While the bulk of innovation in the over-the-counter hearing aid market revolves around more modern in-ear models, a new brand called Yeasound is proving there’s still some life left in the traditional behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid space. The company is relatively new, but it’s actually a subsidiary of Yealink, a Chinese telecom producer that’s been making headsets and phone hardware for 25 years.
Yeasound’s BTE hearing aids currently come in two versions. I tested the higher-end RIC800 model, which includes AI-powered noise reduction, an automatic speech-focusing system, and support for Android in addition to iOS. (The RIC700 is Apple-compatible only.)
Photograph: Chris Null
The units otherwise look identical and even weigh the same; I measured a single unit at 2.76 grams, which is only slightly heavier than some of my favorite BTE hearing aids, like the Jabra Enhance Select 700. Physical controls are limited to two buttons on the back side of each unit. These are mainly used to control volume (independently for each ear) but can also be used to interact with phone calls via a streaming connection.
Onboard Audiogram
ScreenshotiYeasound app via Christopher Null
The first stop for most users will be the iYeasound mobile app, which offers a simplified home screen that puts all the essentials front and center. The in-app hearing test sets a baseline for how frequencies are adjusted. I rather enjoyed Yeasound’s hearing test, which is quite expedited in comparison to others on the market. While the test works the same way, delivering pings of various frequencies and volume to each ear, it eschews lengthy and unnecessary pauses between each test, so you can finish the entire test in about five minutes instead of 10 or more. The results are plotted on a traditional audiogram for posterity; my results were slightly more aggressive than my canonical audiogram suggests, but they were close enough for an OTC product and an informal, in-home test. Unfortunately, if you already have an audiogram in hand, it can’t be imported, and Yeasound’s testing results can’t be manually edited aside from taking another test.
With the hearing test done and my audiogram loaded, I was ready to embark on the Yeasound user experience in earnest.
The main screen of the app offers five environmental modes: Adaptive, General, Noisy, Music, and Outdoors, all largely self-explanatory. Volume controls for each ear appear below the mode selector. You won’t find any noise cancellation options here, though. For those you need to drill into the Sound Setting system, which is unique for each of the five modes except Adaptive. Here you can roughly adjust low, mid, and high frequencies (though nothing more refined than that), opt for one of three noise reduction levels, and choose between using an all-around microphone, a forward-facing mode, and an even tighter focus mode.
ScreenshotiYeasound app via Christopher Null
The Adaptive mode is where the RIC800’s AI features come into play, and if you enable it you forgo all of the additional controls mentioned above, with volume the only modification offered. This sounds liberating, but I preferred using the General mode much of the time, with my own fine-tuning proving more effective than the algorithm’s, especially after pushing noise cancellation to its maximum level. This mode had a little less hiss—a noticeable problem in the Adaptive mode when the volume level creeps up—and it felt less boomy, especially when testing with closed ear tips. With open ear tips, the two modes were about a draw. (Open, closed, and hybrid ear tips are included in the box in various sizes for you to experiment with.)
On the whole, I found the units’ audio assistance to be effective if imperfect. Mid-level frequencies often felt a little muddy and muffled, a problem that extended to a lesser degree to lower-frequency tones. Noise cancellation was surprisingly good, however, and the units can be pushed to very loud levels without introducing significant distortion.
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