Whereas some shopper electronics corporations, like Sony, have jumped instantly into the burgeoning over-the-counter listening to assist market, others are getting there by way of partnerships. The most recent of those is veteran audio producer Bose, which is “powering” listening to aids from a producer referred to as Lexie. Not too long ago I took its newest mannequin, the Lexie B2 “Powered by Bose,” out for a spin by way of my auditory meatus.
Like the remainder of the trade of late, Lexie’s B2s are self-fitting, over-the-counter listening to aids, which suggests you should purchase them wherever (not simply from a licensed listening to assist retailer) and modify them your self, with out the involvement of a physician or audiologist.
However not like the opposite OTC listening to aids I’ve tried of late, that are designed to suit utterly throughout the ear canal, Lexie’s use a extra conventional design, with the electronics becoming behind the ear and a small wire connecting to a receiver which inserts within the ear canal. Whereas technically referred to as receiver-in-the-ear (RITE), the design has an look very like that of an old-school behind-the-ear unit.
Having {hardware} exterior to the ear canal is problematic, foremost due to the way in which it seems. Whereas new-school in-the-ear listening to aids are nearly invisible, the RITE design telegraphs “I’m dropping my listening to” from throughout the room, which in all probability isn’t the aesthetic that the majority customers are in search of. Whereas Lexie’s B2 is definitely svelte—every assist weighs simply over 3 grams—they’re removed from invisible, and the impact on one’s look is decidedly ageing. There’s merely no means you’ll be able to fake these are earbuds.
Getting began with Lexie was a bit comical, involving textual content verification codes that went nowhere and limitless pages of phrases and situations to scroll by way of earlier than I might begin utilizing the items. Thankfully, the principle portion of the app is a lot better designed, that includes an intuitive interface that permits you to modify “world quantity,” the general amplification stage, on one aspect of the display and set your desire for bass or treble on the opposite. Further features allow you to modify the stability between your proper and left ears—or mute an ear individually—and select amongst preconfigured environments (noise indoor, outdoor, music, or on a regular basis). You possibly can set as much as 10 private environmental settings and select between two directional modes, whether or not you wish to amplify audio from in every single place or simply in entrance of you.
As is the case with most listening to aids, these extra refined settings could be hit-or-miss on the Lexie B2, because the grasp quantity setting is by far probably the most impactful. Nevertheless, I discovered that they are often value toying with should you actually wish to get nuanced about your audio expertise. Sadly, the Lexie B2 has no coaching function that permits you to measure your listening to loss or fine-tune your listening to, equalizer-style, which makes it all of the extra shocking {that a} 124-page handbook is required to clarify how all of this works.
Placing the aids on can be one thing of a problem, and whereas there’s clearly a studying curve that may be overcome by the persistent, I by no means bought to the purpose the place it was straightforward to slide a unit on with only one hand. Most problematic, although, is that I simply didn’t discover the items snug. Though the gadget contains ideas (Lexie calls them domes) in three sizes and two types—open or closed—I by no means discovered any that each match properly and didn’t finally begin to itch, although the smaller ones had been much less irritating. The silicone domes really feel delicate to the contact of a finger, however they sadly really feel a bit rougher within the ear.
