Concha Sol Listening to Aids Evaluate: Feeling Dated

Concha Labs has been making over-the-counter listening to aids since 2017, advertising and marketing only one product—the Concha Sol.

The listening to aids have a well-recognized design, a basic behind-the-ear configuration with a easy rocker management on the again of every. Concha notably touts its customizability: The Sol are available in your selection of 4 colours, and could be configured with lead wires in 4 completely different sizes, although it must be famous that many competing listening to aids have lead wires that may be adjusted on the fly and changed with bigger or smaller ones.

On the time of your order, Concha works to transform the listening to aids to the scale of your ears, pores and skin tone, and the colour of your hair (when you’re fortunate sufficient to have any left), maximizing the chance that they’ll mix in and match correctly. I acquired the gray mannequin with the longest out there leads and measured the load of those gadgets at 2.03 grams, which could be very light-weight for behind-the-ear listening to aids.

Replaceable Batteries

The first motive behind such a lightweight weight is the Sol’s largest draw back: replaceable batteries. That’s a little bit of a nonstarter in immediately’s listening to help world, and it’s stunning that Concha Labs continues to be clinging to a fading energy mannequin that requires the person to fumble with sliding in a brand new pair of tiny batteries each 5 to 7 days. Whereas replaceable batteries supply a far longer lifespan than even one of the best rechargeable cells (in addition to the aforementioned lighter weight), they’re nonetheless a trouble that few take pleasure in. (The final analysis I’ve seen, from 2021, confirmed that 70 p.c of listening to help customers desire rechargeable listening to techniques.)

Assuming you’re OK with a replaceable battery system, the Concha Sol have quite a bit going for them. It begins with tuning. Concha doesn’t use preset sound profiles like most OTC aids. Preset profiles are pretuned frequency waveforms primarily based on 1000’s of historic listening to assessments individuals have taken over time. These audiograms are averaged, and a handful of consultant audiograms are loaded onto the {hardware}. If you take an in-app listening to take a look at, the app figures out which of those audiograms is closest to yours and hundreds the suitable corrections into the listening to help {hardware}. It’s not excellent, however for many customers it’s ok.

Concha has a built-in listening to take a look at in its app, however it’s wholly not like the everyday listening to take a look at, the place you hear for pings at completely different frequencies and volumes till a full image of your listening to loss develops. After some preliminary level-setting, Concha’s system, known as Soundscope, asks you to hear (with every ear) to paired, repeated snippets of speech, then determine whether or not pattern A or pattern B sounds finest. It’s like a watch examination, solely in your ears.