This article deals with the combined effects of noise and reverberation on the speech‐reception threshold for sentences. It is based on a series of current investigations on: (1) the modulation‐transfer function as a measure of speech intelligibility in rooms, (2) the applicability of this concept to hearing‐impaired persons, and (3) hearing loss for speech in quiet and in noise as a function of age. It is shown that, generally, in auditoria, classrooms, etc. the reverberation timeT, acceptable for normal‐hearing listeners, has to be reduced to (0.75)DTin order to be acceptable for elderly subjects with a hearing loss ofDdB for speech in noise; for listening conditions as in lounges, restaurants, etc. the corresponding value is (0.82)DT.