Abstract: Level compression applied to the acoustic signals (18) received by a binaural hearing aid system (1) counteracts the preservation of inter-aural level differences (ILD) and thereby reduces the user's ability to locate the sound source and consequently his or her ability to understand speech in noisy environments. It is therefore known to increase the gain (57) in the hearing aid (2) receiving the louder signal and/or decreasing the gain (58) in the hearing aid (3) receiving the quieter signal, which at least in part allows for preserving the ILDs. However, in some situations this instead reduces the user's ability to understand speech, e.g. when acoustic noise is received at one ear (4) at a higher level (53, 54) than simultaneous speech at the other ear (5).

Abstract: Level compression applied to the acoustic signals (18) received by a binaural hearing aid system (1) counteracts the preservation of inter-aural level differences (ILD) and thereby reduces the user's ability to locate the sound source and consequently his or her ability to understand speech in noisy environments. It is therefore known to increase the gain (57) in the hearing aid (2) receiving the louder signal and/or decreasing the gain (58) in the hearing aid (3) receiving the quieter signal, which at least in part allows for preserving the ILDs. However, in some situations this instead reduces the user's ability to understand speech, e.g. when acoustic noise is received at one ear (4) at a higher level (53, 54) than simultaneous speech at the other ear (5).