My first encounter with Elehear, an over-the-counter hearing aid model, earlier this yr was optimistic. The corporate’s Alpha Pro listening to aids are conventional behind-the-ear units designed for customers with delicate listening to loss. They arrive with a web-based audiologist session to assist new customers rise up to hurry and a “distant sound” characteristic that permits you to drop your cellphone in entrance of an audio supply and have it piped on to the listening to aids. At $459, they’re solidly priced and had been ok to earn a runner-up spot on my Best Hearing Aids guide.
Now the corporate is again with a follow-up: the Elehear Beyond. Outfitted with a bigger operational frequency vary, higher noise cancelation, and a tinnitus mode, on paper the Past aids appear to be all the pieces you get with the Alpha Professional and extra. Sadly, as I found after just a few weeks of testing, extra doesn’t all the time imply higher.
{Photograph}: Christopher Null
Let’s begin with the {hardware} as a result of it’s an enormous change, and I imply that actually. Elehear’s Alpha Professional listening to aids, weighing about 4 grams, aren’t precisely tiny, however the Past aids are even larger. At 4.75 grams every, they’re practically double the load of Jabra’s 2.56-gram Enhance Select 500 aids, although each have a standard behind-the-ear (BTE) design. I used to be stunned by the dimensions from the second I unboxed them, and much more so after I seemed within the mirror. There’s no hiding these gargantuan teardrops—they induced my ears to visibly stand proud of the aspect of my head.
However let’s say you are not as useless as me. What in regards to the audio high quality? Right here, the Past aids didn’t overly impress me both. From the second I put them on, these listening to aids exhibited a noticeable stage of background noise, audible even at pretty low amplification ranges. It’s higher described as nearer to a rattle than a hiss, a bit like an previous desk fan close by that’s grinding on naked metallic because it spins.
{Photograph}: Christopher Null by way of Elehear app
