Speech understanding in background noise with the two-microphone adaptive beamformer BEAM in the Nucleus Freedom Cochlear Implant System.

Objective: This paper evaluates the benefit of the two-microphone adaptive beamformer BEAM in the Nucleus Freedom cochlear implant (CI) system for speech understanding in background noise by CI users.

Design: A double-blind evaluation of the two-microphone adaptive beamformer BEAM and a hardware directional microphone was carried out with five adult Nucleus CI users. The test procedure consisted of a pre- and post-test in the lab and a 2-wk trial period at home.