Spheric Speech Clarity: Findings from PARC field trial
Results of a study conducted in a busy café show real-world benefits of Spheric Speech Clarity, a denoising system in Audéo Sphere™ Infinio. The findings highlight its advantages in improving speech clarity and reducing interference from background noise in real-world environments.
Laboratory-based studies are an efficient way to quantify the benefits of hearing aid technology, since they allow for a high level of control over testing conditions. What this type of study may or may not reveal, however, is whether similar benefits would be observed when the hearing aids are worn outside of this controlled environment.
The ability of experimental findings to predict listeners’ performance in real-world situations is referred to as ecological validity. This concept formed the basis of the second phase of PARC’s clinical investigation of Spheric Speech Clarity (SSC).
In the first phase of this investigation, outlined in a previous blog post, SSC demonstrated significant benefits for improving speech understanding in noise and reducing listening effort under controlled laboratory conditions. The objective of the field trial portion of the study was to evaluate how SSC performs in real-world listening scenarios, with a focus on speech clarity, listening effort, and overall satisfaction.
Methodology
The same 27 participants (adults ages 58 to 93 with moderate to moderately severe bilateral sensorineural hearing loss) were recruited for the field trial portion of the study, 26 of whom completed at least one of the two in-field visits (24 completed all visits).
To evaluate the real-world performance of SSC, participants attended two guided field trials conducted in a noisy café (≥72 dBA). During these visits, they listened to live speech consisting of a written passage read aloud by the investigator and rated various aspects of sound perception on a 5-point scale, including:
- Loudness
- Clarity
- Naturalness
- Noise suppression
- Noise separation
At the end of each visit, participants were asked to indicate their preferred condition from the following:
Visit 1: Phonak Audéo Sphere Infinio devices, containing two manual programs
- Spheric Speech in Loud Noise featuring Spheric Speech Clarity
- Speech in Loud Noise featuring StereoZoom 2.0
Visit 2: Three sets of devices, all set to default automatic programming
- Phonak Sphere Infinio
- Competitor A
- Competitor B
The order of conditions tested at each visit was counterbalanced across listeners, and in all cases, participants didn’t know which program or set of devices they were listening to when making their ratings.
Results
At Visit 1, participants preferred Spheric Speech Clarity over StereoZoom 2.0 (Figure 1, left panel), with 70% of participants selecting SSC.
When comparing across manufacturers at Visit 2, participants preferred the Sphere Infinio devices over those of the competitors (Figure 1, right panel), with over 60% preferring it to competitor devices.
Further, speech was rated as being clearer and more natural with Sphere Infinio compared to competitor devices.
Participant feedback
Some of the participants’ spontaneous comments were captured during the café visits. One individual described their experience with the Spheres as being “remarkable, the background is simply not interfering,” while another asked, “do I have hearing aids on, or is this the hearing I remember from my 20s?”
Conclusion
The findings of this investigation, conducted in a noisy, real-world environment, revealed that participants benefitted subjectively from Spheric Speech Clarity available in Audéo Sphere Infinio compared to legacy Phonak (i.e., StereoZoom 2.0) and competitor technology.
The consistency of the SSC results within these two different environments indicates: (1) the measures selected for lab testing have relatively high ecological validity, and (2) the benefits of SSC hold up to the influence of some real-world variables that can’t be controlled in a laboratory setting.
What this means for your clients
As a hearing care professional, you know that every client’s listening needs are unique. The real-world validation of Spheric Speech Clarity in Audéo Sphere Infinio means you can confidently offer your clients technology that has been proven to perform not only in the lab but in everyday noisy environments.
By incorporating this advanced denoising system into their lives, your clients can enjoy:
- Improved speech clarity: Conversations become clearer and more natural, even in noisy environments.
- Reduced listening effort: A reduction in the cognitive effort required to focus on speech in the presence of background noise.
- Enhanced satisfaction: The consistent preference for Sphere Infinio among participants demonstrates its ability to outperform alternative technologies in real-world conditions.
Together, these benefits reinforce your role in helping clients achieve their best hearing experience, while strengthening their trust in your expertise and the solutions you provide.
To learn more about Audéo Sphere Infinio devices, please visit our product pages.
References:
- Wu, Y. H., Stangl, E., Chipara, O., Hasan, S. S., DeVries, S., & Oleson, J. (2019). Efficacy and effectiveness of advanced hearing aid directional and noise reduction technologies for older adults with mild to moderate hearing loss. Ear and Hearing, 40(4), 805–822. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000000672