Do I need one or two?
Overall, binaural listening is more comfortable, natural and effective
There are many reasons to
use two hearing instruments (a “binaural” fit) instead of one. The most fundamental reason is that you
have two ears.
Your brain is accustomed to processing sound from both
sides of your head. It’s no wonder, then, that balancing the loudness of sounds entering both your ears
works better than using just one ear.
Test comparisons show that people
with hearing instruments in both ears can distinguish words better than those with one instrument, and
hear sounds from a greater distance. They also have a much greater ability to tell which direction sounds
are coming from.
Furthermore, using just one instrument creates a “head
shadow effect,” in which sounds lose their intensity by having to go around a person’s head to the amplified
ear.
