Contribution
Music perception with hearing aids: compression differentially affects musical scene analysis and musical sound quality
* Presenting author
Abstract:
Hearing aids, while traditionally optimised for speech, often compromise music listening experiences. This study investigated the impact of hearing aid amplification and compression settings on musical scene analysis abilities and perceived sound quality. Thirty-three hearing-aid users with moderate to severe hearing loss conducted two tasks: a test of selective listening in realistic musical excerpts, the so-called Musical Scene Analysis (MSA) test, and sound quality ratings (SQR). Additionally, speech reception thresholds in noise (SRT) were measured. These tasks were conducted in three conditions: one without hearing aids and two with hearing aids employing either a slow or fast signal dynamic range compression (DRC) approach. Overall, MSA abilities, SQR and SRT significantly improved with the use of hearing aids compared to the unaided condition. Yet, notable differences were observed by the choice of compression mode. Fast DRC yielded higher MSA scores, while slow DRC elicited better SQR and SRT performance. Years of using hearing aids was associated with improved performance across tasks. However, individual responses to DRC varied significantly, particularly for MSA. Furthermore, the total benefit of amplification in one task did not consistently correlate with benefits in other tasks, suggesting task-specific effects of DRC.