Pocketalker Ultra vs SuperEar SE5000

My wife Joanne and I have one TV room, a recliner about 12 feet from the screen, and a quiet agreement: she stops turning the volume up, I stop pretending I heard the first time. For years that agreement worked about half the time. Then I started testing personal sound amplifiers for this site, and the Williams Sound Pocketalker Ultra and the SuperEar SE5000 ended up as the two units I kept coming back to. Short answer: the Pocketalker Ultra is the one I reach for every evening, and the SE5000 is the one I keep in the drawer for when the other is charging.

That is not because the SE5000 is a bad unit. It is a capable amplifier with a real following. But after months of using both, the differences that show up in a spec sheet matter less than the differences that show up at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday. This is a plain-spoken comparison for adults 55 and up, and the spouses who share the couch, based on how these two actually behave in a brick ranch house in Tennessee.

My short answer: the Pocketalker Ultra wins for everyday TV and conversation because it is simpler, lighter, and far easier on batteries.

How I Tested These Two

I am Walt Kesler, 69, a retired electrical lineman with mild to moderate high-frequency hearing loss in both ears, worse on the left, from decades around line equipment and chainsaws. I am not an audiologist and I am not a doctor. I am a user who tests things properly before he trusts them, and I encourage anyone reading this to get a hearing test with a professional if it matters. What I can tell you is how these two units behaved in my living room, on my TV, and in conversation with my wife.

I used each amplifier for about six weeks, alternating weeks so my ears would not get used to one sound signature. I started in early September, after the evenings turned cool and we moved back inside. I kept a spiral notebook on the end table next to my recliner and wrote down the date every time I changed batteries, every time Joanne had to repeat herself, and every time I reached for the volume dial. I watched the evening news, westerns, and a fair amount of baseball. I wore each unit at the dinner table, in the car, and on the porch. On the first Tuesday, Joanne read aloud from the newspaper while I sat twelve feet away with my back to her, and I wrote down how many words I caught the first time. I also tested the one thing nobody mentions in the marketing: what happens when you need to hear a soft voice in a quiet room, not a loud voice in a noisy one.

I started with the Pocketalker Ultra because it was the one Joanne could hand me without a lesson. The first evening I plugged in the earbud, hung the lanyard around my neck, and turned the dial to about nine o'clock. The news anchor's voice came through clear enough that I heard the score of a game I had only been watching with my eyes. The next week I switched to the SE5000. It took me longer to find the settings I liked, and I caught myself reaching for the Pocketalker's familiar dial even while the SE5000 hung on my shirt pocket. That first week told me more than any spec sheet: one unit disappeared into my evening, the other made me work.

One note on testing: I did not use the headphones that ship with either unit. I used the included earbuds because that is how most people will wear them, and I tried both the left and right ears. My left ear is worse, so I wore the earbud in my left ear most of the time and kept the volume a little higher. That mattered, because an amplifier that is comfortable in the good ear can be useless in the bad one.

The Short Answer in a Table

	Pocketalker Ultra	SuperEar SE5000
Price	Usually costs more, but the price gap has narrowed over time	Usually the cheaper option, sometimes by a wide margin
Battery life	Runs for many hours on two AAAA batteries; I changed mine roughly once a month	Eats batteries faster; I changed mine several times a month
Ease of use	One volume dial, one on-off switch, nothing else to learn	More controls and a louder maximum, but more fiddling day to day
Maximum volume	Plenty for my living room, and it does not blast me out of my chair	Genuinely louder at the top end, which helps some users and hurts others
Comfort for hours	Lightweight body and a thin earbud I forgot I was wearing	Slightly heavier and the earbud felt firmer in my ear after an hour
Best for	Daily TV watching and one-on-one conversation at home	Situations where you need maximum volume in a noisy room

Where the Pocketalker Ultra Wins

The Pocketalker Ultra wins the only category that actually matters to me: I use it. It hangs around my neck with a lanyard, the body is small enough that I forget it is there, and the volume dial is the only control I ever touch. Joanne can talk to me from the kitchen while I am in the recliner, and I can turn the dial up for her voice without hunting for a button. The earbud is thin and light, and after a full evening of baseball I do not feel like I have a foreign object in my ear.

It also wins on batteries in a way that surprised me. The Pocketalker Ultra takes two AAAA batteries, and with a few hours of use a day I changed mine about once a month. I put a fresh pair in on October 3 and did not touch the battery door again until November 5. The SE5000 went through batteries several times in the same stretch. That is not a dealbreaker for either unit, but it is the difference between an amplifier that lives on the coffee table and one that lives in the drawer because you are out of batteries at the worst moment. On a Thursday night during the playoffs, Joanne fell asleep in her chair and I watched two more innings with the dial at about two o'clock and never once wished it went higher.

The other thing I noticed is how the Pocketalker Ultra handles the moments between conversations. When Joanne leaves the room, I can turn the dial down and the background noise drops with it. The SE5000 has more controls to fiddle with, and I often found myself adjusting two or three settings to get back to the same place. With the Pocketalker, one dial does the whole job, and that is worth more than any feature list after a long day.

Where the SuperEar SE5000 Wins

I will give the SE5000 its due. It is louder. The top end of its volume range is genuinely higher than the Pocketalker Ultra, and for someone with more significant hearing loss, or someone who needs to hear in a noisy restaurant, that extra headroom matters. It is also usually the lower-priced option, and for a lot of families that is the deciding factor. If the choice is between the amplifier that fits the budget and the one that sits in the drawer, the one that fits the budget is the better buy, full stop.

The SE5000 also has a more traditional pocket-clip design, which some users prefer because it keeps the microphone close to the chest and pointed at the person speaking. I found the sound quality perfectly clear for TV dialogue. I wore it to a crowded diner off the interstate one Saturday morning, and the extra volume let me follow the conversation at the table while the coffee machine ran behind me. My complaint is not the sound, it is the fiddling: more controls, a firmer earbud, and a battery habit that meant I was thinking about the amplifier instead of the baseball game. For a user who needs the volume and does not mind the upkeep, the SE5000 is a legitimate choice.

I should also say the SE5000 is built like a tool. The body is solid, the clip is firm, and it feels like it could take a knock or a drop without complaining. The Pocketalker Ultra is lighter and easier to forget, but the SE5000 has a heft that some people will read as quality. If you plan to clip it to a shirt pocket on a walk or carry it in a jacket, that solid feel is a real advantage.

Who Should Buy Which

Buy the Williams Sound Pocketalker Ultra if you want an amplifier you will actually wear every day. If your hearing loss is mild to moderate, if your main struggles are the TV and one-on-one conversation, and if you want something your spouse can hand you without a lesson, this is the one. It is the amplifier I keep on the coffee table, and Joanne has learned to say 'turn it up a notch' instead of repeating herself. It is also the one I would pack for a week away from home, because I know I will not be hunting for batteries by Wednesday.

Consider the SuperEar SE5000 if maximum volume is your priority, if you are on a tight budget, or if you need the extra headroom in noisy public places. It is a capable amplifier and I would not argue with anyone who chooses it for those reasons. But know that you are trading daily ease for top-end volume, and that trade is only worth it if you actually need the volume. If you are still deciding, sit in your own recliner, put the TV at your normal level, and ask yourself which one you would still be wearing at the end of a ballgame.

If you are the spouse doing the research, I will tell you what Joanne told me: buy the one you will not have to troubleshoot. She does not want to read a manual to help me hear the news. She wants to hand me the amplifier, say 'turn it up a notch,' and sit back down. The Pocketalker Ultra is the one that behaves that way in our house. The SE5000 is not hard to operate, but it asks more of the person holding it, and on a tired Tuesday night that matters.

The best amplifier is the one that stays around your neck. The Pocketalker Ultra wins because I never think about it. The SE5000 wins on volume and price, but I thought about it every time I reached for it.

What Nobody Tells You About Personal Amplifiers

First, an amplifier is not a hearing aid. It makes everything louder, including the noise you did not want. I learned to point the microphone at the person speaking, not at the TV, and that one habit fixed half my complaints. Second, earbuds are personal. The ones that ship with either unit may not fit your ear, and a small pack of different-sized tips can change your opinion of the whole device. Third, batteries are the hidden cost. The Pocketalker Ultra's battery life is the reason it wins my coffee table, and I would check battery type and cost before buying either unit. I keep a spare set of AAAA batteries in the drawer with the amplifier, and I check the package before I order, because the last thing I want is to sit down for the news and find the drawer empty.

One more thing: try the microphone position before you give up on either unit. I spent two evenings convinced the SE5000 sounded hollow, then I moved the clip from my collar to my chest pocket and the difference was night and day. The same is true for the Pocketalker Ultra. These are directional microphones, and they need to point at the voice you want. That is not a flaw in either product, it is a fact of how they work, and it is the first thing I would tell anyone who brings one home.

Finally, do not buy an amplifier to avoid a hearing test. I say this as someone who put it off for years. If you suspect your hearing loss is more than mild, or if you have not seen a professional in a long time, get tested first. An amplifier is a tool for the living room. A hearing professional is the person who can tell you whether you need more than a tool. That visit is the reason I know my loss is high-frequency and worse on the left, and it is the reason I stopped blaming the TV and started looking for the right kind of help.