Effects of speech signal content and speaker gender on acceptance of noise in listeners with normal hearing.

Objective: The purpose of this research was to determine if the content and/or speaker gender of a running speech sample affected the acceptance of background noise within a participant.

Design: A male and a female recording of the Arizona Travelogue (Cosmos Inc.) and the ipsilateral competing message (ICM) from the synthetic sentence identification with ICM were created and used as the experimental speech signals.

The effects of receiver placement on probe microphone, performance, and subjective measures with open canal hearing instruments.

Background: Open canal hearing instruments differ in method of sound delivery to the ear canal, distance between the microphone and the receiver, and physical size of the devices. Moreover, RITA (receiver in the aid) and RITE (receiver in the ear) hearing instruments may also differ in terms of retention and comfort as well as ease of use and care for certain individuals. What remains unclear, however, is if any or all of the abovementioned factors contribute to hearing aid outcome.