What the Atom One does do is make issues louder—and by default, it makes all of the issues louder. Tuning is pretty blunt: A lone button on the again of every help enables you to cycle by way of 5 quantity ranges. Because the aids don’t discuss to 1 one other, every needs to be managed individually. The models additionally embody three environmental modes which can be designed respectively for dialog, noisy environments, and in-vehicle operation. To cycle by way of these—once more, individually for every ear—you maintain down the button on the again of every unit for a couple of seconds and await a decrease frequency tone to provide you with a warning to which mode it has engaged.
When you’re vulnerable to fidgeting with listening to aids, you’ll in all probability by accident hit the management button greater than you’d like, inadvertently altering the quantity and requiring you to cycle again by way of the 5 ranges once more to return to the quantity you need. It is a little bit of a ache, however a bit trouble is probably to be anticipated at this worth degree.
As for efficiency, the amplification impact is, to place issues plainly, moderately blunt. Round the home, when at max quantity, it seemed like everybody was screaming, and even the slightest sound was deafening. Typing this assessment with the aids in was nerve-racking, even at extra reasonable volumes, like tiny firecrackers popping beneath my fingers. My voice turned an echoing increase from the heavens that drowned out the whole lot else.
Finally, I discovered higher luck in additional intimate environments at decrease quantity settings and was in a position to see some worth in listening to tv audio and one-on-one conversations with a modest quantity of added readability—however in busy, noisy environments, the Atom One couldn’t sustain. In a bowling alley take a look at, the aids had been successfully ineffective regardless of how I configured them.
Ugly Hiss
In all mode settings and in any respect volumes, there’s ample background hiss that makes it really feel a bit such as you’re sitting on an airplane. I discovered it harder to pay attention with them in my ears even when I used to be in a silent room. Mixed with the booming stories of keyboard faucets, footsteps, and crinkling wrappers, I discovered the Atom One to be considerably extra nerve-racking than I’d like. (Which is none in any respect.)
On aesthetics, I wouldn’t name the Atom One ugly—the principally in-ear design is not less than much less obtrusive than behind-the-ear fashions—however the beige colour palate doesn’t really feel very fashionable. Maybe that is one thing Walmart requested, however a extra fashionable white or black earbud-like design would in all probability go over higher with most wearers.
{Photograph}: Audien Listening to
