They boost voice clarity for those not ready for full-on hearing aids
Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released its final ruling for hearing aids to become available over the counter. This meant it would be easier to buy these devices without the need for a prescription, spurring some of the big names in the consumer audio space to dabble in the OTC hearing aid market, including Jabra and Sony. The latest audio company to get involved in this business is Sennheiser, with its new Conversation Clear Plus headphones.
The new pair of earbuds isn’t necessarily a replacement for Sennheiser’s line of wireless headphones, for which it is best known. Instead, the company positions the Conversation Clear Plus as setting “a new standard for speech-enhanced consumer wearables.” Sennheiser does not explicitly claim the new earbuds as an OTC hearing aid. While the company is known for making some of the best wireless earbuds money can buy, such as the Momentum True Wireless 3, it also sells a variety of headphones to help with hearing while watching TV shows. The Conversation Clear Plus falls somewhere in the middle of those two product categories, serving as both headphones and a hearing aid.
Like existing OTC hearing aids, Sennheiser’s new offering drowns out noise while boosting the clarity of voices in any type of conversation, be it on the phone or at a crowded restaurant. The earbuds feature active noise cancelation to block out background noise while also letting sound in with their Ambient Awareness mode. These voice-enhancing abilities are made possible by chip technology from Sennheiser’s parent company, Sonova.
The Conversation Clear Plus looks like any typical wireless earbuds, so it’s easily appealing to a lot of people with mild hearing difficulties who aren’t ready for a traditional hearing aid. You can also customize your hearing experience with three main presets, including Relax, Communication, and Streaming. The “Relax” mode allows you to adjust how much noise you want to block out, while the other two settings are self-explanatory.
Sennheiser says the Conversation Clear Plus offers a battery life of up to nine hours before needing to be recharged. With the charging case, the buds can run for another 27 hours. It will retail for $850, which is quite a bit more than traditional wireless earbuds. Preorders begin on January 5, with market availability set for January 20.
