Hearing and Aging
The scene: Susan and I are sitting in front of our “older” TV watching a documentary or such, and one of us turns to the other and says “What did she say?”
“I didn’t catch it either,” is the common answer. Yes, hearing and aging issues are catching up with us.
What to do?
First, we have to realize that the grand-kids don’t have the problem. We do. Our ears really aren’t hearing as well as they used to. Especially they are not distinguishing voice frequencies from background sounds. Our current solution is we turn on the captions. That works, but seriously detracts from the images.
But according to this “Consumer Reports” article there are a number of other approaches, like these:
- If your TV supports it, adjust the mid range tones of your audio so they are louder. It takes some chasing through menus to find the adjustment – if it is there.
- Get a speaker bar ($150-$1000). Some have settings to help with dialogue. All are likely better than the built in speakers of the common TV.
- Purchase wireless headphones.
Click here to read the much more detailed report from “Consumer Reports.”