Hake Robin, Bürgel Michel, Lesimple Christophe, Vormann Matthias, Wagener Kirsten C, Kuehnel Volker, Siedenburg Kai
Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
Sonova AG, Stäfa, Switzerland.
Trends Hear. 2025 Jan-Dec;29:23312165251368669. doi: 10.1177/23312165251368669. Epub 2025 Aug 25.
Hearing aids have traditionally been designed to facilitate speech perception. With regards to music perception, previous work indicates that hearing aid users frequently complain about music sound quality. Yet, the effects of hearing aid amplification on musical perception abilities are largely unknown. This study aimed to investigate the effects of hearing aid amplification and dynamic range compression (DRC) settings on musical scene analysis (MSA) abilities and sound quality ratings (SQR) using polyphonic music recordings. Additionally, speech reception thresholds in noise (SRT) were measured. Thirty-three hearing aid users with moderate to severe hearing loss participated in three conditions: unaided, and aided with either slow or fast DRC settings. Overall, MSA abilities, SQR and SRT significantly improved with the use of hearing aids compared to the unaided condition. Yet, differences were observed regarding the choice of compression settings. Fast DRC led to better MSA performance, reflecting enhanced selective listening in musical mixtures, while slow DRC elicited more favorable SQR. Despite these improvements, variability in amplification benefit across DRC settings and tasks remained considerable, with some individuals showing limited or no improvement. These findings highlight a trade-off between scene transparency (indexed by MSA) and perceived sound quality, with individual differences emerging as a key factor in shaping amplification outcomes. Our results underscore the potential benefits of hearing aids for music perception and indicate the need for personalized fitting strategies tailored to task-specific demands.
传统上，助听器的设计目的是促进言语感知。关于音乐感知，先前的研究表明，助听器使用者经常抱怨音乐音质。然而，助听器放大对音乐感知能力的影响在很大程度上尚不清楚。本研究旨在使用复调音乐录音，调查助听器放大和动态范围压缩（DRC）设置对音乐场景分析（MSA）能力和音质评级（SQR）的影响。此外，还测量了噪声中的言语接收阈值（SRT）。33名中重度听力损失的助听器使用者参与了三种情况：未佩戴助听器，以及分别使用慢速或快速DRC设置佩戴助听器。总体而言，与未佩戴助听器的情况相比，使用助听器后MSA能力、SQR和SRT均有显著改善。然而，在压缩设置的选择上存在差异。快速DRC导致更好的MSA表现，反映出在音乐混合中增强了选择性聆听，而慢速DRC则产生了更有利的SQR。尽管有这些改善，但不同DRC设置和任务的放大益处差异仍然很大，一些人改善有限或没有改善。这些发现突出了场景透明度（以MSA为指标）和感知音质之间的权衡，个体差异成为影响放大效果的关键因素。我们的结果强调了助听器对音乐感知的潜在益处，并表明需要根据特定任务需求制定个性化的适配策略。
