Best Hearing Aids of 2024: Expert Choice Awards!

In this video, Audiologist Dr. Steve Taddei, AuD, provides an overview of the 2024 HearAdvisor Expert Choice Award winners. Closed captions are available on this video. If you are using a mobile phone, please enable captions clicking on the gear icon.

In a market overwhelmed by misleading advertising claims, HearAdvisor cuts through the noise with its latest hearing aid evaluations. After putting more than 70 hearing aids and hearing-enhancement earbuds through rigorous testing, only 20 have earned the acoustic lab’s 2024 “HearAdvisor Expert Choice Award” badge. Leading the field are Sony and Lucid in the OTC category and Oticon and Phonak in the prescription category.

But the real winners are consumers—especially those shopping for OTCs without expert guidance—who rely on independent, objective, science-based ratings to guide their purchase decisions.

“Choosing hearing aids is one of the most important decisions and investments that people with hearing loss have to make,” says HearAdvisor co-founder Abram Bailey, AuD. “But today’s market is flooded with a bewildering range of choices. HearAdvisor offers consumers unbiased ratings and information to help them make the decision that’s right for them.”

It's a mission that has taken on new importance as consumers are often faced with deceptive advertising, poorly-performing imports, and low-quality devices. It can be difficult to find the high-quality hearing aids that are best for them.  HearAdvisor offers impartial guidance in a clear, consumer-friendly format.

HearAdvisor is America’s leading independent hearing aid evaluation laboratory. “Our approach to testing is strictly scientific,” says co-founder and Lab Director Steve Taddei, AuD.  “We simulate real world environments and measure hearing aid performance using state-of the-art technology.”

Hearing aids are assessed based on five key sound performance metrics: Speech in Quiet, Speech in Noise, Feedback Handling, Own Voice, and Music Streaming. The results are recorded, and consumers can now listen to those recordings at home with just a pair of headphones.

The scores and overall rankings are available on HearAdvisor’s leaderboard with its easy-to-navigate chart that includes prices, styles and categories.

On the top of the priority list for most consumers is regaining the ability to hear in noisy environments like restaurants. HearAdvisor's approach to benchmarking hearing aid performance in noise involves placing hearing aids on an acoustic test dummy, playing 3D ambisonic recordings of noisy environments through an 8-speaker ring, and taking microphone recordings from inside the test dummy's ears. These recordings are analyzed using the hearing aid speech perception index, or HASPI, which predicts how well you would hear sentences in background noise. Pictured: Expert Choice winner Lucid Tala.
On the top of the priority list for most consumers is regaining the ability to hear in noisy environments like restaurants. HearAdvisor's approach to benchmarking hearing aid performance in noise involves placing hearing aids on an acoustic test dummy, playing 3D ambisonic recordings of noisy environments through an 8-speaker ring, and taking microphone recordings from inside the test dummy's ears. These recordings are analyzed using the hearing aid speech perception index, or HASPI, which predicts how well you would hear sentences in background noise. Pictured: Expert Choice winner Lucid Tala.

“It’s all about empowering consumers with easy to access, easy to understand information that enables them to make informed choices,” adds Bailey.

In addition to hearing aid evaluations, HearAdvisor is expanding its focus to include hearing loss prevention, with new rankings for concert earplugs designed for both musicians and their audiences. 

About HearAdvisor

HearAdvisor is an independent hearing aid testing laboratory based in Rockford, Illinois.  It was founded by Dr. Abram Bailey and Dr. Steve Taddei who both hold doctorates in audiology.  Andrew Sabin Ph.D serves as scientific advisor.

Share this post
Learn more about the author

  • Digby Cook

    Contributor

    Digby Cook is a veteran journalist with a wide range of experience in television news, documentaries and newspapers. His interest in the science of hearing is both professional and personal.