A digital cell phone with built in hearing aid functionality, includes: a housing; a digital signal processor (DSP) contained within the housing for encoding and decoding digital data; a hearing loss compensation module, coupled to the DSP, for processing digital data in accordance with a hearing loss compensation algorithm; a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), coupled to the hearing loss compensation module, for receiving the processed digital data from the hearing loss compensation circuit and converting the data into an analog signal; and a speaker, coupled to the DAC, for receiving the analog signal and converting the analog signal into sound waves adapted for a hearing impaired listener.