Lucid Hearing announced the release of its latest hearing aid – Tala, noting that the product is the highest premium option in the company's OTC product line. The Fort Worth-based manufacturer said Tala initially will be sold on lucidhearing.com and at Best Buy, with multiple retailers, being added to distribution in the coming months. Tala's price will be $1,299, and future products with the company's new proprietary Precision Directional Listening System (PDL) will be added to the line to address the full spectrum of hearing loss – whether mild to moderate, or more severe.
In addition to its Bluetooth compatible wireless streaming, Tala's top-of-the line features will include patented LucidShape app-controlled customizable sound profiles, a moisture resistant coating and a rechargeable design that lasts all day. Tala's PDL System enhances the user's ability to hear speech and other desired sounds while minimizing background noise. By combining Lucid Hearing's sophisticated signal processing algorithms with directional power, PDL refines sounds originating from the direction the user is facing while suppressing unwanted noise from other directions, greatly enhancing speech intelligibility and overall listening comfort.
Additionally, like all of Lucid Hearing's premium OTC products, Tala can be upgraded to a custom programmed prescription hearing aid solution. "Lucid Hearing operates on a vertically integrated model, from R&D all the way through to our customer-facing hearing clinics, and we've intentionally built a technology stack that allows us to seamlessly upgrade a premium OTC hearing aid to a prescription-level solution, if at some point the customer wants to take that next step. This is something that is unique to Lucid Hearing and our continuum of OTC and prescription hearing aid products," Griffin explained.
The offering of performance-driven and discreet OTC hearing aids like Tala could not be more timely as reports reveal an increased prevalence among Americans of noise-induced hearing loss. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, approximately 40 million American adults may have hearing loss resulting from various types of noise exposure.
An August 2022 ruling finalized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opened the market for OTC hearing devices, which are recommended for individuals with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.Lucid Hearing began preparing for the OTC market by making a significant investment over the last five years to develop pre-set programs for the company's OTC devices. The programs were developed as a result of research done in conjunction with a top audiology research program at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Lucid Hearing's pre-set programs offer a unique advantage in that they help the vast majority of consumers with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.
