Apple’s wireless earbuds are routinely praised for their natural-sounding transparency mode, and for good reason. But did you know you can customise the level of ambient noise that transparency mode lets through? And if that’s not enough, there’s a separate “conversation boost” mode that’s designed to make it easier to hear face-to-face conversations happening in front of you.
Samsung also provides granular control over the ambient sound mode on the company’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. You can choose between five different levels of amplification and set individual preferences for each ear. Moreover, there’s also a slider that can adjust ambient sound from “soft” to “clear” based on what sounds best to each person.
And there are also more dedicated ear buds for hearing aid type use. Yes, they do cost a lot more, but are still way cheaper than actual medical hearing aids. In all cases, our ears become less sensitive to certain frequencies, which accounts for some noise sounding louder than someone speaking next to us. All these ear buds are doing is normalising that sound so that what you want to really hear, is more audible to you.