Focused Din
June 20, 2022 7:08 PM Subscribe
Searching for a solution to allow my elderly FIL to listen to the television without having to crank up the volume to overwhelm the rest of the family. Snowflakes inside.
Currently, FIL watches television in the Family Room. Though his hearing tests return with normal-for-an-87-y.o. hearing, the television volume continues to creep north. We are searching for an easy solution, where once set up it will continue to work without having to connect every time.
We have used RF headphones in the past, but they are not preferred as they are isolating.
In trying to figure out a solution for this, we discovered these chair speakers, but before sinking that kind of money into this solution, would like to know whether they are a reasonable solution for our problem.
We envisioned simple speakers behind the chair FIL sits in, connected via bluetooth to the television, but this likely has more problems than we novices expect.
Can you provide any feedback or suggestions?
Currently, FIL watches television in the Family Room. Though his hearing tests return with normal-for-an-87-y.o. hearing, the television volume continues to creep north. We are searching for an easy solution, where once set up it will continue to work without having to connect every time.
We have used RF headphones in the past, but they are not preferred as they are isolating.
In trying to figure out a solution for this, we discovered these chair speakers, but before sinking that kind of money into this solution, would like to know whether they are a reasonable solution for our problem.
We envisioned simple speakers behind the chair FIL sits in, connected via bluetooth to the television, but this likely has more problems than we novices expect.
Can you provide any feedback or suggestions?
Neck speakers! They are amazing at focusing sound just to one person. I have the Bose version (now discontinued) and I think the Sony - SRSNS7 is now the best available, but there are plenty of inexpensive versions. You may need a Bluetooth transmitter for your TV (I use the MEE audio connect but your specs may differ).
posted by acidic at 7:50 PM on June 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by acidic at 7:50 PM on June 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
Are you an Apple user? If so, have you tried using an iPhone to boost sounds with Live Listen to AirPods? You place the phone next to the sound source, and it will transmit all sounds directly from the phone to the AirPods, including conversations in the room, so it's not isolating. I use it sometimes in noisy situations to hear people better, and it works pretty well.
posted by gemmy at 7:52 PM on June 20, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by gemmy at 7:52 PM on June 20, 2022 [3 favorites]
If she's willing to put something on her neck, there are NECK-MOUNTED SPEAKERS (and of course Chinese clones for 1/3rd the price) with the caveat that these need recharging.
This assumes that your TV will output sound to a Bluetooth receiver. You may need to add something else for that, and that heavily depends on your TV make and model (and how old).
posted by kschang at 7:55 PM on June 20, 2022
This assumes that your TV will output sound to a Bluetooth receiver. You may need to add something else for that, and that heavily depends on your TV make and model (and how old).
posted by kschang at 7:55 PM on June 20, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks so far!
@jonathanhughes -- He is not the only one who watches this TV, but we are generally looking for something when he is the only one watching. We do not have a receiver; it is a Smart TV with a few years on it, but has audio connectors and bluetooth.
@gemmy -- unfortunately, he is not an Apple user.
@acidic, @kschang -- The Neck Speakers look interesting, but I'm afraid they have the same issue with the headphones. We'll consider, but looking to see if there are other possible options first.
posted by China Grover at 8:54 PM on June 20, 2022
@jonathanhughes -- He is not the only one who watches this TV, but we are generally looking for something when he is the only one watching. We do not have a receiver; it is a Smart TV with a few years on it, but has audio connectors and bluetooth.
@gemmy -- unfortunately, he is not an Apple user.
@acidic, @kschang -- The Neck Speakers look interesting, but I'm afraid they have the same issue with the headphones. We'll consider, but looking to see if there are other possible options first.
posted by China Grover at 8:54 PM on June 20, 2022
When was FIL's last eye exam? Sometimes, not being able to clearly the screen = turning up the volume.
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:08 PM on June 20, 2022
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:08 PM on June 20, 2022
Also, turn on the closed caption feature.
It can help to keep up when the sound needs to be lower such as later at night.
Or maybe consider the audio set ups I see in some waiting rooms?
TV is on one wall and the speakers are behind the couch on the opposite wall.
posted by calgirl at 10:26 PM on June 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
It can help to keep up when the sound needs to be lower such as later at night.
Or maybe consider the audio set ups I see in some waiting rooms?
TV is on one wall and the speakers are behind the couch on the opposite wall.
posted by calgirl at 10:26 PM on June 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
My gosh, my poor Mom went through this. Watching TV with her was a chore! She had the volume cranked up to 11 just so she could hear want was on the screen, but it blocked any conversation with others sitting there.
We got her a pillow speaker (there are hundreds to choose from) and attached it to her chair so it would be behind her head (we used velcro to attach to chair). This worked a charm! The difference was amazing, now you could even hear the phone ring!
I can't help with hooking it up as I don't know what your setup is like.
Good luck!
posted by james33 at 4:30 AM on June 21, 2022
We got her a pillow speaker (there are hundreds to choose from) and attached it to her chair so it would be behind her head (we used velcro to attach to chair). This worked a charm! The difference was amazing, now you could even hear the phone ring!
I can't help with hooking it up as I don't know what your setup is like.
Good luck!
posted by james33 at 4:30 AM on June 21, 2022
Does your FIL have hearing aids? Getting their hearing assessed and getting aids would solve this and help with a lot of other stuff. Among other things there is a 30% increase in the rate of dementia with people who have uncorrected hearing loss. At 87 that may or may not be something you're dealing with but it's worth looking into. I wear hearing aids and just turn them up when I need to - easier than turning up the volume on the tv!
posted by leslies at 5:29 AM on June 21, 2022
posted by leslies at 5:29 AM on June 21, 2022
This was years ago (mid 90s). We had a set up that had something hooked into the TV that then projected the sound to speakers that we set up behind my Dad's head. It worked quite well, and they were reasonably cheap. So maybe something like a bluetooth speaker so the sound is more focused at his spot??
posted by Ftsqg at 5:59 AM on June 21, 2022
posted by Ftsqg at 5:59 AM on June 21, 2022
I have bone conducting headphones and they're not isolating if you don't turn their volume up too much. At higher volumes, even though my ears aren't covered I will have a hard time hearing other people in the room if I'm paying attention to what I'm listening to. They pair via bluetooth to my devices (including my TV). I don't notice them at all when I'm wearing them. I use these: OpenRun Pro by Shockz. If his TV doesn't have bluetooth, there are dongles that are available.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 7:01 AM on June 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 7:01 AM on June 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: If you also want to upgrade her seat at the same time... You can get one with massage, swivel, AND bluetooth speakers... They even have a newer model with a power lift function.
If she won't change her "throne", there's also the AudioFox chair speakers...
posted by kschang at 7:46 AM on June 21, 2022
If she won't change her "throne", there's also the AudioFox chair speakers...
posted by kschang at 7:46 AM on June 21, 2022
Though his hearing tests return with normal-for-an-87-y.o. hearing
I'm an audiologist (used to fit a lot of hearing aids, work in research now so I'm no one's audiologist any more), and that description doesn't mean no hearing loss. In fact, I've seen some physicians say that about people with a fair amount of hearing loss. That may not be the case here, but I suspect there's at last some mild hearing loss going on (based on age and what you're describing).
TV was one of the most common complaints for my patients. Unfortunately, there's no one size fits all solution (even when I knew exactly what their hearing status was), so I'm going to go through a bunch of different options below and why some things may or may not work. I apologize for the wall of text.
To hear and understand something, it can be helpful to think in terms of Signal (what you want to hear) to Noise (what you don't want to hear) ratio, or SNR. To hear and understand something, the signal has to be audible, and the noise can't overwhelm the signal.
When there's hearing loss, even mild loss, you need a better SNR than people without hearing loss. That means anything that degrades sound quality/access to sound will have an larger impact on the person's ability to understand speech. This includes distance from the sound you want to hear (which is why the head phones are so helpful), background noise (both mixed into the TV sound and anything in the TV area), reverberation (not necessarily relevant here, but in some houses could be), and the direction of sound (possibly relevant).
TV Settings to Check TV audio is sometimes mixed in a way that is bad for speech understanding. A lot of modern TVs also have sound settings that can mitigate this. My TV has "Amplify" and "Clear Voice." These settings help with the SNR of the TV audio by boosting frequencies important to speech. Music won't sound as good, but the voices are a bit clearer. That may be enough to help if the problem isn't hearing loss or only mild loss.
Also, some of the sound settings are horrible for speech understanding. An old TV of mine had a Sport mode that changes both picture and audio settings. The Sport audio setting was horrible for speech understanding, cranking up the background (aka crowd) noise. So double check that's not been inadvertently activated.
TV Speaker set up I've had a few patients notice that when they walked behind their TV, the sound became a lot clearer. That's because they were now in the direct path of the Signal, which gets you better sound quality. For a lot of them, getting a sound bar/external speaker was helpful. It's definitely a ymmv situation, but if you found a good price on something that also had a good return period, that could be worth trying. Especially since everyone else would hear better as well.
Mitigating Distance from TV Even if he TV speakers are pointed towards your FIL, they're less helpful if you FIL is sitting a distance away from them. The further the Signal travels, the more it degrades. So the chair speakers, neck mounted speakers, and bone conducting headphones would all solve that problem. The bone conducting headphones may not have quite enough volume to them, depending on what is going on with your FIL's hearing (for example, if there's some low frequency hearing going on).
I suspect the neck speakers would be less isolating than headphones: Headphone usually block the ears to some degree. Since the neck mounted speakers aren't blocking his ears up, that'd be less of an issue.
However, sometimes blocking up the ears is helpful, because it reduces the ambient background noise (like a dishwasher running audibly in the background). Again, may or may not be relevant here.
Your idea about a speaker behind the chair isn't a bad one, but in front is usually better than in back. Our ears have a slight focus forward from our pinna, but more importantly, if the speaker is behind something, that something can block the signal. Depending on acoustics of the room and your FIL's hearing, that seemingly small block could impact his ability to understand, or it could be unnoticeable. If there's a side table he could place the speaker on and point towards him, that would probably be ideal and similar to the chair speaker set up.
Caveat about all of the options above: By moving the TV sound closer to your FIL, you are improving his access to the TV sound. That's great when he's focused on the TV. When he wants to hear and understand the people around him, the TV is then the Noise rather than the Signal. Depending on a lot of factors, that may make it more challenging for him to take part in conversation, although to a lesser degree than the headphones. If there's an option that lets him control the volume/mute the speakers easily, that would give him the most flexibility to shift his attention.
FIL's Ears Someone's already mentioned hearing aids, so I'll leave that aside. But since this started, has someone looked in his ears? I'm assuming yes, but just in case: I had a patient once who reported difficulty hearing, stating that for the past 9-12 months they'd been turning the TV up to full volume and still couldn't understand. They assumed it was just because they were getting older and their hearing was getting worse. I looked in their ears: completely occluded by wax, couldn't even test their hearing. After ear cleaning the patient could understand the TV when their spouse set the volume to a comfortable level. They had an underlying hearing loss, but the wax is what tipped their ability to understand the TV.
posted by ghost phoneme at 8:37 AM on June 21, 2022 [6 favorites]
I'm an audiologist (used to fit a lot of hearing aids, work in research now so I'm no one's audiologist any more), and that description doesn't mean no hearing loss. In fact, I've seen some physicians say that about people with a fair amount of hearing loss. That may not be the case here, but I suspect there's at last some mild hearing loss going on (based on age and what you're describing).
TV was one of the most common complaints for my patients. Unfortunately, there's no one size fits all solution (even when I knew exactly what their hearing status was), so I'm going to go through a bunch of different options below and why some things may or may not work. I apologize for the wall of text.
To hear and understand something, it can be helpful to think in terms of Signal (what you want to hear) to Noise (what you don't want to hear) ratio, or SNR. To hear and understand something, the signal has to be audible, and the noise can't overwhelm the signal.
When there's hearing loss, even mild loss, you need a better SNR than people without hearing loss. That means anything that degrades sound quality/access to sound will have an larger impact on the person's ability to understand speech. This includes distance from the sound you want to hear (which is why the head phones are so helpful), background noise (both mixed into the TV sound and anything in the TV area), reverberation (not necessarily relevant here, but in some houses could be), and the direction of sound (possibly relevant).
TV Settings to Check TV audio is sometimes mixed in a way that is bad for speech understanding. A lot of modern TVs also have sound settings that can mitigate this. My TV has "Amplify" and "Clear Voice." These settings help with the SNR of the TV audio by boosting frequencies important to speech. Music won't sound as good, but the voices are a bit clearer. That may be enough to help if the problem isn't hearing loss or only mild loss.
Also, some of the sound settings are horrible for speech understanding. An old TV of mine had a Sport mode that changes both picture and audio settings. The Sport audio setting was horrible for speech understanding, cranking up the background (aka crowd) noise. So double check that's not been inadvertently activated.
TV Speaker set up I've had a few patients notice that when they walked behind their TV, the sound became a lot clearer. That's because they were now in the direct path of the Signal, which gets you better sound quality. For a lot of them, getting a sound bar/external speaker was helpful. It's definitely a ymmv situation, but if you found a good price on something that also had a good return period, that could be worth trying. Especially since everyone else would hear better as well.
Mitigating Distance from TV Even if he TV speakers are pointed towards your FIL, they're less helpful if you FIL is sitting a distance away from them. The further the Signal travels, the more it degrades. So the chair speakers, neck mounted speakers, and bone conducting headphones would all solve that problem. The bone conducting headphones may not have quite enough volume to them, depending on what is going on with your FIL's hearing (for example, if there's some low frequency hearing going on).
I suspect the neck speakers would be less isolating than headphones: Headphone usually block the ears to some degree. Since the neck mounted speakers aren't blocking his ears up, that'd be less of an issue.
However, sometimes blocking up the ears is helpful, because it reduces the ambient background noise (like a dishwasher running audibly in the background). Again, may or may not be relevant here.
Your idea about a speaker behind the chair isn't a bad one, but in front is usually better than in back. Our ears have a slight focus forward from our pinna, but more importantly, if the speaker is behind something, that something can block the signal. Depending on acoustics of the room and your FIL's hearing, that seemingly small block could impact his ability to understand, or it could be unnoticeable. If there's a side table he could place the speaker on and point towards him, that would probably be ideal and similar to the chair speaker set up.
Caveat about all of the options above: By moving the TV sound closer to your FIL, you are improving his access to the TV sound. That's great when he's focused on the TV. When he wants to hear and understand the people around him, the TV is then the Noise rather than the Signal. Depending on a lot of factors, that may make it more challenging for him to take part in conversation, although to a lesser degree than the headphones. If there's an option that lets him control the volume/mute the speakers easily, that would give him the most flexibility to shift his attention.
FIL's Ears Someone's already mentioned hearing aids, so I'll leave that aside. But since this started, has someone looked in his ears? I'm assuming yes, but just in case: I had a patient once who reported difficulty hearing, stating that for the past 9-12 months they'd been turning the TV up to full volume and still couldn't understand. They assumed it was just because they were getting older and their hearing was getting worse. I looked in their ears: completely occluded by wax, couldn't even test their hearing. After ear cleaning the patient could understand the TV when their spouse set the volume to a comfortable level. They had an underlying hearing loss, but the wax is what tipped their ability to understand the TV.
posted by ghost phoneme at 8:37 AM on June 21, 2022 [6 favorites]
My elderly inlaws were both HOH. The solution was getting them individual Voice Clarifying Speakers to sit next to their easy chairs. They both liked them a lot. I think it was especially helpful that they were easy to use, and they have a volume dial on the front that they could switch on and off. A problem I think a lot of folks would have with those chair speakers is that they would be annoying. TV-Ears is an example of the product, but otherwise using "voice clarifying speakers" as a keyword search might be helpful.
posted by RedEmma at 9:55 AM on June 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by RedEmma at 9:55 AM on June 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: We ordered the AudioFox speakers, and they connected like a dream. They have reduced the noise in the house tenfold, making it a much more pleasant experience. AND he really seems to enjoy using them, once he got the hang of them.
Thanks for the recommendation kschang!
posted by China Grover at 4:43 PM on September 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
Thanks for the recommendation kschang!
posted by China Grover at 4:43 PM on September 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Are other people watching TV at the same time as him?
Does the TV have an audio output?
Or is it hooked up to an AV receiver?
posted by jonathanhughes at 7:17 PM on June 20, 2022