Review: Elehear Delight Hearing Aids

“Delight” is a bold choice of name for any type of tech product, but it’s especially ambitious in the world of hearing aids, where “begrudgingly tolerate” is the highest praise typically offered. Undaunted, Elehear’s latest over-the-counter release aims to raise the bar on user satisfaction, featuring a major design change and leveraging a new AI algorithm (naturally) to improve noise reduction and reduce feedback.

Designed as in-the-ear devices with discretion in mind, the Delight cuts a much different profile than the more traditional, behind-the-ear Beyond Pro and Beyond hearing aids. The big question: Can they perform as well as BTE offerings?

A Sleek Design

Photograph: Chris Null

Let’s start with the highlights: The Elehear Delight hearing aids look great, a lot like compact Bluetooth earbuds in a neutral shade of beige. When inserted, the Delight aids don’t protrude from the ear at all, though they are quite visible when the ear is viewed directly from the side.

Interestingly, they are partially held in place by a silicone “wing” that slips into and rests closely against the concha. This rubbery fin is actually part of a thin case that wraps around the entire hearing aid and which, like the ear tips, can be removed for cleaning and replaced when it wears down. Three sizes of ear tips—including both closed and lightly vented options—and three sizes of ear wings are included in the box for you to experiment with.

At 3.38 grams each, the Delights aren’t exactly lightweight (Elehear has never been known for small devices), but they don’t feel heavy at all because of the way they fit so snugly in the concha. I was able to wear them for hours without discomfort or itchiness, and while they never disappeared to the point where I didn’t notice them anymore, they never made my ears sore.

The units have no physical controls, but they do support taps for volume control—one tap to raise the volume, two to lower it, either in hearing aid mode or streaming mode. I found that these tap commands would often fire during the insertion and removal process, so you’ll want to check the Elehear app to make sure volume settings are correct before you get too far down the road when wearing them.

The case included with the Delight hearing aids is also a winner, thanks to its diminutive size, making it easy to slip into a pocket. Clearly designed with mobility in mind, the case includes a big enough battery to provide two top-up charges to the hearing aids, which are specified to offer 13.5 hours per charge (less with heavy streaming). In my testing, I achieved a lifespan of 11 hours before a recharge was needed, with a mix of usage modes.

Lost in the Noise

Photograph: Chris Null

Fit and finish are, unfortunately, the major highlights here, as this is ultimately a rather basic hearing aid product that didn’t deliver much in the way of high-quality hearing support. Like Elehear’s other devices, the Delight is not tunable, which means it is designed to boost audio volume mostly across the entire audible frequency spectrum based on a prototypical audiogram.

That created some definite discomfort for me when listening to anything above volume levels 1 or 2 (out of 11) in the Elehear app, with high-frequency sounds invariably quite distorted and bass tones downright booming. Hiss isn’t a problem at very low volume levels, but it’s a major issue once you start dialing things up; the staticky background quickly becomes unbearable. A “brighter/deeper” tuning slider in the app wasn’t of much help with any of this, and I was barely able to discern any difference among the five noise-cancellation modes.

The Delight hearing aids come preconfigured with four additional environmental modes in addition to the default setting, with room for four extra modes you can create yourself. Unfortunately, none of these made any real difference for my overall hearing clarity, no matter what kind of setting I found myself in. Streaming media comes across as fair but largely devoid of bass and unusable in loud environments.

All told, the Delight system provided fairly minimal support in even a best-case scenario (watching TV in an otherwise quiet room), and they weren’t effective at all in noisy environments, where amplified ambient sound drowned out attempts at conversation.

The app has some interesting extras waiting for the user, including a simple language translator, an environmental noise measuring system, and a remote sound capture system that lets you place your phone in front of an audio source so you can pipe sound directly to your hearing aids from its microphone. Elehear’s “Serene” soundscapes can also be used to generate various meditative background noises directly within the hearing aids, with a massive 26 track types available, including Waterfall, Cicadas, and even Cat. Ultimately, I had more fun playing with all of these bonus features than actually using the Delight aids for everyday hearing support.

Photograph: Chris Null

One downside of the Elehear app is its quirky need to be manually reconnected to the hearing aids almost every time it is opened—even if those aids are already connected via Bluetooth and working normally. It requires a few extra taps and a few extra seconds when opening the app, an unnecessary step that should be handled behind the scenes. It’s also worth noting that I had significant trouble getting the Delight aids to pair with my phone in the first place—the left aid would pair but not the right—requiring several factory resets before I finally got everything working.

If I could rate these hearing aids strictly based on their design and fit, they’d get a near-perfect score, but despite Elehear’s promises of integrating a new AI-powered audio engine with better noise cancellation and amplification, I never saw any tangible benefits from the upgrades. I hesitate to say that as a blanket dismissal, because while most hearing aid wearers are likely to benefit from the use of a tuned audiogram, others may get more benefit from this type of blunt amplification.