In a published study by iScience, two pairs of Apple headphones (AirPods Pro 1 and AirPods 2) were compared to professional hearing aids. And the result can be amazing.
According to the study, the AirPods Pro have fairly comparable performance to hearing aid devices for people who suffer from mild to moderate hearing loss, at least in a quiet environment. She begins by explaining that hearing loss poses many problems for the socialization of those affected, but that a significant part of them (75%) do not use aids, in particular because of the high price and the lack of financial assistance: the price varies according to them between $3,000 and $6,000 a pair.
AirPods have been used here as PSPAs (Personal Sound Amplification Products), which requires some explanation. They differentiate between medical devices, validated and tested for this use, and products for the general public (less expensive) which are not intended for the medical field. But despite the limits, meta-analyses show that they can in some cases offer equivalent help to medical products, without it being possible to generalize this point. The study focuses on AirPods because Apple headphones are popular and a significant portion of the US population uses Apple smartphones. Note that this is the function Listen in real time which is tested here, an accessibility option which is not reserved to AirPods Pro (or even AirPods).
The study shows that while the AirPods 2 can’t really be considered PSPAs, the AirPods Pro come close. By using the ANSI/CTA-2051 standard, the former validate two of the five criteria, the latter go up to four. For the trial, the cohort includes 21 people with an average age of around 43, with hearing loss.
Interesting results
In tests, AirPods Pro performed on par with entry-level and high-end ($1,500 and $10,000) AirPods in a quiet environment and when background noise is coming from the left , but not when it comes from the front, while the AirPods 2 offer next to no advantage. More broadly, the AirPods Pro offer excellent performance in a quiet environment, but not in a noisy environment, where the high-end device is significantly better.
According to the conclusion, the AirPods Pro could serve as a hearing aid for people with mild to moderate loss, unlike the AirPods 2, for a significantly lower price than the professional variants.
Less stigma, but limits
The authors note that the AirPods Pro have another interesting advantage: the relatively commonality of headphones reduces the social stigma associated with hearing aids to some extent, even if having AirPods on during a conversation is not necessarily socially accepted. . But they also explain that the study has limits, especially on the number of participants which is a bit low.
Similarly, laboratory testing can introduce bias against real-world results. There is also the fact of only having tested the AirPods, which is obviously an important bias: the results cannot be generalized to other headphones. Finally, the comfort is not necessarily the same as with professional aids and the autonomy is much lower with the AirPods.