What’s the most common solution? Turn it up!

However effective this may be for many viewers, others in the room may not be as open to this tactic. And making everything louder can only make things worse in the long run. There are plenty of ways to improve the overall sound quality coming out of your TV such as soundbars, home theatre systems and TV headphones (wired or wireless).

With the way most of these shows are mixed, the speech can still get lost very easily…

What about soundbars?

Soundbars will certainly improve the sound quality of your TV, the problem here is that they improve the sound as a whole. Soundtracks and effects included. Now most of these soundbars and AV setups will improve overall clarity, which will in effect make dialogue clearer. Yet, with the way most of these shows are mixed, the speech can still get lost very easily, and for those with hearing loss, the extra clarity more than likely will not be enough.

Will TV headphones come to the rescue?

For a lot of situations – yes. TV headphones do a great job of improving sound quality for the user, not only improving the sound as a whole, plenty of TV headphone models out there will have features and settings that focus on speech, making it a lot easier to understand dialogue. So, what’s the issue here then? Headphones are great for solitary TV sessions. They are not as well suited for watching TV with others – and many of us like to watch TV with our family, friends and even pets. Don’t tell me you have never had a little chat with your furry friend in front of the TV.

Not great when others want to watch the TV too.

The problem with wires

Another issue with headphones, is that wired headphones require a headphone socket to be used. Not all TV’s have a headphone socket and for the ones that do, using that socket tends to cut the sound from the speakers entirely. Not great when others want to watch the TV too. Wireless TV headphones on the other hand manage to get around this problem by using an optical connection which does not cut the speakers off.

What if you struggle with hearing TV dialogue, enjoy watching TV with others and have been told that if you turn the TV volume up again, you’re out!

Well, there is another option

There are a handful of brands releasing TV speakers catered to those with hearing loss and designed to enhance TV speech. One of those brands comes out of Germany and is called Faller, who has just released the OSKAR TV speech enhancing speaker here in the UK. This is not a soundbar, and unlike typical soundbars, the faller OSKAR is much smaller, and sits on top of a docking station that charges the speaker and also acts as a wireless transmitter. This allows you to use the speaker up to 30 meters away from the TV or any other audio source you choose such as a radio, computer or even a smartphone. The beauty of this is that you can place the OSKAR close to where you sit, bringing the speech enhancing technology directly to you. This type of speaker ticks all of the boxes:

• Improve speech clarity and enhance dialogue
• Watch TV with others without affecting their viewing
• Sit in comfort with no need for headphones or straining to hear the TV

Making TV a lot more enjoyable

In testing the Faller OSKAR myself – full review here – I realised that I was using this speaker a lot more than I thought I would. The OSKAR makes watching sports on TV a lot more enjoyable. I have always found that the commentary can easily get lost to the background crowd noise. Using the OSKAR meant that the commentary was crystal clear, while my TV still brought the stadium sounds to the room. Then, when I needed to go into the kitchen, I could bring the speaker with me so I didn’t miss anything.

Whether you watch TV on your own or with others, the flexibility, comfort and ease of using the Faller OSKAR makes it the ideal TV viewing companion…

I found that it also works great for late night viewing, especially when you don’t want to wake up the kids! I could keep the TV volume low while using the OSKAR to deliver its enhanced audio without sound leaking into the other room.

So what am I trying to say here?

If you suffer from hearing loss, are annoyed with not being able to hear dialogue on TV and want to enjoy watching your favourite shows with friends or family (or pets), then there are options out there. Just make sure you know what you are buying, and that more volume and better sound quality does not always mean easier to understand speech. Whether you watch TV on your own or with others, the flexibility, comfort and ease of using the Faller OSKAR makes it the ideal TV viewing companion for those who have had enough of resorting to subtitles.

Interested in all things Faller? Check out more News and Reviews here!

More about Faller here!

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Faller has the perfect story. Brought to life by the founder of German audio system specialists Sonoro, Marcell Faller, Faller was conceived as a way of providing a solution to his father’s loss of hearing and the need for a way to be able to enjoy family TV time again. The Faller OSKAR was the result. A portable wireless TV speaker that focuses on speech and dialogue clarity so that people who struggle to hear can easily watch and listen to TV again. Now I don’t struggle with this issue personally, yet I have tested the OSKAR to see if it does what it intends to achieve.

Faller OSKAR: The Presentation

Firstly, the presentation is very high quality, with a professional and elegant packaging design that clearly speaks to the desired market. Open the box and the OSKAR looks great with its aluminium frame and handle, and premium cloth speaker covering. The design of the OSKAR is very simple, and for this kind of product I believe that this is ideal. It is not over complicated in any way, there is just one large control dial on the top of the speaker which adjusts volume as well as turning the unit on and off.

Other than that, there is a button on the side that allows me to activate the speech filter and scroll through the three modes, where each one increases the focus onto speech. That is it for controls, and I find this to be great. Especially as this kind of device has the potential to be complicated, yet Faller has avoided this entirely without compromising on usability.

Connectivity

In addition to the controls, there is a USB-C input for power and a 3.5mm headphone socket if you wanted to use headphones instead of the speaker. Along with the speaker, the OSKAR comes with a docking station. This connects to the TV or audio source via 3.5mm AUX jack or Optical Toslink, and also has a USB-C power input. The speaker can then be charged while on the docking station for wireless use, where a full charge gives you up to 16 hours of wireless use. Thanks to its dedicated transmitter, the OSKAR can achieve a wireless distance of up to 30 metres which should be more than enough for most uses.

The Inside

Internally, the OSKAR uses two full range 35mm speakers in a stereo setup as well as a passive bass driver for the lower frequencies. I found that even though the OSKAR is very much designed to focus on speech, the quality of the speakers provided good sound when playing music on them too. Now, that’s not to say that the Faller OSKAR would compete with TV soundbars for their audio quality. They do deliver good enough sound in my opinion to be used as a general speaker though alongside their main purpose as a speech amplifier.

Functionality

The Faller OSKAR is very easy to setup, and once up and running I tested it with a number of different types of content. I found the sound quality to be very well detailed with the speech filter de-activated. The tuning of the speakers brings dialogue and speech to the forefront when compared to other speakers I have listened to.

Many TV shows and films have very loud soundtracks or use sound effects that can sometimes get in the way of dialogue. The OSKAR is a good way around this sometimes annoying feature of TV.

Activate the filter and that’s when things get impressive. For the first mode, speech is clearly enhanced while the background noises are reduced. I found it to be subtle at this setting, and I could imagine occasions where I would find it useful even though I don’t struggle with hearing. Many TV shows and films have very loud soundtracks or use sound effects that can sometimes get in the way of dialogue. The OSKAR is a good way around this sometimes annoying feature of TV.

The second mode pushed the enhancement further, this time making the effect a lot more noticeable with speech becoming crisper and seemingly louder while the background noises being suppressed further. The third setting really makes speech stand out. So much so that for me it was too sharp and sounded unnatural, however for those that struggle hearing these frequencies I can imagine that this effect is necessary. At the same time, background sounds were kept very low while there was dialogue on screen.

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