Doro Care Electronics solves the “cocktail party phenomenon”

Today almost 500,000 Swedish senior citizens suffer from hearing disorders*. Despite numerous available hearing devices on the market, few of them fully cover the most basic needs that elderly people commonly have. Doro is now launching a multipurpose, assistive listening device that picks up sound at its source even in the noisiest of environments – Doro HearPlus 325a. This allows people to hear almost everything, almost everywhere, and brings a solution to the problem commonly known as the “cocktail party phenomenon”.

Senior citizens using hearing devices often experience problems when speaking to other people in noisy situations, for instance when attending a party or other social gatherings. Instead of filtrating background noise, which a normal ear would do, the hearing device amplifies all sound sources nearby, which makes it difficult to hear what other people say. A problem commonly known as the “cocktail party phenomenon”.

“Doro HearPlus 325a is designed for people suffering from “cocktail party problems”, and can be used in almost any situation where disturbing background noise easily arise, such as visiting a museum and listening to a guide, watching TV, listening to music, or driving a car and listening to people talking in the back,” says Jérôme Arnaud, responsible for Care Electronics at Doro.

Doro HearPlus 325a captures sound and transmits it to the user wirelessly through a receiver and a transmitter device by using built-in Bluetooth® technology. Based on the odicio® technology developed by a French audiologist, Doro HearPlus 325a provides excellent signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)**. The transmitter and receiver come with a discreet ear hook and a neck loop, both for use with a hearing aid in T-mode, as well as a stereo handset. A TV connection set is also included and the Bluetooth® technology allows connection to mobile phones. The sound volume as well as the frequency response can easily be adjusted.

“For a person who has a “cocktail party” type of hearing loss, it can be a major difficulty to attend a party or take part in a conversation in a noisy environment. Doro HearPlus 325a emanates from a growing need amongst the elderly for a product that complements the ordinary hearing devices. By meeting this need, the Doro HearPlus 325a simplifies everyday life for just about any senior citizen suffering from hearing loss,” says Jérôme Arnaud.


Doro HearPlus 325a is sold through specialized channels that focus on hearing disorders. Retail price is approximately EUR 400.

Find out more about Doro Care Electronics and the product range at www.doro.se. For quick image downloads click here.

For further information, please contact:
Fredrik Forssell, Marketing Director at Doro, phone +46 705 15 67 34, email fredrik.forssell@doro.com
Jérôme Arnaud, Managing Director, Care & Business Electronics Division, phone +33 1 30 07 17 01, email jerome.arnaud@doro.com

For product tests, please contact:
Jonas Lidheimer, Sund Kommunikation, email jonas.lidheimer@sundkommunikation.se, mobile +46 739 62 02 92


* Source: Hjälpmedelsinstitutet, Äldrestatistik 2006; Hörselskadades riksförbund (HRF) (2006).

** SNR, or signal-to-noise ratio, is an electrical engineering concept defined as the ratio of a signal power to the noise power corrupting the signal. SNR compares the level of a desired signal (such as music) to the level of background noise. The higher the ratio, the less obtrusive the background noise is. Source: Wikipedia