Grandfather cannot hear his TV

[Lance-AR]

Hello everyone,

I could really use your help with a quick education on boosting the volume for my grandfather who cannot hear his new TV. He recently purchased this Sharp 52" LED TV which is unfortunately, not as loud as his previous TV which stopped working. The Sharp shows to have two 10W speakers built in and one audio output. His source is a DirecTV receiver.

Are there simpler options other than adding a receiver? (He doesn't do too well with remotes). There were some speaker bars at BestBuy for around $300 but they were unsure how it would be hooked up. He doesn't need surround sound, he just needs to be able to hear the news. If the receiver is the only option, is it wired as follows?

DirecTV HDMI <-> Receiver Input HDMI
Receiver Output HDMI <-> TV

I would greatly appreciate your assistance in this matter.

Thanks!
Lance

[sessamoid]

Adding a complicated receiver into the mix when all he needs is louder audio is going to confuse him and unnecessarily complicate his life.

Find a nice pair of powered speakers that don't require an external receiver/amplifier and attach them to the TV's RCA audio outs.

[Lance-AR]

Outstanding. Thank you!

[Yvan256]

I would add that the older you get, the less you hear high and mid frequencies. Get him something that will allow to lower the bass and increase the treble. It will sound terrible to you, but your grandfather will surely hear the difference.

[Irishman]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+2...48#tab=reviews

This soundbar requires no receiver. It connects straight to his tv (just make sure it has an unused HDMI or fiber optic audio input. It will beef up his TV sound quite nicely, especially where the human voice lives (because of how thin new TVs have gotten recently, unfortunately, 10-watt speakers and tinny sound is commonplace).

Hope this helps!

[marc11]

Sound bars are great. I have my HT set to turn on when the TV is turned on and auto switch to the correct HDMI; then I set my TV remote to control the volume of my HT. I had to do this because my wife isn't good with remotes either. To her, there was no change, she can press the same TV button to turn everything on and use the same remote volume button like she always did. Other than cost, this should work fine for him too.

[davids8477]

I've used this one for the TV on our patio for about a year and it works well and the price is right.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vizio-32-S...eaker/20594160

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

I bought TV Ears both for my father and my mother-in-law. They love it because they don't have to turn up the sound so much that it starts to rattle the house.

They also sell a specific external speaker for those hard of hearing, but I have not tried that.

[MacBoobsPro]

Subtitles.

[brentsg]

When my dad had trouble we used a wireless speaker that he could place near his chair. That way it didn't disrupt everyone else.

[Bag302]

You can use an FM transmitter. Connect it to the audio out on the TV and it will broadcast the sound to any FM radio, boombox, or headphones all at the same time.

I recommend the one made by ccrane

[MusicToMySoul]

I am profoundly hearing impaired, so I can share my experiences!

First, few flat screen TVs have good speakers built-in on them, so when sound is important, you'll often need to have an external solution for that. Someone else mentioned a Vizio soundbar earlier in this thread... I've used one for at least a year and it has been immensely helpful! After having it for a couple months, I upgraded it by adding a subwoofer, but you can purchase ones that are sold already packaged with a subwoofer. Since the sub enhances the depth of sound, I highly recommend it!

Second, I don't know if your grandfather wears hearing aids, but I just had to get new hearing aids a few months ago, and the ones I got are amazing - Oticon Agils. They're very powerful hearing aids, so he may not need that much amplification, but Costco sells Bernafon hearing aids - this is Oticon's discount line and would likely be more suitable for your grandfather. Hearing aids from these companies that offer bluetooth are compatible with the Oticon ConnectLine system, which allows audio directly to your hearing aids from the TV, phone, iPod and other audio sources. I've been using this and it has worked wonderfully!

http://misc.oticon.com/com/OurProduc...Overview/index

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH4ol...eature=related

Finally, regardless of the audio solution, I always have to rely on closed caption. But if your grandfather is hard of hearing from old age as I'm assuming, he may not be able to get used to using it. If he uses an audio solution along with the caption, he won't have to rely on the caption as much, which would probably make it easier for him.

Hope this helped! :-)