Review: Jabra Enhance Select 500

Anyone who says you shouldn’t mess with a good thing is wrong—that's old and busted thinking. That kind of talk is a recipe for complacency, particularly in the hearing aid world, where things can and should always get better.

The Jabra Enhance Select 300 has been my top pick for a behind-the-ear hearing aid since I tested it, and I’ve yet to encounter a competitor that could match its performance. It’s up to Jabra then to attempt to beat its own high mark with the Enhance Select 300’s successor: the Jabra Enhance Select 500.

Minor Changes

When looking at the Jabra 300 and 500 side by side, you can be forgiven if you can’t quite see the difference between the two. They look and feel nearly identical, with a familiar behind-the-ear (BTE) design and a thin wire that loops around the top of the ear, connecting to a small receiver that nestles in the ear canal. But the 500 is ever so slightly smaller. Jabra says they are 15 percent smaller than the 300, but I’m not sure how that’s being measured. (By volume? Surface area?)

A single Jabra 300 weighs 2.64 grams on my scientific scale, while the 500 weighs 2.56 grams. That’s a difference of just 3 percent. It’s not nothing … but it also is kind of nothing. Close your eyes and you can’t tell which is which when holding them in your hand. Heck, open your eyes and you’ll still have trouble. Jabra also notes that the center of gravity of the 500 is lower than the 300, enabling a stable fit. Sounds good, but again, I found this impossible to detect without mechanical assistance.

Technologically, the 500 has at least one change, moving from a standard Bluetooth protocol on the 300 to Bluetooth LE on the new model. Bluetooth LE includes the Auracast broadcast audio standard, which allows for a Bluetooth source to stream to unlimited receivers simultaneously. That could theoretically be of use if you want to, say, stream TV audio not just to ambient speakers but to your hearing aids as well, but that’s probably a potential future use case more than anything. I’ve yet to see Auracast in use in the wild.

Bluetooth LE also improves energy efficiency and stability when connected to streaming sources. This is an incremental improvement over older Bluetooth technology and it’s not entirely new, but it wasn’t supported on the Jabra Enhance Select 300. Again, that sounds promising, but Jabra hasn’t changed its battery life specifications: A full charge will still give the Select 500 about 24 hours of running time—which is already an exceptional level. The sizable case (nearly identical) holds three extra charges for 72 extra hours of juice. The only hiccup? I inexplicably experienced trouble getting the case to charge with a third-party USB-C cable instead of Jabra’s included one.

The vast majority of additional features on the 500—including Jabra’s SoundScape speech clarity technology, top-tier support from professional audiologists, and even the choice of five colors— haven’t changed in any detectable way. A single button on either aid still controls volume (up with the right button, down with the left) and choice of four operational modes. Unlike many hearing aids, the button is large enough and placed well so you can easily find it without fumbling around behind your ear.

The Jabra Enhance Select 500 uses the same app as other Jabra hearing aids, and setup and management are identical this time around. The app works well, is easy to navigate, and makes it simple to contact Jabra support if you want to tweak your listening profile, order longer receiver wires, or simply ask questions about how things work. A gazillion eartips are (still) included to make proper fitting a snap.

Impressive Audio Performance

Once again, I have no complaints about the 500’s audio performance, and I couldn’t detect any difference between the 300 and the 500. Hiss is minimal and all but absent at lower volumes, and the various listening modes are thoughtful but not entirely needed. The all-around mode works fine in pretty much all situations. As I remarked about the 300 series at the time, these hearing aids provide just the right amount of boost to audio where I need it, never blowing out my ears or amplifying the wrong types of sounds like footsteps, keyboard taps, or squeaky chairs.

The only real downside is that the quality of media streaming remains awful, making music sound like it’s being piped through a tin can on a string across the room. I’d consider using the aids in this fashion only for occasional telephone calls or in an emergency. Again: No change from the 300 on this front, though the 500 now supports tap-based phone controls on Android instead of just iOS.

If there’s a catch here, it’s the price: The Jabra Enhance Select 500 hearing aids cost the same as the 300 did when we originally reviewed them: $1,995 with a three-year warranty and support, or $1,795 with a one-year warranty and no access to Jabra’s audiologists. The former is the only option worth considering; Jabra’s audiologist tweaks make all the difference.

The real question is whether you should consider the Enhance Select 300 instead. Now priced at $1,695 (or $1,495 with a one-year warranty), the older model is 18 percent cheaper and, after all, only 3 percent heavier. Looking at it another way: Is FOMO worth $300?

The solution is left as an exercise for the reader.