Vitasound PAE-200, TV Hearing Helper-Charcoal Gray

Allows me to hear programs without the loud background noise. Prior to this I had to turn the volume way up to try and understand what was spoken. The background noise is toned down considerably which is great. My wife loves it as she can watch her programs without hearing my loud TV.

It really helps when watching TV

After having this product for 10 months, it has stopped working. Although it was nice at the beginning and seemed to work well, the product just stopped all together. Very disappointing given the price!

Vitasound PAE-200, TV Hearing Helper-Charcoal GrayThe Vitasound PAE-200 is basically a wireless sound extender that is rechargeable. The primary use for me was to listen to my TV while working out 15 feet away and not have to turn up the volume so loud that it disrupted the entire household. For this purpose it worked remarkably well since I'm usually alone when working out.The good* The sound transfer is crisp and clear, even with the noise of a treadmill.* There is a 4-stage volume control built in. It works together with the sound volume of the receiver if you use the headphone output.* No need for a line of sight, it is wireless like your home phone.* No interference with our WiFi network.* The range extends far enough to cover most of my house. This was a surprise, since I went from our basement to the kitchen ~50 feet, and still had a good connection. This was likely due to the fact that the kitchen is above the work area so only 20-30 feet away from the unit.* Any headphone connectors fit. I even tried my cellphone headphones which have a three prong headphone jack for some smartphone controls and they even worked fine. I think you likely could use a Bluetooth dongle as well if you want wireless headphones.* The connector box is very lightweight and contains re-chargeable batteries.The bad* This unit does not allow you to listen to sound normally through the speaker system AND simultaneously through the hearing helper. So if you have two people watching TV, both will need a unit. It’s all or nothing.* There are basically three options to connect this hearing helper. Through the TV directly, through the back of your receiver (if you have the right plugs), or through the headphone jack in the front of the receiver. However, the PAE-200 only come with an RCA stereo jack, so I had to buy two additional pieces to make this work: o A stereo headphone adapter plug to stick into the headphone output of the receiver o A 3.5mm stereo male to dual RCA female adaptor to use the RCA connectors* The unit does not come with other options like optic (no cable) or coax.Overall, this unit delivers good sound and is convenient to use. However, I am removing two stars because of the connectivity/set-up difficulties. Ideally, some additional cable options and connector pieces would come with the unit. Even if I chose to use the stereo RCA jacks, I would have to take down my large TV from the wall and completely bypass my surround sound system while requiring everyone else watching the program to listen through the unit too – not really practical.

My husband is hard of hearing (he was an extreme preemie and has to wear hearing aids) so we both thought this would be perfect. But I have to admit, it really fails in a couple of ways. First off, the price. It's just outrageous. I love the idea of it; but I just can't get over the price. I admit I can't find anything that does what this does for a cheaper price... but I still am balking. The second thing that annoyed me was that although the "box" is wireless, it's wired to your earplugs. So you have to have a phone sized box attached to you; kind of annoying. Basically you plug the base into the dvd player or tv audio output plug... and then you have a little box that is attached to your earbuds via wire and you get your sound there. Two issues with this... first off, it cuts off the sound to the tv... so in our case we would have to get a splitter on the output wire so I could hear the movie in "Normal" level and my husband would use this. Secondly, he can't hear me at all then because he has earbuds in place. So I could totally see how this would be great for someone who is older and won't be getting up much while listening to the tv (attached box)... and doesn't have to deal with other people in the house too and dealing with either adjustments in sound, etc... but for a couple this just doesn't work great. If that's not a problem for you, read on (and technically you can get up to 100 handsets so I could have a pair too in my own volume that is comfortable to me.)So how is the sound? It's great!! I have several pairs of earbuds that I tried with this and none of them even came close to the quality of the buds on the Vitasound. They were great!! They are comfortable too; no digging into the ears. I love that you can adjust the volume AND the bass on your little black box. Be aware that as with any earbuds, they do annoy you after a while and make your ears a bit sore. But that's the same as headphones as well; maybe it's just me personally. You can get differing sizes ofSo overall I think these would be great if you don't mind spending the money on them... and don't mind having to carry the handset around.