Lucid Tala OTC Hearing Aid: Expert Review and Sound Samples

The new "premium" Tala OTC hearing aids from Lucid Hearing offer highly-effective speech enhancement for the relatively modest price of $1,299.99. But, my testing revealed that Tala is a mixed bag—Tala has no ear-level controls and Bluetooth^® audio quality was subpar for an earbud-style hearing aid, especially at this price point.

Who is Lucid Hearing

If you have been following over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids, you likely know of the Texas-based company Lucid Hearing. Since 2009, they have been designing lower-cost hearing aids primarily for the direct-to-consumer market. We recently reviewed Engage, Lucid's premium receiver-in-canal (RIC) hearing aid, which was awarded the 2023 HearAdvisor Expert Choice Award.

You can find their hearing aids online at LucidHearing.com, though their products are also available at Lucid Hearing Centers across the United States. Many of these centers are within Sam’s Club Stores—where you have access to support, hearing tests, and more from their hearing providers. Their products generally come with a 1-year warranty and you have lifetime product support with Lucid representatives over call, email, or their web-based chat.

Over the past year I have had the chance to try several of Lucid’s OTC hearing aids. So far my experiences have been similar in that their premium products, Tala included, are straightforward and easy to use.

What is Tala?

Released on August 29th 2023,  Tala is the latest addition to Lucid’s lineup of OTC hearing aids. Lucid claims that Tala is their most innovative and discrete product to date as it introduces new features such as their Precision Directional Listening (PDL) technology.

I personally had the chance to test the benefits of Lucid’s new PDL technology in the HearAdvisor lab (more on that below) and I was also pleased to learn that Tala offers Bluetooth streaming in a smaller earbud-like device—a first for Lucid.

Hands-On With Tala

Once out of the box, you will notice that Tala are surprisingly lightweight (around 2 grams per earpiece) and have a soft silicone ear tip. They appear to be made of mostly plastic and feel on the fragile end of devices I have tested. I would certainly not trust dropping these onto a hardwood or concrete floor out of fear of the outer shell cracking.

With that said, they were comfortable in my ears and had good retention. The default medium closed domes fit well and gave me enough isolation without feeling as though I was wearing earplugs.

Lucid has commented that Tala are discrete, and while I  would not describe them as “invisible,” they are marginally smaller than many other devices. You can see how Tala sit in my ears compared to a traditional RIC hearing aid in the image below.

If you are searching for a truly discrete option these may not be for you, as the bright white color and slightly protruding microphone faceplate give them a higher visual profile. While I personally do not think hearing aids need to be hidden, many people express this concern, so you will have to be the judge.

Bluetooth & Wireless Control

For those familiar with Lucid Engage, Tala’s wireless capabilities will seem familiar. They use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) allowing hands-free calling and audio streaming for both Apple^® (iPhone 6 or later) and Android™ (10 or above). Lucid hosts a full list of compatible phones on its website.

On the surface, these wireless capabilities put Tala on par with other popular advanced earbuds like Apple Airpods Pro 2 or Pro 3. But, dig deeper and you'll find that Tala aren't quite up to modern standards, yet. Here are a couple connectivity limitations you'll want to consider before purchasing:

• Works with Android OR iOS, not both: While Tala works with both iOS and Android, different devices are required based on your phone—you will need to indicate this at the time of purchase so they can ship you either the iOS or Android (ASHA protocol) compatible version of Tala. This is an antiquated limitation found among Lucid’s wireless hearing products. While this is annoying, it should not be a problem unless you plan to switch from iOS or Android in the near future.
• Bluetooth audio distortions: Music and podcasts would take on a warbling whooshing sound quality if my phone lost “line-of-sight” with Tala. For example, holding my phone at my side while walking or putting it in my pocket would cause these audio artifacts in the hearing aid on the opposite side of my body. The sound quality issues would resolve once the phone was positioned better however, this can be a paralyzing issue for those reliant on Bluetooth.

With those out of the way, it is worth noting that connecting Tala to mobile devices is easy and stable. I did not experience any pairing issues with my iOS device and Tala would instantly reconnect even when cycling Airplane mode on and off. This is a step-up from my past experiences with Lucid's Engage hearing aids, which would occasionally lose connection with the app and need to be repaired, having lost saved settings.

The Lucid Hearing App

The Lucid Hearing app is chock-full of useful features to personalize Tala for your hearing needs. To start, the app provides independent volume control and switching between 4 pre-determined programs which are reportedly based on audiometric research performed in conjunction with University of Texas at Dallas.

The four listening programs are:

• Mild: Recommended for those with the most common hearing impairment and difficulty hearing speech.
• Moderate: Similar to Mild, but for those in need of more clarity.
• Bass Boost: Similar to the Moderate program with a volume increase for vowel sounds.
• Max: Bass Boost program with maximum volume.

Tala hearing aids can be further fine-tuned with the following features:

Audio EQ

AudioEQ is an app-only feature where you can control various elements of your streamed audio. Towards the top of the tab, Audio Mix allows you to alter the balance between streamed audio and the ambient sounds picked up by Tala’s microphones. Moving the slider towards “Streaming” will provide a more direct isolated sound of wireless audio such as phone calls. However, a balance favoring “Ambient” will increase the microphone mix which may be safer in busy areas where situational awareness is needed.

An Audio Equalizer can also be found providing customization of bass, mid-low, mid-high, and treble frequency ranges. This allows you to customize the sound quality of audio while streaming. Adjustments to any of the four sliders will affect both ambient and wireless signals and only be applied while streaming from your iOS or Android device.

LucidShape

One of the most novel features of Tala is LucidShape™. This app feature provides impressive hands-on control allowing you to personalize the device's output. This is not simply a volume control or 3-band bass, middle, treble adjustment as found in some other OTC devices. LucidShape gives you more frequency specific adjustments so you can tune your hearing device more similar to that of a prescription hearing aid. While it is not quite on that level, it is the most comprehensive spectral adjustment I have seen from an OTD device.

LucidShape provides 9 points of customization between 250 and 6000 Hz. Adjustments can be made by touching your finger to any point on the colored lines (see image above) and dragging up or down until the desired gain is achieved. Changes can be applied to both ears or either the left or right side independently. There is also a left/right balance adjustment where you can change the relative volume between your ears. Settings can then be saved to your selected program.

If you purchase Tala OTC hearing aids I recommend visiting an audiologist to have real-ear measurements performed using LucidShape. This will optimize Tala’s gain for your hearing profile and offer you the greatest speech clarity. HearAdvisor did this for their Tuned protocol and it was found to improve the predicted speech performance. This feature is only available through the app and it is not active while streaming.

Power & Rechargeability

Tala use lithium-ion rechargeable batteries with a reported battery life of roughly 16 hours. This estimate is based on 2 hours of streaming, expect fewer hours if you're a heavy streamer. Once the batteries are exhausted, Tala can be recharged by placing them in their case—be sure to place the left and right devices in the appropriate slots otherwise they will not charge. Fortunately, Tala will magnetically lock when placed properly and you will see a corresponding LED light flash on the case. You can expect a 3 to 4 hours wait time for them to recharge from a fully depleted battery.

Another nice feature is Tala’s dual-function case, which offers both storage and portable charging. You can expect an additional 3 charges or roughly 48 additional hours of use thanks to the internal power bank. Both the case and earpieces charge simultaneously when plugged into a standard wall socket using the included usb-c cable and LED indicators on the case show the charge state, turning solid when finished.

Note: All listed charge and use times are based on data from Lucid and were not verified by us.

Lab Testing with HearAdvisor™

Lucid Hearing’s Tala performed well when tested in the HearAdvisor™ lab receiving high marks in many categories. It was found to offer considerable speech intelligibility improvements in both quiet and loud situations (less than and greater than 70 dB average sound levels respectively). Tala’s scores in this category correspond to roughly an estimated 57% increase in the number of words correctly recognizable based on their test setup. 

Some feedback issues were observed when completely cupping the ear, though this is uncommon during general use. One likely reason for the feedback experienced are the silicone ear tips, which have a rather large vent that sound can pass through. This improves your general comfort while speaking or chewing but can hurt feedback and steamed audio quality. This is an expected trade-off and reflected in the remainder of HearAdvisor’s test categories.

Should I buy the Lucid Tala?

Lucid Tala is a good option for those interested in an in-the-ear style OTC hearing aid. There are also many benefits to purchasing Tala from a Lucid Hearing Center, commonly found within Sam’s Club Stores, as this offers professional support from their hearing provider.

However, due to Tala’s higher price point of $1299 some may wish to move into the prescription hearing aid category. Many clinics will offer traditional hearing aids for less than $2000 (warehouse clubs like Sam’s Club and Costco are no exception). Spending a little more on prescription devices will offer you greater customization, more stable Bluetooth, access to wireless accessories, better build quality, and more. This will require you to work with a hearing provider, which can be either a pro or con depending on your personal preferences.

What other products should I consider?

Those interested in Tala may wish to look at Sony’s similarly priced ($1,300) self-fitting hearing aid CRE-E10. It is also earbud-like offering wireless control and an on-ear hearing assessment through their Hearing Control app. This is something Tala does not offer, though LucidShape gives Tala a leg up when it comes to app customization and professional tuning with a hearing care provider.

Both devices performed well when tested by HearAdvisor™ with Sony’s CRE-E10 showing a slight edge with better speech in loud noise performance and streamed music quality. From my hands-on experience, Sony’s device offered superior streaming without the audio quality issues discussed above.