Lucid Engage Rechargeable

Lucid Engage is an over-the-counter hearing aid priced at $699 per pair and designed for those with mild to moderate hearing loss. Engage may be purchased online or in stores like Best Buy, Walmart, and Sam's Club. A hearing test is not required, but keep reading for a full breakdown of considerations, and my recommendation on purchasing this device.

Key Features

• Self-adjustable (no professional assistance required)
• Bluetooth streaming from Android or iPhone devices
• App controlled personalizable sound settings
• Rechargeable batteries lasting up to 20 hours per charge
• Water resistant nano coating

About Lucid Engage

Engage™ was released in October of 2022 as Lucid^® Hearing’s premium FDA registered over the counter (OTC) hearing aid. More recently, Lucid Tala has taken on the role of Lucid's flagship hearing aid.

Lucid Enage is a receiver-in-canal (RIC) style device offers many features found in more expensive hearing aids such as rechargeability and streaming for both Apple^® iOS and Android™ devices. As Engage is an OTC device, it was designed to be programmed from the comforts of your home without any direct assistance from a hearing care provider. Once setup is complete, the Lucid app offers wireless control over features such as sound clarity and noise reduction.

Who makes Lucid Engage?

Lucid Hearing is owned by Hearing Lab Technologies, LLC, which is a North America-based manufacturer of hearing products. They were founded in 2009 and are the parent company of other common brands such as Etymotic^®, Westone Audio^® , and HearGear™. Along with offering Lucid Engage at stores like Walmart, Hearing Lab Technologies also operates 500 Lucid Hearing Centers, with the vast majority located in Sam's Club stores, which they claim drives the innovation behind their hearing devices.

Using Lucid Engage

Engage hearing aids are designed to be user friendly and are nearly ready to go from the start. They are available in both a rechargeable or standard disposable size 13 battery option. In the box, you will find one pair of Engage hearing aids, a storage case, nine pairs of assorted ear tips, cleaning tools, wax stops, and a user manual. If you opt for rechargeable devices, the case is your charging base and a USB cable is provided. Several size 13 batteries are otherwise included.

The size, weight, and build quality of Engage hearing aids seems on par with other prescription level devices. I found the physical design very similar to RIC options available from Widex. Engage fit comfortably behind the ear, even while wearing glasses, and are not overly visible. Engage devices deliver sound directly into the ear canal with a tinny wire and receiver speaker. This helps improve sound quality compared to other more antiquated sound tube style options. Furthermore, the wire is relatively flexible which means it should adjust and fit well to most ears.

A multi-function rocker switch can be found on the back of each Engage device. This allows you to either adjust the volume (quick press) or progress among the available programs (long press). The devices communicate wirelessly so manual adjustments with the rocker switch to one ear will apply to both hearing aids. A functioning battery door can be found on both models of the device, which is slightly confusing, as only the standard option requires you to replace the disposable batteries.

Engage devices are inserted in the ear just like any other RIC style device and follow the conventional color coding of red for right and blue for left. The provided concha locks are highly recommended to help improve retention and appropriate receiver position within the ear canal.

Wireless Connectivity: Bluetooth and the Lucid App

Powered by Lucid hearing aids offer hands-free connectivity with both Apple iOS and Android devices. This allows for Bluetooth streaming of audio such as phone calls and music. This is a great option which is not currently available in many OTC devices.

Pairing Engage with a smartphone also allows it to be controlled wirelessly with the Lucid Hearing App. This feature is available with iPhone 6 or newer devices using iOS 12 or above, or Android phones with Android 10 or above. The App provides independent volume control and switching between 4 pre-determined programs which are reportedly based on audiometric research performed in conjunction with University of Texas at Dallas.

The four programs are:

• Mild: Recommended for those with the most common hearing impairment and difficulty hearing speech. 
• Moderate: Similar to Mild, but for those in need of more clarity. 
• Bass Boost: Similar to the Moderate program with a volume increase for vowel sounds.
• Max: Bass Boost program with maximum volume. 

Your Engage devices can be fine-tuned further for your individual needs with the volume control and other app settings to be discussed shortly. 

AudioEQ

AudioEQ is an app-only feature where you can control various elements of your streamed audio. Towards the top of the tab, Audio Mix allows you to alter the balance between streamed audio and the ambient sounds picked up by Engage’s adaptive microphones. Moving the slider towards “Streaming” will provide a more direct isolated sound of wireless audio such as phone calls. However, a balance favoring “Ambient” will increase the microphone mix which may be safer in busy areas where situational awareness is needed.

An Audio Equalizer can also be found providing customization of bass, mid low, mid high, and treble frequency ranges. This allows you to customize the sound quality of audio while streaming. Adjustments to any of the four sliders will affect both ambient and wireless signals and only be applied while streaming from your iOS or Android device. 

LucidShape™ 

One of the most novel features of Engage devices is LucidShape™ which can be found within the phone app. This tab provides impressive hands-on control allowing you to personalize the device's output. This is not simply a volume control or 3-band bass, middle, treble adjustment as found in some other OTC devices. LucidShape gives you more frequency specific adjustments so you can tune your hearing device more similar to that of a prescription hearing aid. While it is not quite on that level, it is the most comprehensive spectral adjustment I have seen from an OTD device. 

LucidShape seems to provide 9 points of customization between 250 and 6000 Hz. Adjustments can be made by touching your finger to any point on the colored lines (see image above) and dragging up or down until the desired sound is achieved. Changes can be applied to both ears or either the left or right side independently. There is also a left/right balance adjustment where you can change the relative volume between your ears across 7 different points. Settings can then be saved to your selected program.

LucidShape is an advanced feature for the more tech-savvy user. This level of customization also raises a question over what adjustments are appropriate for your hearing loss. While it would be difficult for the average person to objectively answer this question, audiologists have the means and knowledge to do so. As previously mentioned, this level of spectral control is similar to what prescription hearing aids offer. An audiologist could therefore perform real-ear measurements using LucidShape to fit Engage’s output more appropriately to your hearing profile. This is exactly what we did for our testing and the accuracy of fit can be seen above.

This feature is only available through the app and it is not active while streaming.

Does Wireless Connectivity with the App Work Well?

Engage devices connect wirelessly with your iOS or Android devices when you first open the Lucid app. This generally occurs within a few seconds and does not require any action from the user. As a result, I found pairing Engage with my iPhone much easier than some other hearing devices as there was no need to navigate through my phone settings, press buttons, or power the devices on and off. The wireless pairing is also relatively stable and there were no issues with maintaining connection or re-pairing if a connection was lost.

While connection worked well, the app functionality is one area where improvements are warranted. The app did not always store my customization and would occasionally reset to the default settings. This can be more than a mild annoyance especially if more specific adjustments are performed within LucidShape. Screenshotting the LucidShape tab can make recalling specific settings easier. This is highly recommended if you seek professional help to set LucidShape based on real-ear measurements and your specific hearing profile.

The app also has a slightly antiquated aesthetic. While this does not significantly influence functionality, it makes for some awkward user experiences. One example occurs when navigating to the LucidShape tab. The app display seems to glitch between screens as a rotating animation of LucidShape locks to a landscape orientation.

Disposable And Rechargeable Battery Use

Lucid Engage is available in two options using either a disposable battery or internal rechargeable cell. The disposable battery option should last roughly 1 to 2 weeks depending on use and phone connectivity using standard size 13 batteries. The rechargeable battery option uses an 820mHz Lithium-Ion polymer battery which can last up to 20 hours.

Lucid Engage can be charged by simply placing each device in the respective case slot. Though it is not magnetized, the case uses a contactless induction charging method so there are fewer worries about proper placement and wear of the rechargeable feature. The charging case does not include an internal battery and needs to be plugged into a USB port or wall plug with the included micro USB cable. It will take roughly 2-hours to fully charge at which point an LED indicator on the case will turn solid green.

How Does Speech Sound?

After programming Engage for our tests, they were worn in various environments to subjectively assess their sound quality and gain a better sense of their capabilities. Though my hearing falls within normal ranges, Engage sounds surprisingly similar to many prescription hearing aids. This is largely thanks to the LucidShape app feature allowing for finely-tuned adjustments. As a result, I found speech and other environmental sounds much clearer with the devices on and I did not hear strong artifacts from Engage’s processing.

My listening experience was similar in noisier situations. However, it is apparent that both speech and noise are amplified by the devices. This is expected for many reasons though it highlights the need for good communication strategies. It also highlights the benefits of wireless control through an app. Features such as volume and mute were very useful in adjusting to my comforts in trickier spaces. I did not hear any strong artifacts, such as sudden volume changes, when dishes clinked or one person would start speaking after another.

How Does Streamed Audio Sound?

The overall sound quality while streaming is consistent with other Bluetooth enabled RIC style devices. It can subjectively be described as tinny or lacking a sense of fullness in the overall sound quality. This is not necessarily a fault of Engage, but rather limitations of the speaker type, ear tip used, and overall programming.

Some hissing is audible in the higher frequency ranges associated with the microphones and ambient input. If this is annoying, the Audio Mix setting within the Audio EQ tab can be used to focus solely on the streamed signal. Slight volume ramping, or fluctuations, may be heard when making adjustments such as this within the app. I also noticed occasional drop-out in the right ear and situations where the audio balance between my ears seemed to fluctuate. As a result, the audio’s center image (i.e. Phantom center) would occasionally seem to dance slightly between the ears.

Ultimately, Engage will by no means provide an audiophile experience while streaming audio. However, the functionality is an impressive addition to an already capable OTC hearing aid.

What is the Biggest Drawback of Lucid Engage?

Lucid Engage does not currently offer an on-ear, or in-situ, hearing assessment. Furthermore, there is no means of inputting threshold data that you may have obtained from a hearing care provider. This feature has continued to grow in popularity and can be found in many OTC devices. For example, even lower-cost true wireless stereo earbuds such as Apple AirPods Pro allow users to directly input audiometric data through the Health app.

This is ultimately a surprising feature to omit as the safety and appropriateness of OTC devices is under question. There has been much progress lately supporting the validity of app and device based hearing tests 1 2. However, without any form of onboarding questionnaire or on-ear assessment users will have no feedback regarding the potential need for medical follow-up and Engages appropriateness as an assistive device. Users will have to weigh this level of uncertainty against the potential benefits and or seek further assistance from a hearing care provider to ensure the best outcomes.

Should you consider Engage?

Lucid Engage is an advanced functional OTC hearing aid. Our testing suggested that it can be programmed to provide sufficient gain for a common mild to moderate sloping hearing loss. This is in part due to the more advanced adjustment capabilities found within the app. Engage also provides Bluetooth audio streaming for both iOS and Android devices. Lucid Engage is worth considering for those interested in a RIC style OTC device offering these features.

Engage hearing aids can be purchased online directly from Lucid Hearing and through other online retailers such as Sam's Club, Walmart, and BestBuy. As Lucid Engage is an OTC device that does not perform an on-ear hearing assessment, consumers are recommended to consider an initial audiologic evaluation to assess the appropriateness of this device and rule out the potential need for further medical follow-up.