05-05-2025
The Nuance Audio Glasses Are Hearing Aids I Actually Want to Wear
Here's the dirty secret about hearing aids. Millions of people need them. Most don't wear them. Why? Because they hate having shit in their ears. Pardon my French.
I often feel the same way. I have mild but measurable hearing loss, and I love the benefit that high-quality hearing aids provide me. But I don't often wear hearing aids in my daily life when I'm not testing products for the same reasons as everyone else. I hate putting them in, taking them out, having them in for hours at a time—the whole experience. As a result, I tend to wear hearing aids for short periods—only when I know I'll need them.
Photograph: Chris Null
The negative hearing aid experience is compounded because I wear glasses. In-the-ear hearing aids like Apple AirPods Pro are fine, but behind-the-ear (BTE) aids like the Jabra Enhance Select 300 aids don't play well with eyeglass arms that compete for the same space on top of and behind the ear. Unfortunately, BTE aids generally offer a higher quality listening experience, so glasses wearers may have to choose between improving their hearing or eyesight (or just suffering with discomfort).
That's a long preface to introduce EssilorLuxottica (the owner of Ray-Ban, Oakley, and numerous other eyewear brands), which may have come up with a solution for all of this: prescription glasses with hearing aid features built in. Hearing Glasses
Photograph: Chris Null
The Nuance Audio builds on technology the company pioneered last year for its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which pipe audio to the wearer via open-ear speakers built into each arm of the specs. There's no camera or intelligence (nor an Awkwafina voice option) on the Nuance Audio, as these speakers are meant to amplify ambient sounds captured by the directional microphones and send them to, or at least near , your ears. You can't even see the speakers on the glasses or pinpoint where the sound is coming from while you're wearing them. It's just … there.
