To achieve a multi-dimensional characterisation of normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners' hearing abilities, including standard audiological conditions and virtual acoustic scenes for the evaluation of hearing aids.Within-subjects design, including speech intelligibility and listening effort measurements in two standard conditions and four virtual acoustic scenes, and assessments of loudness scaling, tone-in-noise detection thresholds, and HEAR-COMMAND tool questionnaire.76 age-matched listeners, including 20 normal-hearing, 25 hearing-impaired without hearing aids, and 31 hearing aid users.Speech intelligibility and hearing aid benefit in virtual acoustic scenes fell between the results of the standard audiological conditions S0N0 and S0N90. The S0N0 and underground station environment were the most challenging conditions regarding speech intelligibility and listening effort. The pure-tone average explained most of the differences between the listener groups in loudness perception and tone-in-noise detection thresholds. Moderate to strong correlations were found between the HEAR-COMMAND tool speech scores and speech intelligibility.The study established a unique measurement database including complex virtual acoustic scenes and demonstrated a connection between speech intelligibility, hearing aid benefit, and other perceptual auditory measures. The database and findings provide a valuable foundation for advancing hearing aid evaluation and can serve as a benchmark in computational audiology.