A comparison of hearing aids with amplitude compression

Intelligibility scores with a modified rhyme test were obtained for normally hearing subjects and subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment using several commercial hearing aids. These hearing aids differed mainly in values of time constants of compression and of harmonic distortion during overshoots. In general, better performance was obtained for the shorter time constants of compression, but performance seemed also to be affected by the occurrence of higher levels of harmonic distortion and of peak-clipping during overshoots.