Previous research [E. W. Yund, H. J. Simon, and R. Efron, J. Rehab. Res. Dev. 24, 161–180 (1987)] demonstrated the effectiveness of an eight‐channel compression hearing aid for individuals with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) for speech discrimination in a background of speech‐band noise. In the present study, the averaging time window of the Robinson and Huntington [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 54, 314 (1973)] compression was varied between 5 and 100 ms. Constant intensity, sinusoidally modulated, and square wave modulated speech‐band noise were used. Nonsense syllable discrimination of 15 subjects with SNHL showed no significant change with averaging time in constant intensity noise. Only the use of the square‐wave modulated noise revealed an effect of time window on discrimination, better discrimination with the two longer time windows (36.8 and 100 ms) as compared to the two shorter time windows (5 and 13.6 ms). These results indicate that a hearing‐impaired patient's success with such a multichannel compression hearing aid should not be strongly dependent on the time window parameter. [Work supported by VA Rehab. Res. and Der. Ser.]