For about six years, the volume on our living room TV was a tug of war. Joanne would turn it down because the dialogue was loud enough for her. I would turn it back up because the dialogue sounded like mumbling to me. Some nights we both gave up and watched in silence. We tried the closed captions first, and they helped me but drove Joanne crazy because she would read along even when she did not need to. We tried a soundbar a neighbor swore by, and it made the explosions louder without making the dialogue any clearer. We even tried me sitting closer to the screen, which just gave me a sore neck. Then I bought a set of Avantree wireless TV headphones, mostly out of stubbornness, and the war just ended. No treaty, no compromise, no arguing over a number on the remote. Here are the ten reasons it worked, in the order I noticed them.
Stop Reaching for the Remote Every Night
The Avantree Ensemble lets one person listen loud while the other listens quiet. That is the whole trick, and it works better than I expected it to.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →The TV Stays at One Volume Now
Before, the volume changed three or four times an hour. On a normal Tuesday night we would go from 18 down to 10, back up to 16, then down to 12, all before the first commercial. Now it sits at a level Joanne likes and it stays there. I adjust my headphones instead of the room. Sounds small, but it is the reason everything else on this list exists. The TV is no longer a negotiation.
Dialogue Goes From Mumbling to Clear
I have mild to moderate high-frequency hearing loss in both ears, worse on the left, from 34 years as a lineman. The first thing to go was dialogue. With the Avantree headphones, the sound comes straight to my ears instead of bouncing around a 20-foot room, and suddenly people on TV stop mumbling. The first night, I heard the name of the news anchor, a name I had not caught in months. The next evening I followed an entire scene in a western without asking Joanne a single question. I still miss a word now and then, but I stop missing whole conversations.
Joanne Can Watch at Her Own Volume Again
Joanne has normal hearing. She never needed the TV loud, and she was tired of the TV being loud because of me. The first week, she told me she had forgotten what it felt like to sit in the living room without the sound pressing on her. These headphones let her watch at her volume while I listen at mine. She got her quiet living room back, and I got my dialogue back. That trade is the whole ballgame.
No More 'What Did He Say?' Every Five Minutes
The worst part of watching TV with hearing loss is the loop: lean forward, miss it anyway, ask Joanne what was said, get the gist, miss the next line. It made both of us tired. One evening I counted, and I asked her six times during a single hour-long show. With the headphones, I hear the lines the first time. Joanne does not have to be my subtitle service anymore, and I do not have to feel like a burden for asking.
You Can Still Hear the Doorbell and the Phone
This was my worry before I bought them: that I would put the headphones on and miss somebody at the front door. These have a passthrough mode that picks up outside sounds through a mic and mixes them in. The Tuesday after I set them up, the UPS driver came up the walk and I heard him before he knocked. I have also heard the teakettle, and Joanne asking me a question from the kitchen while I was watching a ballgame. That one feature is why the headphones stayed on my head instead of in the drawer.
No Cords, No Tangles, No Getting Up
My recliner sits about 12 feet from the TV. A corded headset would have meant unplugging every time I got up for coffee, and I get up a lot. These are wireless, so I wear them to the kitchen, to the front door, even out to the mailbox if I want to keep listening to a ballgame. I measured the range once out of curiosity: about 45 feet from the base before the signal started to crackle. The base charges them when I am not wearing them.
One Pair Works for Both Ears, Even When One Ear Is Worse
My left ear is noticeably worse than my right. I assumed I would need some kind of special setup for that. Turns out I just needed the volume dial on the left earcup, which balances the sound side to side. I set mine a notch louder on the left and that was it. No audiologist visit, no custom fitting, just a dial I can reach without taking the headphones off.
It Works With the TV We Already Own
I was ready for a project: a box of adapters, a manual the size of a phone book, a young person on a help line explaining it twice. Instead, the Avantree Ensemble plugged into the audio out on our 55-inch TV, and the TV recognized it before I finished my coffee. The base sits on the shelf under the screen, next to the cable box. Joanne and I both use it, and neither of us is handy with electronics.
The Batteries Are a Non-Issue
The batteries are a non-issue. I have owned rechargeable things that died after a year and things that never held a charge right. These go on the base when I am done, and they are ready the next night. I have not once been stuck with a dead headset at the start of a ballgame. After six months of nightly use, that is the most boring and most welcome thing I can say about a gadget.
It Fixed the Room, Not Just My Ears
The real win is not the headphones. It is that the living room works for both of us again. Joanne reads in her chair with the TV at a normal level. I watch westerns and baseball with the sound turned up where I need it, and she does not hear a thing. We still sit on the same couch. We just stopped fighting over the remote.
What I'd Skip
These headphones are not for everybody, and I would not tell you otherwise. If you only watch TV alone, you are solving a problem you do not have, and a cheaper pair of wired earbuds would do the job. If you need the TV loud enough for the whole room, because you have guests or a family room full of people, headphones only help one listener. And if you have not had your hearing checked in a while, do that first. I am a user, not an audiologist, and I will tell you the same thing my own doctor told me: headphones are a workaround, not a fix for hearing loss. Get the hearing checked, then decide what you actually need.
The TV stays at one volume now. I adjust my headphones instead of the room.
Your Living Room Can Be Quiet and Loud at the Same Time
Six months in, the Avantree Ensemble is still the best money I have spent on the TV room. One of you hears everything, the other hears nothing, and nobody has to apologize for either.
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