Do advanced hearing aids really work better than a basic pair I can get at a big box store?

Imagine sitting in a typical busy restaurant, having dinner with friends. Sounds are coming from all directions, such as dishes clanking, people talking and laughing at other tables and waiters rushing about. You’re wearing your new hearing aids and listening to a friend who is sitting across from you at the table. She’s telling a joke. Your hearing aids are simultaneously reducing impulse noises like silverware clanking onto a plate (impulse noise reduction), reducing the whir of the ventilation system above (digital noise reduction), suppressing the voices of the people at the tables behind you (directional microphone system) and storing information about the listening environment to be saved for later fine-tuning (learning features). They’re doing all of this automatically while amplifying and shaping the speech signal from your friend. You are free to relax and enjoy the punch line.