Sensory evaluation of hearing aid performance based on normal-hearing listeners

This paper describes a method used for evaluating sound quality of 4 hearing aid products using expert assessors for a sensory profiling test and a preference test. Hearing aids were evaluated by trained normal-hearing listeners in 7 different sound environments that were selected to represent some of the common hearing aid user situations. The scenarios were reproduced in a standard listening room. Assessors performed a consensus language development to establish seven key sound quality attributes, which they used to assess the performance of each hearing aid in each sound scenario. Additionally, preference data was also collected from assessors. The univariate analysis of the preference data and the multivariate analysis of the sensory profiling data are discussed in detail.