A comparison of custom in-the-ear hearing aids.

Custom-built in-the-ear hearing aids from five manufacturers were submitted to an extensive battery of audiologic tests to compare the usefulness of each unit for a moderate-severe sensorineural hearing loss as well as to examine differences between monaural versus binaural fittings. Using a ranking procedure, the hearing aids from one manufacturer were determined to be the best for this 30-year-old patient. Substantial differences were observed in each test condition. The variability of speech discrimination measures, however, was not definitive in determining the hearing aid which was best, whereas the acoustic reflex and warbletone threshold data clearly identified one manufacturer's aids as best for this patient.