Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Peer-reviewed review

Hearing aids: what works well and what can be improved

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/moore-2026/ · record checked 13 October 2026

  • Moore BCJ
  • Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 27:123-135

Independent (University of Cambridge; UK research council grant)

Summary

A review of current hearing-aid performance, drawing on research and the author's experience as a hearing-aid user, including fitting type and wireless streaming.

Key findings

  • With an open fitting, sound passing through the vent mixes with the hearing aid's delayed output, causing comb filtering heard as coloration; with a 5 ms delay, response peaks fall at multiples of 200 Hz.
  • Streamed sound can sound "tinny" with an open fitting because low frequencies leak out, and room sound leaking in through the vent reduces the clarity of what is streamed.
  • Describes Auracast as letting a device broadcast to an unlimited number of nearby receivers, including hearing aids, without pairing, for TVs and public-address systems in places such as airports, stations and lecture halls.
  • The author rates current hearing-aid wireless connectivity 10/10 with a closed fitting and 7/10 with an open fitting.
  • The Styles of Hearing Aids and Open Versus Closed Fittings section explains that a closed fitting can make the user’s own voice too loud or boomy through the occlusion effect. It describes the trade-off with vented fittings, which let external sound in and low-frequency hearing aid output out.

Limits

A narrative review that includes the author's personal ratings; no new data on Auracast.

Read the original

link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10162-026-01031-5

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Cited in

Cite this source

Moore BCJ. Hearing aids: what works well and what can be improved. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 27:123-135. 13 February 2026. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10162-026-01031-5 (accessed 13 October 2026).

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