Conventional BTE vs RIC (receiver in the canal) BTE: A Comparative Study on Perceptual and Acoustic analysis of Speech and Music

Abstract

Digital hearing aids are the newest innovation in hearing aids, providing more accuracy and higher quality sound than any other form of hearing aid on the market. This study focussed on a new digital technology named, Receiver in the canal hearing aid (RIC, which is similar to conventional digital hearing aids with the exception that the receiver of the hearing aid is placed inside the ear canal of the user and thin electrical wires replace the acoustic tube of the conventional behind the ear (BTE) aid. This is designed for more natural sound quality. The present study compared the efficacy of RIC and Conventional BTE hearing aids in the processing of speech and music samples. The efficacy of perceptual experiment showed that, speech is more natural through the RIC and conventional BTE with that of natural samples. The comparisons were made both on subjective and objective analysis. Results of perceptual experiment showed that, speech is more natural through the RIC hearing aid compared to BTE hearing aid. Acoustic analysis of speech through formant analysis showed that, formant frequencies (F1, F2, & F3) of /a/, /i/ & /u/ Stimuli were better represented in RIC compared to conventional BTE hearing aid. Perceptual and acoustic experiment showed that music stimuli processed through both the hearing aid was almost similar. In both the hearing aids representation of music was poor compared to speech.