The Enhance Plus will first be available at select Hearing Care clinics around the U.S. for $799. The device is “510(k)-cleared with the FDA under the self-fit hearing aid regulation.” As new, upcoming regulations get finalized for retailers to sell devices that fall within the hearing aid category of devices, these will likely become available to buy at more places.
As earbuds for music listening have gotten smaller over the last few years, it’s been obvious to me that they have been on a collision course with the medical hearing aid market. We’re not there yet, but the Enhance Plus is certainly a milestone.
Since I don’t have noticeable hearing problems yet, I can’t fully evaluate the Jabra Enhance Plus as a means to regain lost hearing capability. They didn’t give me superhero-level hearing, either. Instead, I wore them every day for a week to get a sense of their fit and feel, along with their microphones’ audio performance.
TL;DR
Pros:
Small, comfortable earbudsiOS app and software settings are well done
Cons:
Pricey to buy out-of-pocketiPhone-only compatible at launch
Find a retailer through Jabra.
Jabra Enhance Plus Setup and Features
The Enhance Plus currently only works with an iPhone. This is at least in part due to the extensive accessibility features that Apple offers on its devices. Interestingly, you don’t pair them through the typical Bluetooth screen. Instead, these are connected inside the iPhone’s Settings app, in the Accessibility section (Hearing Devices).
Setup also includes going through a hearing test inside the Jabra Enhance mobile app. There are a series of beeps at varying volumes using different tones to help personalize how the earbuds can help you hear.
There aren’t many additional frills and features on these, beyond assisting with hearing, but there are a few things. The Enhance Plus are water-resistant so they can be worn in the rain or at the gym without hurting them. There are four dedicated microphones that work together to alleviate unwanted noise and better hear speech.
Battery life is rated at 10 hours on a single charge and 30 hours total with the charging case, which can be recharged with a USB-C cable. There is also a stealth button on each earbud. The button on the right will raise the hearing volume, and the one on the left will lower it.
These aren’t intended to be your music-listening earbuds, but you can use them for this purpose. Videos and music can play through the Enhance Plus, just like Bluetooth earbuds, while they still amplify sound around you."
Wearing the Jabra Enhance Plus Throughout the Day
There’s an element to the Jabra Enhance Plus that feels slightly familiar to Transparency mode on the AirPods Pro. You’re hearing the world with an artificial tinge to it. Of course, the two are very different products, but slipping the Enhance Plus in my ears for the first time did briefly give me that feeling.
Living life through microphones produces a strange sensation for hearing everyday interactions. Typing on my MacBook Air keyboard is much more clackity than without the Enhance Plus. Getting jelly beans out of a plastic bag has a harsh, sharp sound. The wind is full of static. Still, despite that artificial tone, I would say that most of the time, the sound was pretty even and accurately represented—much more than simply hearing raw audio amplified.
Because there is an element of personalization upon setup, your experience may vary in how the Enhance Plus helps you hear dialog or other everyday sounds. I could hear all the beeps in the setup process, so I don’t feel as though I’m missing out on the spectrum of sound that these then raised.
The Enhance app is very simple and opens up to a large volume level. Underneath that, there are three different hearing modes. Although simple, the app is a critical component of the overall experience as it lets you choose between different hearing modes.
Focus, Adaptive and Surround modes will help you to hear in different environments. Focus is geared toward one-on-one conversations, while Surround can help you better hear ambient sounds around you. Adaptive mode tries to be the smartest and adjust focus automatically to different sounds.
Personally, I find each of the listening modes useful. I also like that there are only three modes to choose from, with one capable of being all-encompassing if you don’t want to fiddle with adjusting any settings ever.
While driving and at the grocery store, I tend to use Surround mode. I can hear things coming up from behind me and better recognize things to watch out for faster. Hearing more stuff around you is certainly helpful, but it can be overwhelming, too.
I also found myself using Adaptive mode while out of the house because it’s a blend of wide and narrow hearing. I didn’t go to any parties or bars while testing the Enhance Plus, so I didn’t get to try Focus mode in those environments, but I do use it around my house frequently. Since there can be a lot going on living with three other people and a dog, it helped to cut out the noise I didn’t need to hear.
Occasionally I did hear an echo and overprocessed sound from the earbuds. This was rare and seemed like a glitch. The two separate times it happened, I put them back in their case for a moment and then back into my ears.
Since the Enhance Plus has 10 hours of battery life, I really wanted to live with them in my ears to see how they felt. I made it 2 to 5 hours at a time before my ears were fatigued. My ears were never sore or aching from the plastic pieces—they were just tired of the heightened sound. My guess is I would crave the additional audio detail if I were truly missing it and having trouble hearing conversations, but I can only speculate on that.
The other option is that wearers will learn to adjust the volume level depending on their location so any listening fatigue is alleviated. There’s also the possibility that people will only need these for social situations, noisy environments or scattered times throughout the day—not for 10 hours straight through.
Should You Buy the Jabra Enhance Plus?
Hearing loss affects a lot of people, but comparatively you don’t see many people wearing hearing aids. I really like the idea of a product addressing a need like this in a way that’s easy to use in the situations one might need it. There should be very little stigma associated with what amounts to the tiny wireless earbuds that so many people are wearing already to listen to music.
Will the sound amplification be worth its cost for you? That’s a hard question to answer; hearing, and hearing loss, can be so specific and personal. These cost significantly less than some hearing enhancement options, and there’s a chance they may be covered by your health insurance, but they aren’t cheap to buy outright. I am positive that the Jabra Enhance Plus can help some people hear more around them. I just don’t know if that’s you or not.
Find a retailer through Jabra for $799.
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