What do cochlear implants sound like?

CIs provide for good speech perception in quiet.

However, they are a coarse representation of normal hearing. Thus, background noise and music can be challenging with a cochlear implant. This simulation and a more in-depth simulation demonstrate how the rhythm of speech is easy to hear but the pitch is "compressed."

Remember, these simulations are not what patients hear for several reasons. First, modern cochlear implants have 16-24 electrodes. Secondly, the brain learns to filter out the "noise" that you hear with this simulation.