Williams Sound Pocketalker Ultra Hearing Amplifier | Easy-to-Use Hearing Amplifier for Seniors | Year Supply of Batteries | Amplified Sound Assistive Listening Device with Headphones for Elderly | Hearing Assist Earbuds

I bought this item as a gift for my elderly mother who is hard of hearing. We had tried the amplifier-in-ear route to see if she would tolerate a hearing aid. These devices didn’t work out..at 89 she had trouble trying to adjust the settings and didn’t have the dexterity to place it in her ears. This device is far more convenient albeit not a perfect solution to her issues...she generally keeps this clipped to her sweater or whatever she has on . I can tell when she has it on because she absolutely hears clearly and can participate meaningfully in a conversation. I’ve tried it on myself and find the sound quality very good although there is a lot of scratchy noise and echoing if the microphone moves or rubs against clothing. The headphones are less than perfect—they slide around a lot, and I frequently have to help her adjust them to stay on her head...I think this could be remedied by wrapping the strap portion in vet wrap or something to give them friction against her hair...She has some trouble understanding the volume adjustment and I think this is her issue and not an issue with the device, as I find it simple. Frequently when she tries to turn it off, she turns the volume higher which results in a high pitched squeal! If you have a senior who is not able to tolerate a hearing aid, I would recommend this device without reservation; it has permitted my mother and me to have conversations without my having to shout!! Caring for a loved one who has a hearing loss but refuses or is unable to try other measures of assistance can be a lonely road..I am grateful for this device and recommend trying it if you are in my shoes! Happy New Year!

My husband developed an acute complete hearing loss recently, after several months of only one ear giving the sensation of feeling blocked - ear exams saw nothing in the canal - finally an audiology appointment demonstrated partial temporary and permanent hearing loss. Meanwhile, I have been progressively developing an ability to yell. This has been exhausting, with terrible miscommunications in content, intent, and affect - at full volume. So, when the physician asked me if I could go onto Amazon and buy this pocket talker, I immediately did so and it has changed my ability to communicate with him. What a relief! We can have normal volume conversations, and he can understand me. Furthermore, the important nuance of facial expression and delivery are not lost by the efforts required to shout. 2 months from now he will be re-evaluated and given a diagnosis at which time I can buy true hearing aids. But before then, I am so very thankful for this solution.

Headset not particularly comfortable and awkward being tethered by the cord but it really works. I could hear a whisper fro across the room. I have limited hand function from severe arthritis in my and can’t handle regular hearing aids. I Would not use these all the time but great for tv watching or for activities where you will be seated in one place for a period of time. I would recommend these.

This is a great device to have for when a hearing aid breaks, or to help a family member without hearing devices. If it gets lost or broken, it is still cheaper than most hearing aids.

I have moderate hearing loss related to age. The primary impacts are TV watching and conversation. I have Costco hearing aids for which I paid $2000.00. I have never been happy with them. They seem to do a better job improving my hearing of creaking floors and miscellaneous extraneous noises than helping with TV and conversation. The Pocket Talker has potential but its aesthetic is so poor that I would never take it out and about. It really needs to be given a design makeover to improve its appearance. A re-name would also be a good idea How about "iHear" or something I removed stars because DESIGN MATTERS. It sucks having hearing loss and it sucks even more when you have a poorly designed hearing aid. Pros: The amplification of TV audio is quite amazing when one places the microphone near the TV speakers. "Near" means within a foot or two. I am able to listen to TV at very low volume levels and still easily make out the spoken words. My Wife now complains the volume is too low for her to hear properly. Ha Ha. Last week it was way too loud for her. If one places the speaker at the unit about 8 feet away from the TV the sound quality is impacted by the natural reverb in the room and sound a bit like you are listening through a 6 foot pipe. One really needs to place the mic close to the TV for best performance. I assume the same wold be true for conversation, but any Baby Boomer with poor hearing and a shred of dignity would not be seen with this poorly designed device hanging around their neck or placed on a restaurant table. See cons Cons: Why on earth would they not install a stereo jack on this thing? The amplified sound would not, of course, be stereo but almost everyone has stereo buds or earphones so one is forced to buy a mono to stereo adapter in order to get inputs to both channels of your chosen listening device. The provided listening devices - mono head pads and buds are super cheap and a bit of a joke and will probably end up in the recycle bin. The mic needs to be close to the TV which means one has a cable from the amp box to the TV. In our case this crosses a floor and is quite inconvenient. A Bluetooth adapter would be preferable but would add cost - so perhaps as an option? My personal opinion is it would be a bit goofy to whip this out at a restaurant and place a wired mic in the middle of the table or to be wearing this thing on a lanyard. This might work for the 95 year old Grandma but for a 66 year old Boomer it is a huge turn off. A Bluetooth adapter might solve the goofy factor. This would allow the entire unit to be placed on the table using Bluetooth earbuds. Still a bit goofy but perhaps less so. The manufacturer needs to take a page out of Apple's book and apply some design effort to this thing. It looks like a cheap transistor radio. It should look like a sleek black cube or some such. The form factor would be easy to redesign to give it a cool factor. There seems to be a bias among manufacturers, if your are older you could care less about design. This is a mistake IMO. Edit after about 2 months of use. I continue to be extremely pleased with the basic performance of the unit after two month of continuous use. The batteries have held up for more than 20 hours of on time so far. Impressive. HOWEVER - the design still sucks big time. The headphones and earphones are cheap junk as another reviewer mentioned. The dollars would be far better invested in design work and converting the mono jack to stereo so one could simply use existing ear phones or buds which almost everyone has these days.

I rarely write any reviews, but this product was so life altering for me that I feel I must let others know of my experience. I have a Dad who will be 102 this coming August. He started going deaf in his late 80s, and it has been my great sorrow that for the past decade or so, despite having the best hearing aids that money could buy, our interactions were limited to very short, mundane, routine conversations. I could no longer share my life, or funny stories, or anything meaningful with him because he just could not hear me. He said the hearing aids were loud enough but they distorted everything so much that he couldn't make the words out. So he stopped wearing them. His hearing reached a point that for the past 6 months or so, the only way to communicate with him was to sit right next to him, and every time I wanted to say something, I would have to rise up from my chair, bend over, and speak directly, loudly, and slowly about 3" from his right ear. After about 4 months of that (I visit him every day for an hour or so), I developed a very painful case of Piriformis Syndrome (you may have to look that up, I did.) The piriformis is a muscle in your butt that if overworked in a short period of time like I was doing with every visit with Dad, becomes inflamed and contracted and is really quite excruciating and debilitating. Anyway, I knew I had to stop the activity that was causing it, which meant that the only way I could talk to my Dad was to STAND next to his chair, and lean over slightly to talk into his ear. No more sitting and jumping up to utter every word. This was very uncomfortable for both of us with me looming over him, and meant that my visits became limited to about 20 minutes or so because I, who am no spring chicken, just couldn't stand for that long. So that meant that poor Dad was even MORE cut off and isolated (I am the only family that he has left, so I am his only visitor). After a couple weeks of these uncomfortable, abbreviated visits, through a coincidence, learned of the PockeTalker. Out of desperation, I decided to give it a try. I cannot tell you how life altering it has been! Now when I visit Dad, the first thing I do is put the headphones on him, hit the recliner ACROSS the room from him (because the long wire was included with this purchase), put my feet up, turn the volume of the PockeTalker to about 3 (it goes to 10), and sit comfortably and talk and talk and talk to my Dad like I haven't been able to for the past decade plus! I don't have to yell, I don't have to slow down my speech, I don't have to lower my voice to a timber that is more agreeable to him. I can talk almost normally. We can actually sit and just chat! I wish I knew about this thing in 2006 when Dad first moved from NJ to upstate NY to be closer to me....there were so many things that I wanted to talk to him about but just couldn't because he couldn't hear. If you are undecided about buying this product, DO IT! It will give you your loved one back! Thank you Williams Sound PockeTalker for making my and my Dad's life so much better!

I'm 78 and quit trying to use my $3000 hearing aids more than 8 years ago . I am diagnosed profound hearing loss . I have had no social contact for at least that long . I have tried senior centers and various organizations to avoid being " isolated ". It did not work . The only way I could communicate with anyone was to be facing ONE person no more than 3-4 ft away - no background noise - no speech accent ( think medical professionals ) . Going out to dinner with visiting family was actually a chore. I know there are at least a few of you who understand the situation - NO conversation for the rest of your life. So when I found the "Pocketalker Ultra " on Amazon , I did not have much hope that life was about to change - big time . My stepson and his wife are down for Christmas and last night we went to a Mexican restaurant - a LOUD Mexican restaurant . My stepson and his wife have been married for years. I doubt that I have had a half dozen conversations with her in all those years. Her voice just did not exist for my ears and she has remained somewhat aloof . Last night I placed the Ultra in the center of our table and wore the ear bud. Our table was six feet from the bar and LOUD people galore . She and I talked and talked and talked . I could hear every word with no repeating . ( and, yes, I nearly cried ). When we got home I told my wife how amazing it was. Oh, and my wife and I have had problems for months with me hearing her , making for some strained encounters. Sitting 6 ft from her , she had to yell for me to hear her. I put the Ultra on my chair arm set at 3 , using the ear bud. We talked in normal voice with no misses on my part with the TV on. Most of my professional life has involved electronic systems in the Navy and DOD. I look at the Ultra with wonder. Their engineers have designed a product delivering speech discrimination at this price point. While $3000 hearing aids NEVER involve discrimination circuitry. I recommend the Pocketalker Ultra to everyone with hearing loss .

I give this a reluctant 3-star review, because for some things it's good, some things not. This is good if: If you have partial hearing loss and wish to better hear the television or conversation in a quiet room, this device works well. This is not good if: You are in a noisy environment. It picks up just about all noise equally and mixes it all together, with very little differentiation of distance or emphasis on local sound. However, I must admit this device works better than others I have tried due to the wide range of tone and easily-adjustable volume. Not good if you have one good ear and are trying to get it to pick up sound from your deaf side. The earbud will block viable sound on your good ear and will jam all other sound together in a mess of difficult-to-decipher sound (in other words you'll be able to hear better with your good ear than with this device). PROS: Quality equipment, decent sound quality, excellent tone control, excellent volume control. CONS: Only one size ear bud... and it's cheap. Microphone extension cord is far too thick and heavy for practical use. NOTE: Unlike some other users, I did not notice improvement using the additional Olympus microphone. In truth I found the microphone included with the device to be of superior quality. It is omni-directional, filters sound better and is less-tinny than the Olympus mike. However this may be a subjective experience depending on the quality of one's hearing. I was testing the sound quality with my remaining good ear (which has good hearing)... and could discern considerably better quality with the included microphone. So... if you're wanting to improve TV or "one person in a quiet room" conversational quality, this will work fine. Unlike other devices I've tried this doesn't produce a lot of static or hiss, making the sound quality in quiet situations quite good. However, use in a noisy environment was (for me) an exercise in futility... with sound far more jumbled and confused. In a noisy environment I could hear considerably better without the device. This experience may differ per individual, heavily dependent on your hearing loss / situation. So I'm giving it 3 stars as a "works well for some people in some situations".

Good product. Amazed that the interference noise is greatly reduced and my mom is able to hear clearly. She is happy and I am glad too. Thank you

Bought this hearing aid for my 91 year old mother. Rec'd in working condition. But after 1 week it makes white noise, cannot hear anything. My mother is very disappointed. What's the problem?