Speech understanding in quiet and in noise with the bone-anchored hearing aids Baha® Compact and Baha Divino™

Abstract

Conclusions. Speech understanding is better with the Baha Divino™ than with the Baha® Compact in competing noise from the rear. No difference was found for speech understanding in quiet. Subjectively, overall sound quality and speech understanding were rated better for the Baha Divino™. Objectives. To compare speech understanding in quiet and in noise and subjective ratings for two different bone-anchored hearing aids: the recently developed Baha Divino™ and the Baha® Compact. Patients and methods. Seven adults with bilateral conductive or mixed hearing losses who were users of a bone-anchored hearing aid were tested with the Baha® Compact in quiet and in noise. Tests were repeated after 3 months of use with the Baha Divino™. Results. There was no significant difference between the two types of Baha® for speech understanding in quiet when tested with German numbers and monosyllabic words at presentation levels between 50 and 80dB. For speech understanding in noise, an advantage of 2.3dB for the Baha Divino™ vs the Baha® Compact was found, if noise was emitted from a loudspeaker to the rear of the listener and the directional microphone noise reduction system was activated. Subjectively, the Baha Divino™ was rated statistically significantly better in terms of overall sound quality.

• Baha® Compact
• Baha Divino™
• conductive hearing loss
• speech recognition threshold
• speech understanding in noise
• directional microphone noise suppression