Jabra Enhance Select 50R OTC Hearing Aid Expert Review

Introduced in January 2024, Jabra Enhance Select 50R is a receiver-in-canal (RIC) over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid that is essentially a rechargeable upgrade of Jabra's previously successful Enhance Select 50 model—hence, the "R" in 50R. Available from JabraEnhance.com for $995 or $1195 depending on the service option you choose (Basic or Premium), our HearAdvisor lab tests indicate you can expect good performance from this OTC hearing aid, especially with customization opportunities using the mobile app and Jabra’s remote telecare team.

In this review, we'll tell you all about Jabra Enhance Select 50R's key highlights and limitations, plus share results from HearAdvisor's independent testing lab (also see sidebar on right).

What I loved about Jabra Enhance Select 50R

Limitations

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Jabra?

Jabra is a Danish consumer electronics company that has been around since 1983. They have a lineage in headsets and videoconferencing systems. Jabra has now launched several product lines geared toward the new generation of hearing aid consumers in search of quality, lower-cost technology. This follows their acquisition by GN Store Nord in 2000, which is the parent company behind well-established hearing aid brands ReSound and Beltone and is one of the largest hearing aid manufacturers in the world. The GN Group also owns e-gaming giant SteelSeries and military headset developer Falcom.

How is Jabra different from other GN brands? Jabra differentiates itself by offering devices directly online or in-store at consumer electronics retailers—without needing to visit a hearing care provider. Using a remote care model originally developed by Lively, Jabra Enhance Select offers you professional online support and modern hearing aid features, such as wireless streaming for both iOS and Android, noise reduction, multi-microphone directionality, app personalization, and more.

A major benefit of Jabra is that they are able to leverage technology from all the other GN brands. For example, Jabra Enhance Select 300 is based on the popular ReSound OMNIA. While this is not Resound's latest product, it remains exceptional technology that was introduced only in mid-2022; essentially, Jabra allows you to purchase an advanced prescription hearing aid online, as a direct-to-consumer product, and receive remote care from Jabra’s hearing care professionals.

Jabra also offers prescription hearing aids as part of their Jabra Enhance Pro product line, which is dispensed by licensed professionals at Costco Hearing Aid Centers. On the other end of the spectrum is Jabra Enhance Plus, which can be purchased for $799 and offers hybrid benefits of both wireless earbuds and advanced hearing aids with minimal online support. This means that you can find a Jabra hearing product across all categories and price ranges—from $799 to $2,000 or more—depending on your individual needs, preferences, and finances.

Regardless of which Jabra product you fancy, you'll get a 100-day risk-free trial, at least some initial product support (with options for more extensive telecare), and a product that comes from a world-class hearing aid company. You can learn more about the company and its products on our Jabra Enhance page.

What's it like to use Jabra Enhance Select 50R?

As noted, you will find that Jabra's product quality is on par with medical prescription hearing aids. Enhance 50R is no exception and appears to be based on ReSound's economy hearing aid line, the 8-channel Key 3. They're well-built yet lightweight, making them comfortable on my ears. I also like to take a close look at the earwire of devices like this because it tends to be the “weakest link” and the first thing to break. Again, this felt equal to prescription devices, being flexible but not flimsy.

After testing so many OTC hearing devices, I’m always a little dubious about their wireless connections (some devices have me jumping through hoops before the app even opens). Fortunately, I did not experience any problems pairing 50R with the Enhance Select App or viewing the orientation video with Jabra’s Care Team. Overall, the wireless connection was reliable, and I didn’t experience any streaming or app issues. Remote care was also problem-free, though there are several reports online suggesting long wait times and poor customer service.

With regard to sound quality, Select 50R met my expectations for what a prescription-quality hearing aid should sound like. They did lack a certain crispness in the treble, or upper-frequency, range that you'll find in the latest prescription hearing aids. Audio quality while streaming music and phone calls was also “thin” and “nasally”; however, both of these complaints are consistent with 50R being a previous-gen product (GN Resound’s Key 3, to be specific). If I were to wear these long-term, I would follow up with Jabra’s Care Team in the hope of improving quality in these two areas.

Another area worth noting is the form and function of 50R’s charger. I have come to expect magnetic locking portable charging cases. The Select 50R's cabled desktop charger by comparison feels quite antiquated. I'll point out you can find more modern charger designs with Jabra Select’s other products (i.e., the Select 100 and 300). But the fact that the case is not portable or carries extra charges, while probably not a deal-breaker, is a definite downside.

Bluetooth audio streaming and phone calls

Jabra ‘s 50R hearing aids pair wirelessly with iOS^® and Android™ (10 or newer), allowing you to receive phone calls through your hearing aids, stream music and other audio, and control them with the Jabra Enhance Select app which is described below.

Be aware that while 50R still relies on your mobile phone’s microphone to hear you during calls, so it does not offer "hands-free calling," where your hearing aids are essentially transformed into a wireless phone headset. Instead, you can hear the person you're talking to through your hearing aids, but you'll still need to speak into your phone as you normally would for your voice to be heard by them. (Only the Jabra Enhance Select 300 offers hands-free calling in the Enhance Select line.)

Bluetooth LE and Auracast hearing aids are just starting to come onto the market, and we're excited about this new broadcast technology. However, Jabra 50Rs do not feature this capability.

Onboard button controls for Jabra Enhance Select 50R

Onboard controls: Manual adjustments to 50R hearing aids are as simple as pressing a multi-function button located on the back of the device. Be aware that 50R hearing aids are “synchronized” and communicate wirelessly with one another. This means pressing the button on one device will automatically affect the settings for the other hearing aid. Here is a short outline of the controls for this hearing aid.

The Select 50R offers several programs based on your listening needs, which can be switched and cycled through by pressing and holding the button for 1-2 seconds. You'll hear a series of beep(s) indicating which program you've switched to. Each of the programs below can be further customized remotely by Jabra specialists and/or by you via the Enhance Select app.

Jabra also offers various accessories for 50R, such as the Phone Clip+, which can double as a remote control.

The Jabra Enhance Select app

Jabra offers the Enhance Select app, which is comparable to the mobile device offerings from other reputable prescription hearing aids. In fact, the app is nearly identical to Resound's Smart 3D app, so it will feel familiar if you have used other wireless GN products.

Even if you are not the most tech-savvy, it is worth your time to install the app and connect your hearing aids, as this unlocks several features not otherwise accessible. You will find easy tab access to Jabra’s four default programs (see above table), as well as a dedicated volume control and buttons for a Noise filter, Speech Clarity, and a 3-band equalizer. What’s more, these settings are stored independently within each program.

The Enhance Select app is intuitive, albeit a little complex, given the array of customization options it provides. Be sure to have Jabra’s experts assist you with the various tabs and menus if technology is not your strong suit. As with many hearing aid apps, this is an important element in getting the most out of the hearing aid.

How long should these hearing aids last?

Enhance Select 50R are receiver-in-canal devices and should last roughly 3 to 5 years. Their Ingress Protection (IP) rating of 68 indicates that they offer top-tier protection from water and debris. The 50R may last much longer if cared for properly; however, exposure to regular moisture and extreme use can shorten their life. The internal lithium-ion rechargeable battery should also span the entire life of the hearing aid. Regular cleaning and maintenance are an important contributor to your hearing device's lifespan and general function.

Should you buy the Basic or Premium package?

Jabra offers two tiers when you purchase any of their Enhance Select products: a Basic or Premium package. You can think of the Basic option as purchasing just the hearing aid. The Premium package costs a flat $200 extra but includes customization based on your hearing needs, care from Jabra’s Audiology Team, and a 3-year extended warranty.

Here’s a full breakdown of the differences based on their website:

I was quite disappointed to learn that Jabra offers a Basic option. All products in the Enhance Select product line are quality devices and are based on medically researched hearing aids from GN Resound. As noted above, 50R hearing aids are ReSound’s 8-channel Key 3 hearing aids adapted for OTC purposes. They're essentially prescriptive-grade hearing aids, and this explains the higher price points for all Jabra Enhance products.

However, the Basic package limits you to three default programs (Fuller, Normal, and Clearer) which I did not find to be very accurate or conducive to self-fitting. Below are measurements I took showing the gain, or amplification, offered by those programs.

The dashed line shows the prescription, or gain needed, to optimize speech intelligibility for a common age-related hearing loss (an N3 configuration).¹ This is based on research,² and hearing care providers use these prescriptions while performing real-ear measurements (REM) to optimize your hearing benefit. You can see Jabra’s default programs hardly resemble the dashed-line prescription. By offering less gain than prescribed, the devices are not helping you as much as they could. For comparison, you can also see Jabra 50R's amplification once it has been customized by a hearing care provider and further optimized by me.

As the Basic package exists, you are spending considerable money for a quality hearing aid that may provide limited benefit. This is honestly the gamble with all hearing-related products unless you have verification performed, such as real-ear measurements. The bottom line is that that you may leave a lot on the table if you opt for the Basic package to save $200; our data shows it can mean the difference between an excellent OTC hearing aid and a marginal one.

Personalizing and using remote assistance for Jabra Enhance Select 50R

Telehealth has become more expectation than novelty, and Jabra has included many modern remote care features with 50R. It is worth noting that you must purchase Jabra’s Premium package in order to personalize your 50R and receive support from their Audiology Team. Otherwise, you will only have access to the three profiles (i.e. Fuller, Normal, and Clearer) detailed above as a basis for your fitting.  

If you opt for the Premium package, your hearing aids will be custom-programmed based on either an online hearing test or an audiogram you upload to your account. Updates are received directly through the mobile app and can be uploaded to your hearing aids with the push of a button. While I was disappointed that remote adjustments are not real-time, it took only a minute for my 50R to update to my custom programming. 

You can also schedule video appointments with the Jabra Audiology Team and these can be invaluable for those just starting with hearing technology. Be sure to take advantage of this to get an appropriate fit and best understand all the features available to you. They can also help you troubleshoot when issues arise down the road. All of this is accessible by navigating to the Care Team tab within the Enhance Select app. 

Battery life and charger

Jabra states that you can expect 30 hours of operation time per charge thanks to its internal lithium-ion batteries. This is a change from 50R’s predecessor, the Enhance Select 50, which used disposable size 312 batteries. Be aware that the battery life you experience may vary based on factors such as your hearing loss, streaming usage, the environments you are in, the age of the hearing aids, and more.

When your batteries are getting low, 50R will play a brief melody every 15 minutes until there is no more power. This is unlikely to happen for most people given their all-day battery life. Regardless, you can recharge 50R by placing them in their docking station. This must be plugged into an outlet using the included USB-C cable as there is no internal power back. It will take roughly 3 hours to recharge 50R from a depleted battery at which point LED lights on the back of 50R will turn from flashing to a solid green light.

You can check your battery life during normal use within the Enhance Select mobile app. The above charge and use times are based on data from Jabra and were not verified by the HearAdvisor lab.

Wireless accessory options

While 50R are designed for all-around use, there are certain situations where you may need more. For this reason, Jabra offers several wireless accessories to improve audibility in specific difficult listening situations:

• TV Streamer: Connects to your television and streamed audio wirelessly to your 50R devices.
• MultiMic: A portable wireless microphone, or spouse-mic as they are often called, offering you clearer audio in complex situations.
• Phone Clip+: The Phone Clip+ can be used with older mobile devices to stream both calls and music to your hearing aids. It also doubles as a remote control.

These accessories, which are sold separately, appear straight out of the accessory lineup of GN Resound—a giant in the prescription hearing aid category known for their wireless technology, lending confidence in their overall quality.

Testing Jabra Enhance Select 50R in the HearAdvisor lab

HearAdvisor™ is an independent lab that provides objective comparisons of prescription, over-the-counter, and hearable devices. All products are tested in two settings which approximate what consumers experience when fit with hearing aids:

• Initial Fit: The Initial Fit programming reflects how a device performs “out of the box” when the recommended settings are used. Volume adjustments may be made depending on the device, but real-ear measurements are not performed. HearAdvisor’s Initial Fit aims to reflect the performance most people experience with their hearing aids. For Select 50R, this meant having the device programmed to our test hearing loss by Jabra’s remote team. It was then tested in our lab at those settings with the default open dome.
• Tuned Fit: The second test setting involves professional adjustments, such as real-ear measurements, and optimizing the device’s amplification. This reflects how hearing aids perform when you are professionally fit by a hearing care provider and best practices are followed. For Select 50R, this meant changing to a more occluding closed dome, increasing app volume, and adjusting the app’s 3-Band equalizer to best match prescribed amplification levels.

Top-line results for Jabra Enhance Select 50R

HearAdvisor’s testing shows that Jabra Select 50R performs similarly to other quality OTC self-fit hearing aids and can improve your ability to hear speech clearly. App adjustments can improve 50R’s performance compared to the default settings, though feedback may become an issue unless a more occluding dome is used.

The Select 50R hearing aids had an overall SoundScore of 3.8, placing them in a favorable position compared to other OTC hearing aids, and in a respectable position when compared to prescription hearing aids when optimally tuned (Premium Package).

Here are the lab scores for the Jabra Select 50R for the five test parameters in the two test conditions. For the overall scores and to hear sound samples, please see the sidebar at the top-right of this page.

Speech Performance

Enhance Select 50R was found to perform similarly to other OTC self-fit hearing aids. The initial settings from Jabra offered less amplification than standards would suggest for the hearing loss used which is common among default recommendations. We were able to improve the initial speech performance by making adjustments within the app, especially in quiet to moderately loud environments. 

Feedback

No feedback, or squealing, was present when testing Enhance Select 50R. 

Sound of your Own Voice

This metric is largely affected by the domes you use and how well they plug your ears. 50R’s default open domes did not occlude or plug the ear, resulting in an above-average score, while the vented closed dome used for Tuned tests was more occluding and may cause a slight “boomy” voice quality. This change was made for the Tuned testing in order to provide more gain, or amplification, for speech clarity without causing feedback. 

Streamed Music

Select 50R performed similarly to other self-fit OTC devices for streamed music. You may experience marginal improvements with music sound quality by changing to a more occluded, or plugged, fit. However, music sound quality falls short of advanced earbuds and other devices designed around higher fidelity music reproduction.

The final verdict: Should you buy Jabra Enhance Select 50R hearing aids?

There is much to like about Jabra Enhance Select, and the brand sets a high bar for OTC hearing aids. You can purchase with confidence, knowing these devices are medical-grade researched products from GN ReSound. Jabra has adapted them well and implemented a smooth remote-care platform so you can use these devices without direct care from a hearing care provider.

They are worth considering if you wish to avoid in-person care and traditional audiology clinics. You will also need to be mildly tech-savvy to pair 50R with the mobile app, navigate occasional virtual appointments, and handle routine hearing aid maintenance on your own.

Based on my testing, these devices are also geared towards those with milder hearing issues, as the default settings offer minimal amplification. This can be adjusted with remote appointments and app changes though it may be difficult to pinpoint your best settings. Lastly, 50R offers stable wireless features, although the audio streaming was not the best. Those expecting high-fidelity wireless audio for music, podcasts, etc., may want to look elsewhere.

Where can you buy Jabra Enhance Select 50R and what other alternative products are there?

Jabra Enhance Select 50R is available for purchase online directly from Jabra at the JabraEnhance.com website, as well as at retailers like BestBuy and Walmart. If you like the Jabra Enhance Select line, you should also check out their two higher-tier products—Select 100 ($1,495/$1,695) and Select 300 ($1,795/$1,995)—that offer newer and more advanced processing and better chargers.

Additionally, the Jabra Enhance Pro line can be purchased at Costco Hearing Aid Centers with direct support from their hearing care providers starting at $1599. They are, therefore, not OTC products, meaning you receive professional personalized hearing care from Costco’s providers (e.g., real-ear measurements, etc.). Enhance Pro 20 is also based on GN Resound's latest Nexia hearing aids.

Along with Jabra Enhance, there are also a number of other quality OTC hearing aids and hearables with high SoundScores that have been named as 2023 HearAdvisor Expert Choice Award winners, including Sony CRE-E10 and CRE-C10, Lucid Engage, Sennheiser Conversation Clear Plus earbuds. You can read more about these on HearingTracker's OTC hearing aid page.