7 ms·

With the AirPods now officially becoming hearing aids, it will hopefully reduce the stigma and attitude towards hearing aids and allow many more people to reali

by car 2y ago

With the AirPods now officially becoming hearing aids, it will hopefully reduce the stigma and attitude towards hearing aids and allow many more people to realize how bad their hearing actually is. I have been wearing hearing aids for a few years now (Phonak). I've also used the AirPods Pro with the accessibility audiogram feature (basically making them hearing aids), which is really good and has also been around for a few years. I'm very glad, that Apple has made this official and even gotten FDA approval. When I started to loose my hearing a decade ago, for a long time I refused to wear hearing aids, probably due to the perceived stigma. Even though it made life harder and harder -- imagine work meetings with a mumbling boss or me accusing my family to intentionally whisper -- it took years to change my mind. In hindsight I should have gotten hearing aids years sooner. My 'real' hearing aids are nothing short of a technological marvel. They are tiny and run for a few days on zinc-air batteries (312/Costco but made by Varta), while providing all-day BT streaming. Btw, funny how most hearing aid brands come from Denmark. In contrast, the AirPods run out after a few hours and are also destined to become landfill due to their built in battery.

whatdidyousay 2y ago
How have the Phonak's been? I only learned of them recently - I've been wearing Oticons for a few years and have never been super impressed. I may be ready to drop $$ for my next pair..... do you work with an audiologist or did you do everything at Costco?
- car 2y ago
  I got them through an in network hospital audiology department, so paid by health insurance. For out of pocket Costco looks good to me. They have special models that are a little less fancy than the top of the line stuff, from name brand manufacturers. I also checked out earlens.com, a pretty cool concept that’s supposed to be superior in audio quality. But they are pricey, and need to be fitted by a doctor/audiologist with a transducer that sits directly on the eardrums (and stays in your ear canal) and is driven by induction. Ultimately turned off by cost ($12k/pair). I think the technology in hearing aids has profited from the advances in chip manufacturing [1]. So the latest models may also be on 5nm and thus have more transistors for fancy AI and longer battery life. You may have a better experience nowadays. [1] https://esg.tsmc.com/en-US/articles/106 https://esg.tsmc.com/en-US/articles/106
car 2y ago
For posterity wanted to add this interesting post [1] by TSMC about their work with Oticon (one of the established hearing aid manufacturers). It's a few years old (2021), so instead of 28nm, more recent models probably use even 5nm. "Compared to the previous generation of Oticon Opn S™ which is powered by TSMC’s 65nm low-power technology and contains 64 million transistors, the newest model features one of the most advanced chips with AI sound processing and analysis capabilities. The migration to TSMC’s 28nm opened the door for Oticon to utilize DNN, which is trained with 12 million real-life sound scenes. This new feature allows hearing aids to mimic how the brain would hear sounds and aims to respond the same way as the brain. As more functions are added, more compute performance and improved power efficiency will be required to support future generations of hearing solutions." [1] https://esg.tsmc.com/en-US/articles/106 https://esg.tsmc.com/en-US/articles/106
spookie 2y ago
I have got to say it was fantastic seeing my grandmas eyes glow when, for no reason, I thought "wait my xm4's could help her" and put them on her. She was then able to hear our conversations even though the xm4 are not as good the real thing. She didnt want hearing aids before that, but afterwards she wanted ones.
- vitorbaptistaa 2y ago
  The Sony WH-1000XM4? I'm still on the Bose QC 35, but you got me curious. Could you explain how using it as a hearing aid works? I searched the web but couldn't find good references.
  - xaqfox 2y ago
    There is a noise canceling mode that let's you hear what is received by the microphone array and an option to "filter in voices while suppressing noise" (they call that voice passthrough). That section of the app is called "Ambient Sound Control" if that helps your research.
- astrange 2y ago
  I haven't tried XM4, but the noise cancelling on XM3 had a very uncomfortable "sucking" feeling even though it is very strong, especially on a plane. The AirPods aren't as bad about this and NC is about as good.
AshamedCaptain 2y ago
Note also phonaks are traditionally a couple thousand euros a piece while even the most expensive airpods are still around 300 the pair. Certainly the phonaks are impressively small, lasting, good quality, and imperceptible, but is the almost 10x price markup justified? The biggest problem with hearing aids (and doctors/calibrators/whatever) is that they are ridiculously expensive... the attitude/stigma much less so. (And in any case airpods are about the opposite of "imperceptible" so I fail to see any appeal other than the price)
- alias_neo 2y ago
  I don't think I've ever seen someone with a hearing aid and though anything negative of it, I get it people can be self-conscious, but for something like a hearing aid I think it's unjustified. On the other hand, I can't bring myself to keep earbuds (airpods or w/e) in my ears while talking to someone, regardless of if I can hear them properly, I just seems incredibly rude. My uneducated opinion, is that someone using airpods as hearing aids is more likely to face stigma for that reason, than someone wearing what are clearly hearing aids, unless people actually know they have hearing issues.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    It almost certainly depends how social norms develop. When Borg bluetooth earpieces first came out, they definitely carried a tech bro/fin bro/VC/etc. vibe that, at any moment, someone more important than you might want to get in touch with me. I do think Airpods today carry a certain I'm not necessarily giving you my full attention vibe whereas an obvious hearing aid is a medical prosthetic. To the degree that Airpods replace hearing aids for some number of people or just assist people who aren't quite at the prescribed medical device level, that probably changes.
    - AshamedCaptain 2y ago
      The one thing that I do believe Apple managed with the iPhone is the removal of this "tech bro" vibe from carrying a smartphone overall. So I guess it's not entirely out of the question that Apple will remove the stigma from wearing huge headsets 24h long...
josefresco 2y ago
You're certainly not alone in resisting hearing aids. My dad just got some from Costco (most affordable) and really likes them. He probably waited 5-10 years too long. My father-in-law however doesn't like hearing aids because he feels they amplify things he doesn't want to hear. Granted he's never been fitted to actual hearing aids. I understand his concern, but he's told me multiple times his hearing loss leaves him isolated during conversation. He told me one night that he has a lot to say, but can't hear so he spends a lot of time just smiling. It makes me sad that his pride (and stubbornness?) is causing him this stress.
- vel0city 2y ago
  > he feels they amplify things he doesn't want to hear. I mean that's kind of the whole point of having them adjusted with an audiologist. They're tuned to your specific needs. It's too bad so many people think they're just mics and amplifiers. Modern hearing aids do a lot of signal processing.
  - Arrath 2y ago
    > It's too bad so many people think they're just mics and amplifiers. Modern hearing aids do a lot of signal processing. This is what I'm still trying to convince my dad of, after he found the pair he was fitted with ~20 years ago absolutely useless. He found that they simply made everything louder which did nothing to help him pick out what he wanted to hear. But he's always been picky about his soundscapes, wanting the TV muted during ad breaks etc etc.
    - xur17 2y ago
      > But he's always been picky about his soundscapes, wanting the TV muted during ad breaks etc etc. I'm with him on this one. Commercials always end up being louder than the rest of the content, and are just.. annoying.
      - geocrasher 2y ago
        I thought I had hearing loss. I don't. I have Audio Processing Disorder. When I found out about APD and read its symptom list, I cried. It's me, all over. Between that and ADHD I now understand how my brain processes (or doesn't process) sound properly and why even a well intentioned (but clueless) audiologist told me I had "selective hearing".
freedomben 2y ago
> In contrast, the AirPods run out after a few hours and are also destined to become landfill due to their built in battery. Also will entrench the user in a walled garden ecosystem from a very specific giant tech company that isn't big on making their products compatible with other companies.
- systemtest 2y ago
  I have no issues using my AirPods on Android. Automatic device switching doesn’t work but that doesn’t work on my Sony headphones either.
  - explorigin 2y ago
    +1 on this. I use them with my android phone, steamdeck, windows computer, TV. They work great!
  - vel0city 2y ago
    The new hearing aid features are gatekept behind an iOS app. You can't tweak the hearing aid settings without an Apple device.
    - systemtest 2y ago
      The Samsung Galaxy Buds only have 360 audio and the better audio codec if you use a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. Doesn't even work on other Android devices let alone iOS. And as far as I know you can't tweak the hearing aid features of Galaxy Buds on any device.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - vel0city 2y ago
        If you can't actually tweak audiogram settings, they're not really hearing aids. In fact, Samsung doesn't sell them as hearing aids and from what I can tell never use the term "hearing aid" in any of the marketing, branding, or feature listing of the devices. They're not FDA approved as hearing aids, so they're not hearing aids. Either way, pointing to another company being shitty isn't really a good justification of the first company being shitty.
righthand 2y ago
Most people don’t wear hearing aids because they don’t like how it looks and think their hearing isn’t bad enough to warrant social stigma from it. I don’t see how Airpods solve that problem as they are very unsightly, no matter how much pundits say they love them. In fact you mentioning how they are like hearing aids has made me justify never wanting a pair.
- tengwar2 2y ago
  One reason I already use them as hearing aids is because I use Airpods for phone calls, and it's a lot easier to leave them in than change to my hearing aids. So the question of what they look like doesn't arise.
- rmccue 2y ago
  The advantage of AirPods for social stigma is they aren't solely hearing aids, so you have a type of (casual) plausible deniability about why you're wearing them. They won't draw people's attention in the way that hearing aids (because they're different/unique) do.
  - righthand 2y ago
    But a lot of people don’t wear Airpods because they look dorky and look like something is growing out of your ears. This is what I’m saying, coolness doesn’t trump looks even if pundits say “I love my Airpods”. A lot of people do not like wearing headphones for a similar reason. If i see someone wearing AirPods or headphones my initial reaction is they don’t want to be talked to or interacted with. Even if that’s not true and they have passive throughput.
  - AyyEye 2y ago
    Having earpods in while talking is an entirely new and worse social stigma than wearing hearing aids. > you have a type of (casual) plausible deniability about why you're wearing them "He doesnt even give enough of a shit about talking to me to remove his earbuds" isn't a good thing. > They won't draw people's attention in the way that hearing aids (because they're different/unique) do. They won't draw peoples attention in the same way because normal humans only begrudgingly interact with people wearing earbuds in conversations and only for a bare minimum. I really can't stand this website sometimes. But at least you all got the AirPods™ branding right instead of just calling them earbuds.
steve1977 2y ago
Sonova (Phonak) is Swiss by the way, not Danish. They also own the consumer of Sennheiser since a couple of years.
- car 2y ago
  Thanks, I stand corrected.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
BeetleB 2y ago
> In contrast, the AirPods run out after a few hours and are also destined to become landfill due to their built in battery. Just looked up AirPod battery run time. Wow - that's short. I have Anker A40 earpods.[1] 10 hours, and the case has enough charge for 50 hours. 10 minutes of charging gives you 4 hours. They're a lot cheaper than Airpods, so you could easily buy a pair (for much cheaper) and be good! Not sure how accurate they'll be as hearing aids. [1]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1LPNDGF/?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=xm2&ascsubtag=F0401J01C4P3M6EBPHTEDCQ3Y89KZ&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1LPNDGF/?tag=thewire06-20&linkC...
- tengwar2 2y ago
  Is there a way of setting an audiogram? That's basically a frequency response curve for your hearing, so it's the basic requirement for acting as a hearing aid. This is a setting which iPhones have for Airpods (as far as I know, you can't set it without an iPhone).
  - BeetleB 2y ago
    Yes. It's called HearID https://www.soundcore.com/hearid https://www.soundcore.com/hearid
- Iulioh 2y ago
  Depends on the form factor and what functions are active. I'd say 4-6-8 is low-average-high duration for the standard form factor and ANC will reduce the duration by 25-30% 10 hours is exceptionally high, i don't think i even seen that claim But year, they don't even have ANC, they are just a good pair of buds, the 10h claim is good. Pro tip: You know that a pair of buds is good if they offer Multipoint. It is such a hard feature to find in the mid and low end market
  - BeetleB 2y ago
    > But year, they don't even have ANC, they are just a good pair of buds, the 10h claim is good. Are you talking about the ones I linked to? They clearly have ANC, and Wirecutter claims it's among the better ANCs they've tested. > 10 hours is exceptionally high, i don't think i even seen that claim The claim is right there in the product description. Wirecutter also confirmed it with a test: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-wireless-earbuds/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-wireless-ear... They do say it can be reduced depending on how you use it. Finally, here's a snippet of an Amazon review: > I just played 7 hours of continous music with the noise canceling activated at high volumes and there's still almost 30 percent battery avaliable. And another: > I used the earbuds for 8 hours between ANC & transparency mode, ... Considering how often I use the earbuds after 8-10 hrs per day and 4-5 days of use from a full charge, the battery life is still 2 lights remaining. One review does state lower life with ANC: > But, a full charge only lasts me 6 hrs with anc on auto and volume at 50% or less. A few reviews talk about even lower battery life, but given Wirecutter's tests and the preponderance of those who get long battery lifes, I'll assume the exceptions are defective products. In any case, is ANC even relevant for hearing aids? I would have thought ANC would be a hindrance. (In general, several reviews refer to using it continuously for their work shift). The one thing that may not be particularly good is the mic. Edit: Here is someone who tested with ANC on. They got 7hr 55 min: https://www.soundguys.com/anker-soundcore-space-a40-review-81004/ https://www.soundguys.com/anker-soundcore-space-a40-review-8...

by car 2y ago

whatdidyousay 2y ago

How have the Phonak's been? I only learned of them recently - I've been wearing Oticons for a few years and have never been super impressed. I may be ready to drop $$ for my next pair..... do you work with an audiologist or did you do everything at Costco?

car 2y ago
I got them through an in network hospital audiology department, so paid by health insurance. For out of pocket Costco looks good to me. They have special models that are a little less fancy than the top of the line stuff, from name brand manufacturers. I also checked out earlens.com, a pretty cool concept that’s supposed to be superior in audio quality. But they are pricey, and need to be fitted by a doctor/audiologist with a transducer that sits directly on the eardrums (and stays in your ear canal) and is driven by induction. Ultimately turned off by cost ($12k/pair). I think the technology in hearing aids has profited from the advances in chip manufacturing [1]. So the latest models may also be on 5nm and thus have more transistors for fancy AI and longer battery life. You may have a better experience nowadays. [1] https://esg.tsmc.com/en-US/articles/106 https://esg.tsmc.com/en-US/articles/106

car 2y ago

For posterity wanted to add this interesting post [1] by TSMC about their work with Oticon (one of the established hearing aid manufacturers). It's a few years old (2021), so instead of 28nm, more recent models probably use even 5nm. "Compared to the previous generation of Oticon Opn S™ which is powered by TSMC’s 65nm low-power technology and contains 64 million transistors, the newest model features one of the most advanced chips with AI sound processing and analysis capabilities. The migration to TSMC’s 28nm opened the door for Oticon to utilize DNN, which is trained with 12 million real-life sound scenes. This new feature allows hearing aids to mimic how the brain would hear sounds and aims to respond the same way as the brain. As more functions are added, more compute performance and improved power efficiency will be required to support future generations of hearing solutions." [1] https://esg.tsmc.com/en-US/articles/106 https://esg.tsmc.com/en-US/articles/106

spookie 2y ago

I have got to say it was fantastic seeing my grandmas eyes glow when, for no reason, I thought "wait my xm4's could help her" and put them on her. She was then able to hear our conversations even though the xm4 are not as good the real thing. She didnt want hearing aids before that, but afterwards she wanted ones.

vitorbaptistaa 2y ago
The Sony WH-1000XM4? I'm still on the Bose QC 35, but you got me curious. Could you explain how using it as a hearing aid works? I searched the web but couldn't find good references.
- xaqfox 2y ago
  There is a noise canceling mode that let's you hear what is received by the microphone array and an option to "filter in voices while suppressing noise" (they call that voice passthrough). That section of the app is called "Ambient Sound Control" if that helps your research.
astrange 2y ago
I haven't tried XM4, but the noise cancelling on XM3 had a very uncomfortable "sucking" feeling even though it is very strong, especially on a plane. The AirPods aren't as bad about this and NC is about as good.

AshamedCaptain 2y ago

Note also phonaks are traditionally a couple thousand euros a piece while even the most expensive airpods are still around 300 the pair. Certainly the phonaks are impressively small, lasting, good quality, and imperceptible, but is the almost 10x price markup justified? The biggest problem with hearing aids (and doctors/calibrators/whatever) is that they are ridiculously expensive... the attitude/stigma much less so. (And in any case airpods are about the opposite of "imperceptible" so I fail to see any appeal other than the price)

alias_neo 2y ago
I don't think I've ever seen someone with a hearing aid and though anything negative of it, I get it people can be self-conscious, but for something like a hearing aid I think it's unjustified. On the other hand, I can't bring myself to keep earbuds (airpods or w/e) in my ears while talking to someone, regardless of if I can hear them properly, I just seems incredibly rude. My uneducated opinion, is that someone using airpods as hearing aids is more likely to face stigma for that reason, than someone wearing what are clearly hearing aids, unless people actually know they have hearing issues.
- ghaff 2y ago
  It almost certainly depends how social norms develop. When Borg bluetooth earpieces first came out, they definitely carried a tech bro/fin bro/VC/etc. vibe that, at any moment, someone more important than you might want to get in touch with me. I do think Airpods today carry a certain I'm not necessarily giving you my full attention vibe whereas an obvious hearing aid is a medical prosthetic. To the degree that Airpods replace hearing aids for some number of people or just assist people who aren't quite at the prescribed medical device level, that probably changes.
  - AshamedCaptain 2y ago
    The one thing that I do believe Apple managed with the iPhone is the removal of this "tech bro" vibe from carrying a smartphone overall. So I guess it's not entirely out of the question that Apple will remove the stigma from wearing huge headsets 24h long...

josefresco 2y ago

You're certainly not alone in resisting hearing aids. My dad just got some from Costco (most affordable) and really likes them. He probably waited 5-10 years too long. My father-in-law however doesn't like hearing aids because he feels they amplify things he doesn't want to hear. Granted he's never been fitted to actual hearing aids. I understand his concern, but he's told me multiple times his hearing loss leaves him isolated during conversation. He told me one night that he has a lot to say, but can't hear so he spends a lot of time just smiling. It makes me sad that his pride (and stubbornness?) is causing him this stress.

vel0city 2y ago
> he feels they amplify things he doesn't want to hear. I mean that's kind of the whole point of having them adjusted with an audiologist. They're tuned to your specific needs. It's too bad so many people think they're just mics and amplifiers. Modern hearing aids do a lot of signal processing.
- Arrath 2y ago
  > It's too bad so many people think they're just mics and amplifiers. Modern hearing aids do a lot of signal processing. This is what I'm still trying to convince my dad of, after he found the pair he was fitted with ~20 years ago absolutely useless. He found that they simply made everything louder which did nothing to help him pick out what he wanted to hear. But he's always been picky about his soundscapes, wanting the TV muted during ad breaks etc etc.
  - xur17 2y ago
    > But he's always been picky about his soundscapes, wanting the TV muted during ad breaks etc etc. I'm with him on this one. Commercials always end up being louder than the rest of the content, and are just.. annoying.
    - geocrasher 2y ago
      I thought I had hearing loss. I don't. I have Audio Processing Disorder. When I found out about APD and read its symptom list, I cried. It's me, all over. Between that and ADHD I now understand how my brain processes (or doesn't process) sound properly and why even a well intentioned (but clueless) audiologist told me I had "selective hearing".

freedomben 2y ago

> In contrast, the AirPods run out after a few hours and are also destined to become landfill due to their built in battery. Also will entrench the user in a walled garden ecosystem from a very specific giant tech company that isn't big on making their products compatible with other companies.

systemtest 2y ago
I have no issues using my AirPods on Android. Automatic device switching doesn’t work but that doesn’t work on my Sony headphones either.
- explorigin 2y ago
  +1 on this. I use them with my android phone, steamdeck, windows computer, TV. They work great!
- vel0city 2y ago
  The new hearing aid features are gatekept behind an iOS app. You can't tweak the hearing aid settings without an Apple device.
  - systemtest 2y ago
    The Samsung Galaxy Buds only have 360 audio and the better audio codec if you use a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. Doesn't even work on other Android devices let alone iOS. And as far as I know you can't tweak the hearing aid features of Galaxy Buds on any device.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - vel0city 2y ago
      If you can't actually tweak audiogram settings, they're not really hearing aids. In fact, Samsung doesn't sell them as hearing aids and from what I can tell never use the term "hearing aid" in any of the marketing, branding, or feature listing of the devices. They're not FDA approved as hearing aids, so they're not hearing aids. Either way, pointing to another company being shitty isn't really a good justification of the first company being shitty.

righthand 2y ago

Most people don’t wear hearing aids because they don’t like how it looks and think their hearing isn’t bad enough to warrant social stigma from it. I don’t see how Airpods solve that problem as they are very unsightly, no matter how much pundits say they love them. In fact you mentioning how they are like hearing aids has made me justify never wanting a pair.

tengwar2 2y ago
One reason I already use them as hearing aids is because I use Airpods for phone calls, and it's a lot easier to leave them in than change to my hearing aids. So the question of what they look like doesn't arise.
rmccue 2y ago
The advantage of AirPods for social stigma is they aren't solely hearing aids, so you have a type of (casual) plausible deniability about why you're wearing them. They won't draw people's attention in the way that hearing aids (because they're different/unique) do.
- righthand 2y ago
  But a lot of people don’t wear Airpods because they look dorky and look like something is growing out of your ears. This is what I’m saying, coolness doesn’t trump looks even if pundits say “I love my Airpods”. A lot of people do not like wearing headphones for a similar reason. If i see someone wearing AirPods or headphones my initial reaction is they don’t want to be talked to or interacted with. Even if that’s not true and they have passive throughput.
- AyyEye 2y ago
  Having earpods in while talking is an entirely new and worse social stigma than wearing hearing aids. > you have a type of (casual) plausible deniability about why you're wearing them "He doesnt even give enough of a shit about talking to me to remove his earbuds" isn't a good thing. > They won't draw people's attention in the way that hearing aids (because they're different/unique) do. They won't draw peoples attention in the same way because normal humans only begrudgingly interact with people wearing earbuds in conversations and only for a bare minimum. I really can't stand this website sometimes. But at least you all got the AirPods™ branding right instead of just calling them earbuds.

steve1977 2y ago

Sonova (Phonak) is Swiss by the way, not Danish. They also own the consumer of Sennheiser since a couple of years.

car 2y ago
Thanks, I stand corrected.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

BeetleB 2y ago

> In contrast, the AirPods run out after a few hours and are also destined to become landfill due to their built in battery. Just looked up AirPod battery run time. Wow - that's short. I have Anker A40 earpods.[1] 10 hours, and the case has enough charge for 50 hours. 10 minutes of charging gives you 4 hours. They're a lot cheaper than Airpods, so you could easily buy a pair (for much cheaper) and be good! Not sure how accurate they'll be as hearing aids. [1]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1LPNDGF/?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=xm2&ascsubtag=F0401J01C4P3M6EBPHTEDCQ3Y89KZ&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1LPNDGF/?tag=thewire06-20&linkC...

tengwar2 2y ago
Is there a way of setting an audiogram? That's basically a frequency response curve for your hearing, so it's the basic requirement for acting as a hearing aid. This is a setting which iPhones have for Airpods (as far as I know, you can't set it without an iPhone).
- BeetleB 2y ago
  Yes. It's called HearID https://www.soundcore.com/hearid https://www.soundcore.com/hearid
Iulioh 2y ago
Depends on the form factor and what functions are active. I'd say 4-6-8 is low-average-high duration for the standard form factor and ANC will reduce the duration by 25-30% 10 hours is exceptionally high, i don't think i even seen that claim But year, they don't even have ANC, they are just a good pair of buds, the 10h claim is good. Pro tip: You know that a pair of buds is good if they offer Multipoint. It is such a hard feature to find in the mid and low end market
- BeetleB 2y ago
  > But year, they don't even have ANC, they are just a good pair of buds, the 10h claim is good. Are you talking about the ones I linked to? They clearly have ANC, and Wirecutter claims it's among the better ANCs they've tested. > 10 hours is exceptionally high, i don't think i even seen that claim The claim is right there in the product description. Wirecutter also confirmed it with a test: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-wireless-earbuds/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-wireless-ear... They do say it can be reduced depending on how you use it. Finally, here's a snippet of an Amazon review: > I just played 7 hours of continous music with the noise canceling activated at high volumes and there's still almost 30 percent battery avaliable. And another: > I used the earbuds for 8 hours between ANC & transparency mode, ... Considering how often I use the earbuds after 8-10 hrs per day and 4-5 days of use from a full charge, the battery life is still 2 lights remaining. One review does state lower life with ANC: > But, a full charge only lasts me 6 hrs with anc on auto and volume at 50% or less. A few reviews talk about even lower battery life, but given Wirecutter's tests and the preponderance of those who get long battery lifes, I'll assume the exceptions are defective products. In any case, is ANC even relevant for hearing aids? I would have thought ANC would be a hindrance. (In general, several reviews refer to using it continuously for their work shift). The one thing that may not be particularly good is the mic. Edit: Here is someone who tested with ANC on. They got 7hr 55 min: https://www.soundguys.com/anker-soundcore-space-a40-review-81004/ https://www.soundguys.com/anker-soundcore-space-a40-review-8...