answer:I worked closely with an audiologist and learned a bit from her. Generally, the cheaper hearing aides are basically amplifiers. The more expensive hearing aides do provide more sophisticated sound filtering/amplification, etc. You get what you pay for in most cases and cheap isn’t really worth it. That being said, no hearing aid will mimic normal hearing. It’s always going to fall short of that expectation. Also, inside the ear hearing aids do not perform as well as over/behind the ear hearing aids. Lastly, the guys who advertise free hearing tests in the newspaper are out to sell you a hearing aid. They only test for whether you need one, and don’t bother so much with the nuances of the test results or more sophisticated tests. Caveat emptor. Also…. there were two brands she liked. Starkey(?) was one. And, she was very reluctant to sell anything below $800—$1,000 for quality reasons. This was in 2005.