Loudspeaker‐to‐listener distance was assessed for consonant and vowel identification scores of ten adults with normal‐hearing and ten adults with high‐frequency hearing loss (i.e., pure‐tone thresholds >25 dB HL at 2 kHz and higher) in a 415‐m3 (18×7.2×3.2 m) lecture hall, with a T = 1.5s (average T at 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz), and an estimated critical distance of 3.3 m. Each listener was seated at two distances within the critical distance (1 and 2 m) and three distances beyond the critical distance (4, 8, and 15 m) at a 0‐deg azimuth to the separation between two loudspeakers placed side‐by‐side. One loudspeaker presented a 25‐item CVCV nonsense syllable test at 77 dBA at 1 m. The 20 listeners were tested at all five distances in two speech‐to‐noise ratio (S/N) conditions: (1) varied—in which the speech level decreased with distance in relation to a 45‐dBA ambient noise level resulting in a + 32‐dB S/N at 1 m to a + 23‐dB S/N at 15 m, and (2) fixed—in which a multitalker babble was presented through the other loudspeaker and adjusted to maintain a + 15 dB S/N at all five distances. Scores were significantly better: (1) for normal‐hearing listeners than for hearing‐impaired listeners; and (2) in the varied S/N condition than in the fixed S/N condition. While vowel scores were not significantly affected by distance, consonant scores were significantly better within the critical distance than beyond the critical distance. Further, there was no significant decrease in consonant scores as loudspeaker‐to‐listener distance increased outside the critical distance.