Elehear Without Review: Great Hearing Aids

My first encounter and Elehear, an over-the-counter hearing aid, earlier this year was OK. The company’s Alpha Pro hearing aids are traditional behind-the-ear devices designed for users with mild hearing loss. They come with online audiologist sessions to help new users get up to speed and “remote sound” features that allow you to drop your phone in front of the sound source and pipe it directly into the hearing aids. At $459, they’re a solid price and were good enough to earn the runner-up spot in my Best Hearing Aids guide.

Now the company is back with the next one: the Elehear Beyond. Equipped with a wide range of functions, better noise cancellation, and a tinnitus mode, on paper the Beyond accessories look like everything you get with the Alpha Pro and more. Unfortunately, as I found out after a few weeks of testing, more is not always better.

Let’s start with the hardware because it’s a big change, and I mean that literally. Elehear’s Alpha Pro hearing aids, which weigh 4 grams, are not too small, but the Beyond aids are much larger. At 4.75 grams each, they’re almost twice the weight of Jabra’s 2.56-gram Enhance Select 500 aids, though both have a standard behind-the-ear (BTE) design. I was surprised by the size from the moment I took them off, and even more so after looking at them in the mirror. There’s no hiding these teardrops—they’ve caused my ears to pop out of the side of my head.

But let’s say you’re not as vain as I am. What about the sound quality? Here, Beyond aids didn’t impress me too much either. From the moment I put them on, these hearing aids showed a noticeable level of background noise, which was audible even at very low volume levels. Better described as closer to a whirring than a hissing, it’s almost like an old air conditioner grinding the bare metal as it spins.

Photo: Christopher Null for the Elehear app