My first encounter with Elehear, an over-the-counter listening to support model, earlier this yr was optimistic. The corporate’s Alpha Professional listening to aids are conventional behind-the-ear units designed for customers with gentle listening to loss. They arrive with an internet audiologist session to assist new customers rise up to hurry and a “distant sound” function that permits you to drop your telephone 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 adequate to earn a runner-up spot on my Greatest Listening to Aids information.
Now the corporate is again with a follow-up: the Elehear Past. Outfitted with a bigger operational frequency vary, higher noise cancelation, and a tinnitus mode, on paper the Past aids seem like every part you get with the Alpha Professional and extra. Sadly, as I found after a number of 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 burden of Jabra’s 2.56-gram Improve Choose 500 aids, although each have a conventional 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 appeared within the mirror. There’s no hiding these gargantuan teardrops—they induced my ears to visibly stand proud of the facet of my head.
However let’s say you are not as useless as me. What concerning 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 It’s higher described as nearer to a rattle than a hiss, a bit like an outdated desk fan close by that’s grinding on naked metallic because it spins.
{Photograph}: Christopher Null through Elehear app