| Industry: | Hearing aids, Health Care, Retail |
| Founder: | Kenneth Dahlberg |
| Location City: | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Location Country: | U.S. |
| Locations: | 1,500+ |
| Area Served: | United States |
| Key People: | Emiliano Di Vincenzo, Executive Vice President - Amplifon Americas |
| Owner: | Amplifon S.p.A. |
Miracle-Ear, Inc. is a hearing aid and hearing care company consisting of a network of franchised and corporately owned retail locations. The company is a subsidiary of Amplifon, the worldwide leader in hearing care and hearing aid retail based in Milan, Italy.[1] Miracle-Ear's U.S. headquarters are located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[2] As of 2023 it has more than 1,500 locations in the United States, and it is the best-known hearing aid brand in the U.S.
Miracle-Ear, Inc. began as a hearing aid manufactured by Dahlberg Electronics, an electronics company founded in 1948. Highly decorated WWII veteran, Kenneth Dahlberg started Dahlberg Electronics after he left a position as assistant to the president of Telex Communications, another manufacturer of hearing aids.[3] [4] Prior to manufacturing hearing aids, Dahlberg's company produced pillow radios for hospitals and motels.[5]
In the early 1950s, Dahlberg Electronics began producing hearing aids that utilized the newly invented transistor technology – beginning with "hybrid" hearing aids that used transistors and vacuum tubes, and then releasing an all-transistor model in 1953.[6] In 1955, they introduced the first so-called "in-the-ear" hearing aid, the D-10 Magic Ear – which concealed all electronic components in a shell snapped onto an earmold and weighed 1/2 ounce, including battery, three-transistor amplifier, microphone, and receiver.[7] [8] Other innovations included the D-14 "Solar Ear" eyeglasses hearing aid, which used a solar cell for power.
In 1962, the Miracle-Ear IV was the first hearing aid that used integrated circuitry,[9] and in 1971, the company introduced the Dahlberg SHARP circuit, an ultra-low power circuit utilizing in-house hybrid production. In 1988, the company debuted the Miracle-Ear Dolphin, the first programmable hearing aid on the market.[10] [11] Following university testing in 1997, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved claims on Miracle-Ear's Sharp Plus circuitry that the Miracle-Ear devices improved hearing in the presence of background noise.[12]
Kenneth Dahlberg briefly sold his company to Motorola in 1959 but bought it back only 5 years later in 1964 when Motorola divested itself of consumer products. Miracle-Ear began franchising in 1984.[13] Dahlberg sold the company to Bausch & Lomb in 1993.[14] In 1999, Amplifon acquired Dahlberg, Inc. from Bausch & Lomb, and that year Dahlberg, Inc. and its subsidiary Miracle-Ear, Inc. merged into Miracle-Ear, Inc.