Hearing-impaired listeners rely on spectral not level cues at threshold

Evidence

However, at large angular differences it was clearly observed that the level cue becomes prominent, whereas the level cue decreased with decreasing incidence angle. At average MAAs (< 35° for HI) level-cue magnitudes (< approximately 1 dB) were found to be smaller than the level just-noticeable-differences for HI test subjects reported to be 1–2 dB (Moore 2003 ). This indicates that most subjects likely used the frequency-shaping cue rather than the level cue. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3129