Personal Sound Amplification Products (PSAPs) use a lot of the same technology as hearing aids. Many of them provide good amplification along with other features normally found in high-quality digital hearing aids, including volume control, feedback cancellation and noise suppression. But they are not programmable and are not intended to correct hearing loss. Rather, they help you hear quiet sounds better even with normal hearing. Click on each product name to visit its web site.
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NOTE: PSAPs are not FDA-approved hearing aids. To understand the difference between over-the-counter sound amplifiers and FDA-approved hearing aids, see the FDA explanation and click here for a Hearing Mojo post explaining the difference between PSAPs and hearing aids. The list above is by no means comprehensive and does not represent a formal endorsement by Hearing Mojo. But it’s a useful starting point for anyone shopping for a personal sound amplifier. We will add more products to the list as they come on the market and we have a chance to assess them.
We decided not to include the large numbers of much less expensive (often under $50) PSAPs available on the web. In our opinion, you get what you pay for, and all too often the very inexpensive PSAPs over-amplify many of the sounds you don’t want to hear, fail to isolate voice frequencies well enough, and don’t have effective feedback cancellation. The products listed, while more expensive, provide the quality of digital sound processing and other more sophisticated features that we think are important for a positive user experience.