Review: JLab Hear OTC Hearing Aid

If a hearing aid, at its most fundamental, is designed to re-create sounds, why can’t it also work like standard wireless earbuds? That’s the question JLab answers with its Hear OTC Hearing Aid & Earbuds, and with a resounding response: Yes, it can.

JLab’s Hear looks like normal earbuds because that’s what the company is known for, with more than a dozen models of earbuds on the market in all shapes, sizes, and capabilities. The Hear OTC is its only hearing aid product, a two-in-one device that switches surprisingly seamlessly between the two modes. (It can’t—and probably shouldn’t—do simultaneous duty.)

Available in black, white, or beige (should you want to replicate an old-school hearing aid experience), these chunky devices aren’t exactly discreet, weighing a hefty 4.94 grams each. They aren’t uncomfortable, but they are bulky and can weigh you down over time. There’s no hiding these aids when you have them in.

Photograph: Christopher Null

As over-the-counter hearing aids, the devices are simple and a little blunt. Four volume levels are available, as are four operating modes—loud environment, restaurant, conversation, and quiet environment. In close quarters it’s difficult to tell the difference between the operating modes, but outside I found the “loud environment” setting didn’t help enough with noise reduction, and wind noise was a huge issue. At higher volume levels, hiss can be a concern.

Lowering the volume and maxing out the background noise removal option helped on this front—and in fact, I found both of these changes to be generally useful in all types of settings. JLab doesn’t offer a hearing test or any kind of audiogram tuning, so amplification is dictated exclusively by the volume and mode settings.

When you play media on your phone or take a voice call, the Hear OTC slips quickly and seamlessly into Bluetooth mode. This disables all of the controls mentioned in the previous paragraph, including volume settings, which are taken over by your device’s audio volume settings. Unfortunately, this also means that noise cancellation features aren’t available in Bluetooth mode—a big missed opportunity. What does kick in, however, is an equalizer feature available through JLab’s app. The equalizer has a traditional slider interface for 10 frequency bands, and it’s worthwhile to spend some time tweaking it to your liking; the Hear’s bass response isn’t the best by default and it benefits from a little upgrading here.

Photograph: JLAB

The JLab Hear can be controlled via taps on either aid, but there’s a small learning curve to get the hang of it, namely because controls differ slightly between the two operating modes. For example, in hearing aid mode, a long press on either side adjusts volume independently for each aid, cycling through the four volume levels. But in Bluetooth mode, a long press on the left aid turns the volume down; a long press on the right aid turns the volume up. It takes quite a bit of force to get the aids to react to taps, which is a little uncomfortable as it can push them into your ears awkwardly.

As alluded to previously, JLab has an app that’s easier to work with, but note that the QR code in the manual will lead you to an incompatible app designed exclusively for earbud/headphone control. What you need is the JLab Hearing Health App (Android, iOS), which I had to find manually on the App Store. The app is a little buggy; it’s possible to put the aids into all four operating modes simultaneously, and it can be slow to respond to commands. There’s no clear delineation between hearing aid controls and earbud controls either. Some work to clean things up would certainly help new users who need a bit of hand-holding.

JLab provides two kinds of eartips—closed and open—in three sizes, one pair of each. While open eartips are usually best for me for straight hearing aid use, I gravitated more toward closed eartips for these aids because they make the Bluetooth experience much more enjoyable, blocking out a significant amount of outside sound. Experiment—and consider keeping extra eartip styles in the case, as there’s room for them.

Photograph: Christopher Null

Battery life is specified at an acceptable 10 hours. The slim, rechargeable case adds an extra 40 hours to that total, which should be plenty for most users, as these aids are too large for all-day wear. One nifty feature on the case is its built-in USB-C cable, which pops out from the bottom of the device and clips out of sight when not in use. I wish more brands did this, as it’s great not to have to dig around for a compatible cable when you need the extra juice.

Best of all, the JLab Hear OTC costs a whopping $100, which is probably what you’ll pay for a decent set of Bluetooth earbuds. If you’re hearing-aid curious, the Hear OTC is a worthwhile investment. Even if you never use the hearing aid feature, you’ve still got a pretty good pair of Bluetooth earbuds for your trouble.

Correction on August 8, 2024: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the JLab Hear were not FDA-approved, but they are. We regret the error.