wearers from constantly having to buy new batteries. Long battery life is a must for users who need to wear their hearing amplifiers for long hours in one sitting.

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