Yesound RIC800 hearing aid review: Good sound, great app

While bulk Of innovation in without a prescription Hearing The market is circling more modern in-ear models, and a new brand called Yeasound is proving that there’s still some life left in the traditional behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid space. The company is relatively new, but is actually a subsidiary of Yealink, a Chinese telecommunications manufacturer that has been making headsets and handsets for 25 years.

Yesound BTE hearing aids are currently available in two versions. I tested the high-end RIC800 model, which includes AI noise reduction, a speech autofocus system, and support for Android as well as iOS. (The RIC700 is compatible with Apple only.)

Photo: Chris Noll

The units look identical and even weigh the same; I measured one unit at 2.76 grams, which is a bit heavier than some of my favorite hearing aids, like Jabra Boost Select 700. Physical controls are limited to two buttons on the back of each unit. These are mainly used to control the volume (independently for each ear) but can also be used to interact with phone calls over a broadcast connection.

On-board audiogram

ScreenshotiYeasound app via Christopher Noll

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 to adjust frequencies. I enjoyed Yesound’s hearing test, which is very quick compared to other hearing tests on the market. While the test works the same way, presenting sounds at different frequencies and volume to each ear, it avoids long 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 conventional audiogram for posterity; My results were a little more aggressive than my basic audiogram suggested, but they were close enough for an OTC product and informal at-home testing. Unfortunately, if you already have an audiogram on hand, it cannot be imported, and Yesound test results cannot be manually edited except to perform another test.

After taking my hearing test and uploading my audiogram, I was ready to start my Yesound user experience in earnest.

The app’s home screen offers five environmental modes: Adaptive, General, Noise, Music, and Outdoor, all of which are pretty much self-explanatory. Volume controls for each ear appear below the mode selector. However, you won’t find any noise cancellation options here. For those who need to delve deeper into the audio setup system, it’s unique to each of the five modes except Adaptive. Here you can roughly adjust the low, mid, and high frequencies (although nothing is more precise than that), choose one of three noise reduction levels, and choose between using an all-around microphone, a forward-facing mode, and a tighter focus mode.

ScreenshotiYeasound app via Christopher Noll

Adaptive mode is where the RIC800’s AI features come into play, and if you enable it you give up all the additional controls mentioned above, with volume being the only adjustment. This sounds liberal, but I preferred to use the General mode more often than not, as my fine-tuning proved more effective than the algorithm, especially after pushing the noise cancellation to its maximum level. This mode had less hiss—a noticeable issue in Adaptive mode when the volume rises—and sounded less boomy, especially when tested with closed ear tips. With the open ear tips, the two positions were about even. (Open, closed, and hybrid ear tips are included in the box in different sizes to try.)

Overall, I found the units’ voice assistance to be effective if imperfect. Mid-range frequencies often sounded a little muddy and muffled, a problem that extended to a lesser extent to low-frequency tones. However, noise cancellation was surprisingly good, and the units could be pushed to very high levels without significant distortion.