If a hearing is held While headphones, in their most basic form, are designed to recreate sounds, why can’t they also function as standard wireless earbuds? That’s the question JLab answers with its Over-the-counter hearing aids and earphones Hearand with a resounding answer: Yes, you can.
JLab’s Hears look like regular headphones because that’s what they’re known to users, with more than a dozen headphone models on the market in all shapes, sizes, and capabilities. The Hear OTCs are its only headphone product, a two-in-one device that switches surprisingly seamlessly between the two modes (it can’t, and probably shouldn’t, perform simultaneous functions).
Please note that technically the JLab Hear is not a true hearing aid, but rather a Personal sound amplification product (PSAP) which has not been formally approved as an over-the-counter hearing aid by the FDA, although JLab markets it as such. That said, it performed as well or better than many official hearing aids in my testing, but individual results will undoubtedly vary.
Available in black, white, or beige (if you want to replicate the old-school headphone experience), these bulky devices aren’t exactly discreet, weighing 4.94 grams each. They’re not uncomfortable, but they are bulky and can get heavy over time. There’s no way to hide them when you’re wearing them.
Photography: Christopher Null
As over-the-counter hearing aids, the devices are simple and a little clunky. There are four volume levels available, as well as four operating modes: noisy environment, restaurant, conversation, and quiet environment. In tight spaces it’s hard to tell the difference between the operating modes, but outdoors I found the “noisy environment” setting didn’t help enough with noise reduction, and wind noise was a big problem. At higher volume levels, whistling can be an issue.
Turning down the volume and maximizing the background noise cancellation option helped in this regard, and I actually found both of these changes to be generally useful in all types of environments. JLab doesn’t offer a hearing test or any kind of audiogram adjustment, so amplification is determined solely by the volume and mode settings.
When you play media on your phone or take a voice call, the Hear OTC quickly and seamlessly switches to Bluetooth mode. This disables all of the controls mentioned in the previous paragraph, including volume adjustments, which are replaced by your device’s audio volume settings. Unfortunately, this also means that noise-cancelling features aren’t available in Bluetooth mode – a huge missed opportunity. What does activate, however, is an equaliser feature available through JLab’s app. The equaliser has a traditional sliding interface for 10 frequency bands, and it’s worth spending some time tweaking it to your liking – the Hear’s bass response isn’t the best by default, and it benefits from a minor upgrade in this regard.