['The present study evaluated whether the poorer baseline performance of cochlear implant (CI) users or the technical and/or physiological properties of CI stimulation are responsible for the absence of masking release.', 'This study measured speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in continuous and modulated noise as a function of signal to noise ratio (SNR).', 'A total of 24 subjects participated: 12 normal-hearing (NH) listeners and 12 subjects provided with recent MED-EL CI systems.', 'The mean SRT of CI users in continuous noise was -3.0 ± 1.5 dB SNR (mean ± SEM), while the normal-hearing group reached\u2009-5.9 ± 0.8 dB SNR. In modulated noise, the difference across groups increased considerably. For CI users, the mean SRT worsened to -1.4 ± 2.3 dB SNR, while it improved for normal-hearing listeners to -18.9 ± 3.8 dB SNR.'] Do the effect of fluctuating maskers on speech understanding of high-performing cochlear implant users?