HearAdvisor, an independent sound performance lab, is today awarding 13 standout hearing aids with its new “HearAdvisor Expert Choice” badge. In a market flooded with poorly-performing imports, the Expert Choice badge aims to give consumers a simple and reliable way to identify high-quality hearing aids.

Founded by three hearing experts, Abram Bailey AuD, Steve Taddei AuD, and Andrew Sabin PhD, HearAdvisor is on a mission to help consumers make better-informed decisions while navigating a confusing, sometimes deceptive marketplace. The recent introduction of OTC hearing aids in the US has given consumers more options than ever, creating a flood of new hearing aids of varying quality (even in FDA-compliant devices) being offered by top national retailers.

Some of the winners of the “Expert Choice” badge include: Sony CRE-E10 Self-Fitting OTC Hearing Aids, Sony CRE-C10 Self-Fitting OTC Hearing Aids, Jabra Enhance Select 200, Lexie B2, and Lucid Engage.

“It’s an honor to be recognized as an Expert Choice hearing aid by HearAdvisor. We understand that the best hearing aids are the ones you wear. That’s why the Lexie B2 Hearing Aids, Powered by Bose uses the world’s first self-fitting technology to provide a clinically-proven, high-quality hearing experience that people can enjoy wearing for a fraction of the cost of traditional hearing aids. Our innovative technology, easy to use app, and accessible, remote support, make Lexie Hearing Aids a standout product – and one people can feel comfortable wearing.” says Brian Maguire, Senior Vice President of North America for Lexie Hearing.

“I need to give full credit for this recognition to our incredible team at Lucid Hearing for the extraordinary work that they’ve done to make our products, like the Engage Rechargeable, such a high performing OTC hearing aid,” said Bennett Griffin, Executive Vice President of Research and Development. “Lucid Hearing was fully prepared when the OTC market opened up to offer quality hearing devices that are easily accessible and affordable, while still performing at advanced levels. That is due to the efforts of multiple teams, who have designed and built an exceptional line of OTC hearing aid products that have led to our ability to help so many people secure solutions for their hearing loss.”

“We're honored to receive HearAdvisor's Expert Choice Award,” said Adam Karp, CEO of Jabra Enhance. “Jabra Enhance Select was designed to elevate hearing care for millions of Americans in need of hearing solutions and we look forward to continuing to innovate and enable users to reach their full hearing potential with our devices.”

HearAdvisor is also launching an overall sound performance score—the HearAdvisor SoundScore™—that summarizes, in a single easy-to-compare number, a hearing aid’s overall sound performance. SoundScore™ combines various aspects of performance such as speech in quiet/noise benefits, streamed audio quality, feedback handling, and fit voice quality.  HearAdvisor has measured almost all of the most popular hearing aids on the US market in 2023.

“Coming up with a single number to quantify the overall sound performance of a hearing aid is super challenging,” said Abram Bailey, Au.D. and co-founder of HearAdvisor. “We leaned on the latest research in audiology and hearing science to make realistic recordings and compute perceptually-validated metrics from the scientific literature. We even conducted our own research to find which of our metrics were most important to consumers and audiology professionals. This helped us to create a composite score that captures the priorities of both groups.” Today, hearing aids with the highest SoundScore™ are awarded the 2023 HearAdvisor Experts Choice award.

Consumers can also now listen to realistic recordings of all devices measured by HearAdvisor. Using its state-of-the-art acoustic testing laboratory, HearAdvisor records each hearing aid in a range of realistic environments presented with ambisonic reproduction, in a semi-anechoic room, and recorded on an industry-standard hearing manikin.

The resulting binaural hearing aid audio recordings place the listener in 3D sound environments, allowing customers to preview hearing aids from their homes with just a pair of headphones. Consumers can listen to the recordings now on HearingTracker.com, America’s #1 hearing aid shopping resource to assist with their decision making process.