Williams Sound PockeTalker Ultra Duo Sound Amplifier with Headphone & Earbud, Year Supply of Batteries

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!

I have three of them for a family member. One for his bedroom. One for the dining room. One for his carry all bag. I do not want him to be without them. Easy to operate. Comfortable to wear. Effective. Generally good quality.

I've bought many of these for my mom over the years, after wasting tons of money buying hearing aids that she kept removing and losing. It works great. The headset is great. The electronics are great. Batteries last forever. It's easy to use. BUT. BUT. BUT. Why a MONO jack? It's so hard to find replacement mono headphones!! And headphones are easy to lose in a care home. Please, Williams, make a stereo version. It's so much easier to buy replacement stereo headphones.And we need replacement microphones too. I don't know why my mom removes it and loses it. Better, make a version with a built-in microphone! (Although I do appreciate the value of being able to put the mic at the end of a long cable. Bluetooth would be nice, I wouldn't want to pay the price.)I have tried the competitors, but they are really a waste of money. I guess I'm stuck with Williams until a quality company makes a competitive item. But $179 is robbery. You can buy an awesome 4 band CCrane radio for that price! This is just a tiny amplifier. What? A few transistors, capacitors, and resistors? Pennies!It's a market niche for some good analog electronics company to exploit. It must cost nothing to make these.

Product as described, arrived on time, no damages, easy to do business with, great seller.

My father has very poor hearing and he can actually hear and participate in conversations. My father has some dementia and he continually fidgets with hos hearing aids, making them inoperable. This brand was recommended by a physician who works in a memory assessment unit in a hospital. This product has been a real blessing for my father.

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 somethingI 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 consCons: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.