As a hearing-impaired person, I wore the Nuance Audio high-tech smart specs to find out if they work instead of hearing aids — but they’re missing some slam-dunk features
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Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses: Two minute review
Excusing the pun, but there’s been something of a quiet revolution in the last few years for those seeking help with mild to moderate hearing loss. This is largely thanks to the rise of over-the-counter (OTC) devices that can now be bought directly ,without a prescription or a visit to an audiologist. The market has expanded significantly after legislation was introduced in the US back in 2022 allowing OTC devices to enter the market.
As a tech writer with a hearing impairment (I have significant high-frequency loss in my left ear as a result of a viral infection in my early 20s), I’m fascinated by the recent developments and improvements in hearing aids, and I’ll be taking a look at some of the OTC options that have recently hit the market, starting with the Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses – a modern take on a form factor which appeared to have been somewhat forgotten about: glasses which integrate “invisible” hearing aids.
Largely targeting those who were self-conscious about wearing visible devices, hearing glasses had some high-profile users – US President Lyndon B. Johnson and British comedian Eric Sykes both famously wore spectacles with hearing aids built into them – but as in-ear options became smaller thanks to improvements in transistor technology, hearing glasses became somewhat consigned to the past.
Fast forward to the present, and the concept of a hearing aid hiding in plain sight is back thanks to Luxottica, the Italian firm that owns Ray-Ban and makes designer glasses for the likes of Ralph Lauren and Dolce & Gabbana.
Prompted by the change in perception of wearing spectacles as a style statement and fashion accessory, alongside the success of Ray-Ban Metas which already have speakers built into the arms, Luxottica explored how glasses and the latest hearing tech could be used in a stylish spectacle frame.
The result is the Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses range – spectacles that can have prescription lenses fitted and which also include an “open-ear” hearing aid system. Within the frame is an array of six internal directional microphones, with sound played through micro-speakers in the arms above your ears.
When it comes to performance, the preset approach to adjusting the sound profile obviously has an ease-of-use benefit – rather than having to wade through EQ curves and tweak them, you just select the preset that suits the environment you’re currently in, but for me it’s also to their detriment, as it limits their effectiveness for a large section of hearing-impaired users, including myself. Despite the brand name, the Hearing Glasses lack, well, nuance.
Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses: Price and Availability
- List price of $1,200 / £1,000 (about AU$1,350)
- Released in April 2025
The Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses can be purchased over the counter from a wide selection of hearing centres around the world and opticians such as Vision Express stores in the UK and LensCrafters in the US. Prescription lenses can be fitted for an additional price at any regular opticians.
Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses: Specifications
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|
Component |
Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses |
|
Hearing tech: |
Air conduction with tiny speakers placed just in front of the ears |
|
Microphone |
Six microphones for directionality, focusing on sounds in front of the wearer |
|
Battery life |
8–10 hours |
|
Charger |
Included charging pad |
|
Water resistance |
IPx4 rating |
|
Frame style |
Square and Panto |
|
Size |
Square available in 54mm and 56mm; Panto is 48mm |
|
Colors |
Shiny Black, Shiny Burgundy, Deep Blue |
|
Lens options |
Prescription lenses, non-prescription lenses, or Transitions light-responsive lenses |
|
Accessories |
Charging pad, cleaning cloth, and glasses case |
Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses: Design
- Available in two styles, square and round
- Arms cannot be adjusted
- Hardware control button on the frame
At present, the hearing glasses are available in two styles – a square-frame option not entirely dissimilar to Ray-Ban Wayfarers, and a rounded Panthos frame, the latter of which I was sent for this review. There are three different colour options for both frame styles, while the square model has two size options – 54mm and 56mm. The smaller Panthos, meanwhile, is offered in just a 48mm frame option.
Like the vast majority of OTC hearing aids, the Nuance glasses are set up and adjusted mainly through Nuance’s accompanying app for iPhone or Android. The initial out-of-the-box experience is impressively simple – a quick pairing via Bluetooth and an equally straightforward two-phase, in-app calibration process that you need to carry out in a quiet room.
The procedure includes some brief playback of white noise before you’re asked to count aloud to map your voice and head shape. From there, you select from one of four sound presets, ranging from flat (very mild hearing loss) up to sloping, moderate high-frequency hearing loss, allowing you to switch between settings for different environments if needed. Unlike most other OTC devices, there’s no hearing test to run through in the app – it’s really a case of selecting the setting that suits you best and off you go.
Alongside the frequency presets, you also get the option of choosing between “Frontal” (directional for conversation, allowing you to better focus on the person you are facing and talking to) and “360-degree” (all-around) sound modes. There are also volume controls and background noise level filtering (heightened, standard, lowered).
Underneath the right temple arm of the frame is a discreet multifunction hardware control button – a long press turns the glasses off, while quick presses cycle through volume levels. Tapping the outside of the right arm of the frame switches between the two sound directionality modes, making it easy and discreet to change the setting during conversation.
My test glasses came with pre-installed plano Transitions lenses – non-prescription lenses which automatically darken into sunglasses when exposed to UV light. While I do wear glasses to correct my short-sightedness, I was able to carry on with most day-to-day tasks during testing. I didn’t get to go through the process of having prescription lenses fitted; however, Nuance has stressed that it’s the same procedure as with any regular set of modern frames. With the glasses primarily being sold at opticians, it’s likely that most people will have prescription lenses installed – if needed – at the point of purchase.
It’s worth noting that the Nuance’s arms can’t be heated in order to alter their fit due to the components within the frame. They are what they are, and in my case I found them slightly loose and could have done with a tighter fit.
Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses: Performance
- Group conversations are incredibly clear
- Omni-directional mics allow you to face a speaker and hear clearly
- Quiet ambient listening is less impressive
One of the big benefits of the Nuance form factor immediately became apparent when putting on the glasses for the first time. With the built-in speakers situated above the ear, there’s none of the occlusion issues that I have with my regular hearing aid (an in-ear model from Oticon), with no blocking of the ear canal. This meant sound delivery was somewhat more natural, although not entirely – more on this later. I also didn’t have to worry about the annoying itchy feeling I often get within my ear when wearing my regular aid.
The convenience of having two impairment-aiding tools in one object was also immediately obvious — throw the glasses on in the morning and you’re good to go on both counts. The larger size of a pair of glasses also makes them much easier to locate than a small, modern hearing aid.
There are, of course, drawbacks that you’re always going to get with a combined form factor like this, especially if you’re forgetful. If you can’t find, or worse, end up losing your glasses, then you’ve also lost your hearing aid. There’s also the inconvenience of having to change your hearing aids when you replace your spectacles.
These pros and cons will, of course, likely have already been factored in by anyone willing to stump up the considerable asking price for the Nuance glasses, so the bigger question becomes how well they perform. For me, it was a fairly mixed bag.
The bigger surface area of a spectacle frame to place microphones, when compared to a regular in-ear device, is a definite game-changer that the Nuance glasses make full use of. In 360-degree mode, there’s a markedly better sense of directionality when it comes to where a sound is coming from than what my regular Oticon in-ears can convey.
Ask a person with low-to-moderate hearing loss when they most notice their impairment, and most will likely say during a group conversation in a noisy environment like a bar or restaurant — and it’s here that the glasses really excel. Nuance is clearly catering for high-frequency hearing loss, the most common and arguably the most impactful, with the 2,000 Hz to 8,000 Hz range affecting consonants like ‘s’, ‘f’, and ‘th’, leading to difficulty understanding speech, particularly in louder situations.
The front-facing microphones combined with the “Frontal” mode really bring out a honed-in level of clarity and enhancement within this range that genuinely aided conversations I had when testing in my local pub on a somewhat rowdy quiz night.
In other scenarios, I was somewhat less impressed. Detailed listening, such as putting on a record in a quiet room, revealed a noticeable amount of latency from the sound being played through the glasses’ speakers. Likely caused by the digital processing of the sound, it at times became jarring, with a doubling of drum sounds. Once I became aware of the delay, it became something I couldn’t “unhear” throughout my testing and was never something I really felt I adapted to over several weeks of use.
They were also significantly prone to feedback when in use, meaning I’d regularly find myself riding the volume controls in louder environments. Any movement of the glasses, or exposure to slightly breezy conditions, would also regularly bring about distracting microphone “brushing” noises.
Like many disabilities, hearing loss is a wide spectrum that can impact different frequencies to varying degrees, and in some cases, mine included, it can vary widely between a person’s left and right ears. It was therefore somewhat frustrating to find that the sound attenuation comes through on both ears at all times, with no way of switching off the speakers on an unwanted side. In fairness, Nuance implicitly state that the glasses aren’t designed for unilateral hearing loss, but it seems like a somewhat easy fix in software and a major oversight.
Unlike the chunky hearing glasses of yesteryear, the Nuance’s are indistinguishable from a regular set of glasses with no perceptible extra weight, but that impressive achievement has perhaps come at a price, with the built-in battery lacking somewhat in stamina. Nuance’s advertised battery life of eight hours rang largely true in testing, meaning that they can’t be relied upon for a full day of use while out and about, which in turn means you find yourself needing to be tactical about when to power them on.
It’s at this point I should mention the nifty-looking, bedside table-friendly wireless charging pad which come with the glasses. The pad connects to power via USB-C – you simply fold the glasses and place them on the surface to replenish the battery, with a full charge taking just under three hours during testing.
Much like the frames themselves, their accompanying app and indeed their packaging, the pad smacks of a high-end luxury product befitting of a brand like Luxottica. The downside is that with there being no charging port on the glasses, you’re entirely dependent on the pad to juice them up, meaning you may need to buy a second pad for work or for travel for a fairly pricey $160 / £150.
Despite their onboard Bluetooth for communicating with your phone, it’s something of a surprise and perhaps a missed opportunity to find no audio streaming option from your phone for the glasses – a feature that’s becoming par for the course with most new regular hearing devices, although perhaps no great surprise when factoring in the limited onboard battery. The frame’s disappointing IPx4 water resistance level meanwhile means it’s advisable to take them off in heavy rain.
Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses: Scorecard
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Category |
Comment |
Score |
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Value |
Expensive, but worth buying for bilateral hearing loss. |
3.5/5 |
|
Design |
Cool design features, and thoughtful mic placement. |
4.5/5 |
|
Performance |
Great for bilateral hearing loss, but missing easy-win features. |
3.5/5 |
Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses: Should I buy?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
First reviewed: April 2026
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