When I recently attended the Hearing Loss Association of America’s convention, I heard a lot about ways that earbuds can be beneficial for folks with hearing loss. I was intrigued, as earbuds were not a part of my lifestyle. I decided to do some research and here is what I found.

Noise canceling features as well as transparency mode (where your earbuds send through the noise around you) can really make earbuds a useful tool. I have found that in situations where I want to make sure I don’t miss any of the audio, noise canceling is really helpful. It can also help give you a little quiet break when you need a rest from auditory stimulation. It mostly blocks out lower tones and not speech, but it is still beneficial. Transparency mode is great if you don’t want to remove the buds in order to hear people speaking around you. I don’t feel I can handle having the separate audio running and hear people talking at the same time without exhausting my brain, but the ease with which you can switch from listening to audio to communicating with those around you is nice.

With only having one working ear, I wanted to be able to wear just one earbud and still have it function. For some brands of earbuds, you have to wear both buds for them to work at all. For a model of earbuds that I was looking at that was Bose brand, you can only wear just a right bud. A single left bud cannot play audio on its own. Both Airpod Pros and Pixel Bud Pros work with just one earbud in, either side. I did find with the Pixel Bud Pros that if I am using the earbuds for a phone call that the audio quality for the person listening to me is better if I wear both buds.

I have heard some folks say they like using earbuds for hearing protection at events like concerts. I did a little research on this, and it seems the jury is out on if this is actually adequate protection. It seems as though it may not be as safe as something like loop ear plugs, so I would recommend caution. I am linking to an article that goes in depth on using earbuds as hearing protection.

Regarding brands for earbuds, there really are a lot of options out there. When I was researching, I was really emphasizing noise canceling as the feature I wanted. Top options I kept seeing were Airpod Pro, Pixel Buds Pro, Bose Quiet Comfort, Sony WF1000XM5/B. I purchased Pixel Buds Pro because of price and ease of function with my android devices. Since that time, I have had a chance to try Airpod Pros, and I would probably recommend those over the Pixel Buds Pro. The Airpods Pro noise canceling and transparency mode are both better than Pixel’s.  Also, I have teeny tiny ear cannals and struggle to keep earbuds in. Airpod Pros are a bit more comfortable and better designed physically.

I have found for portions of office work and situations like talking on the phone in the car, earbuds can be really useful. It certainly is a good tool to have in the arsenal, and they are so compact and easy to bring along.