Don’t Miss Out on Holiday Fun

3 Ways a Personal Amplifier Helps You Hear Better

Portable Personal Amplifiers like this Motiva PFM360 personal hearing system

Do you or your loved ones suffer from hearing impairment?

Then you know that noisy dinners and parties are often a source of frustration rather than a source of fun. Distracting background sounds, poor acoustics, and distance from the speaker can cause hearing impaired family members to tune out of holiday festivities.

Listeners don’t have to drop out – it’s easy to tune back in with a portable personal amplifier! Personal amplifiers reduce background noise and boost the sounds a listener wants to hear.

These pocket-sized devices transmit desired sounds at customized volume levels through comfortable headsets, thus allowing the hearing impaired to hear conversations they might otherwise miss.

Read on to learn 3 ways personal amplifiers can help you hear better!

1. Personal Amplifiers Cut Down on Background Noise

A consistent complaint among the hearing impaired is that the sounds they want to hear – whether a person’s voice or a TV set – simply aren’t strong enough to overcome distance, poor acoustics, or background noise.

Unlike hearing aids, which rely on microphones close to the ear, personal amplifiers use microphones that can be placed close to the sound source, whether it’s a speaker’s voice or the output of a PA system. The reduced difference between microphone and source means that background noise, often a problem with hearing aids, is greatly reduced.

Personal amplifiers also use headphones that cover the ears, or earpieces that fit into the ear canal itself. This has the side benefit of passively blocking outside sound before it reaches the ear, greatly reducing distractions and enabling listeners to focus in on what they want to hear.

2. Personal Amplifiers Boost the Sounds You Want to Hear

Apart from reducing background noise, the other important step in hearing assistance is simply amplifying the desired sound source.

A personal amplifier typically accomplishes this with a small microphone. These microphones fall into two types.

An environmental microphone picks up all the sounds in the immediate area. Since this eliminates the need for each person to have their own microphone, an environmental mic is ideal for small gatherings with a few people gathered in a room or around a table.

PockeTalker Ultra Duo Pack

The Williams Sound PockeTalker like the one pictured here is the most common personal amplifier to use this type of microphone. Users simply carry the amplifier, with the mic attached, in their pocket, and nearby sounds are amplified into a high-quality headset.

While these mics are great for intimate settings, their sensitivity to environmental sounds becomes a disadvantage in certain noisy and crowded areas.

In these areas, choose a microphone designed to isolate certain sounds.

A remote microphone is ideal for listeners seeking out a specific sound source in a noisy environment. This type of microphone is attached to a cord, making it easy to place next to the speaker of a TV set, or to pass around among conversation participants.

But what if the listener wants to hear a lecture or a presentation where the presenter is far away?

Fortunately, there’s a wireless solution too!

3. Personal Amplifiers Offer Wireless Capabilities to Amplify Distant Sounds

For formal presentations like church services or holiday pageants, the source of the sound may be too distant to reliably be amplified by a microphone that’s close to the listener.

Some personal amplifiers add a wireless transmitter that allows users to hear a distant sound source, even if they’re seated far away.

These wireless devices (such as the Williams Sound Motiva listening system pictured at top) allow listeners to place a remote mic close to the speaker – or even to plug it into the audio output of an existing PA system. The microphone attaches to a transmitter which uses wireless FM technology to broadcast the speaker’s voice to an amplifier attached to the listener’s headphones.

With the microphone close to the sound source, background noise is minimized, and the sound of the presentation is much clearer. What’s more, adding additional receivers allows multiple listeners to hear the same source.

Personal Amplifiers Are an Affordable Solution for the Hearing Impaired

Portable personal amplifiers are an easy-to-use and effective solution for mild hearing loss- but they’re also highly affordable. A personal hearing assistance device like the PockeTalker costs a fraction of the price of a hearing aid, and may provide just the amount of assistance a listener needs to participate in daily conversations and activities.

Of course, personal amplifiers are no substitute for a custom-tuned hearing aid selected by a hearing specialist- or for other medical treatments your hearing loss may indicate. Consult with an audiologist or your doctor to find out if a PockeTalker or other amplification device is right for you.

If you’re ready to purchase a portable personal amplifier, AudioLink is here to help! Call us at 407-757-3326 or send us an email for more sound advice on a personal amplifier that’s ideal for you.