ZVOX Dialogue Clarifying Sound Bar - Patented Hearing Technology, AccuVoice TV Sound Bar with 12 Levels of Voice Boost, 17" Home Theater TV Speakers, Ideal for Smart TVs - AV157 Espresso

About 3 years ago I experienced auditory damage as a result of an MRI procedure, during which I was not given adequate ear protection. Since then, my hearing has been declining, and I found TV watching frustrating, because I missed so much, particularly during movies on Netflix. I bought a Bose Solo 5 soundbar, which has a simple on/off feature that enhances dialogue, and for a while, it helped. Then, that, too, lost its usefulness as my hearing worsened. Sometimes I'd have to back up several times on my DVR to catch a key word or phrase, and if that failed, I'd have to turn the volume up really high. It made me feel old, which I am not.Recently I saw the ZVOX soundbars advertised, read reviews of them on Amazon and also by independent review sites, and was greatly encouraged. The AV157 seemed to be the best suited for my needs, and $179 seemed like a fair price--certainly less expensive than hearing aids.I took down the Bose and set up the ZVOX last night. Out of the box, I was a bit skeptical, because the unit is so small-- about 2/3 the size of the Bose soundbar. But already, I can say without qualification that the ZVOX ties for first place, along with my Dyson Absolute stick vacuum cleaner, as the most useful and life-enhancing purchase I have made in a long time.I am a moderately technically savvy female, and had no difficulty setting it up, though it takes no particular skill. The directions are annoyingly on one huge, double sided piece of paper instead of a booklet, but they are written in good English and are easy to follow. The soundbar is essentially "plug and play." First, I attached the power cord and plugged it into an outlet. The Bose soundbar also had connected to the TV with an optical digital toslink, so initially, I didn't use the one provided by ZVOX. But I wasn't happy with the sound quality, and noticed that the cable on the ZVOX was about twice the thickness of the Bose cable. So I switched to the new one, and the improvement was amazing. When I disconnected the Bose cable, the sound reverted to the TV sound, and it sounded like a it was coming from the crystal radio I built with my dad as a 6th-grade science project. What a difference! (So if you have a non-ZVOX optical connector, don't use it.)I am pleased with the remote. It's simple and small, so there's less clutter. (The Bose came with a monstrous remote that controlled everything but the refrigerator, and I disliked it immensely.) As described, it has a few simple controls--for volume, mute, Accuvoice, Surround Sound, and Other (which is for adjusting treble and bass).Accuvoice has 6 levels of what I'll call "clarity of dialogue." To get the additional 6, you hold down the Accuvoice button for several seconds, and it switches over to "Super." I didn't find much difference between the first and second sets of functions, though, and settled on one (Accuvoice 5) that worked for me without being unpleasantly shrill. The crispness of dialogue seems to vary with the TV show or movie, and interestingly, did not degrade the quality of sound on the Music Choice stations. I am able to turn the volume down to "normal" volume, and can still understand every spoken word. The background sounds (and sometimes background music) are toned down, but is still there; it's just no longer distracting. I haven't tried the treble/bass adjustments, and frankly, don't have a need to do so, because I'm so happy with the current sound quality.So, although the description says there are 12 settings, when you add the three options for virtual Surround Sound, there really are 36 options! This feature is surprisingly good, and I am incredulous at the quality of sound that come out of a little 17" piece of technology.One other feature that I like is that the preset, default setting is that the soundbar turns off when the TV is turned off. (This can be changed, so that it can be turned off and on manually.) I like this better than the Bose, for which I had to turn the sound on and off separately. The thing I don't like, however, is that there's no indicator light on the unit that shows whether it's on or off.A package insert boldly states that if you're having difficulty with the unit, don't send it back, call ZVOX. But I have had no problems, so I cannot rate the quality of Tech Support.Overall, I could not be happier with this purchase. It makes me wish, though, that the ZVOX 157 had been available while my mother was still alive. She was severely hearing impaired, even wearing high-tech hearing aids, and it would have made her evenings of TV watching so much more enjoyable.One final note. I bought this soundbar 4 days ago (6/21/21). Tonight I recommended it to a neighbor, whose husband (in his late 70's) has such difficulty hearing that he watches all TV with subtitles on. When I looked on Amazon, the price had gone from $179 to $249, from the same seller and for no apparent reason. This is not OK, and I'm going to phone Amazon for an explanation.

AMAZING! I wear hearing aids and I still can't hear TVs with other sound bars - words are garbled and bass is to loud. This product makes things very clear and I can hear it when it is on 7 even without hearing aids. I can hear all of the words and bass is dimmed. It was easy to set up - but we have to put our TV speakers on mute or we got an echo.

This speaker was extraordinarily easy to set up. The 6 voice enhancements work very well. I haven't tried the other 6. I no longer need captions to understand the dialogue. Some shows have so much background music that there is no way to understand the dialogue - this speaker cuts through excess background noise. Unfortunately you then discover that some dialogue isn't worth hearing! The remote control is well marked, simple and easy to use.

I've had the unit about 4 years. It started to need a re-boot more and more often (normally not needed for the first 3 years). Anyway, it finally stopped working. Customer support was very good. The unit is out of warranty, but they have a rebuild program, which I thought was reasonable. Not sure, but I think they sent me a new unit. Anyway, very happy. I also have the TV hooked up to a large stereo system with expensive speakers and large sub-woofer. Great for music, but poor for verbal communication.One item that is funny, is that I stuffed an old scrap towel in the box for shipping to prevent damage (they pay for shipping both ways). Anyway, when they shipped the new unit back, they put the normal factory box inside a larger box so they could return the old towel.

Below the line below I wrote earlier today.Have come up with more problems since then. It became unresponsive to the cable remote AND the remote that came with the speaker. I moved the speaker slightly while troubleshooting and it went out. I had to unplug it and plug it back in to get it to respond. This thing is going back. Too much to tinker with for an elderly person.===============================The algorithm... AccuVoice, which enhances voices, works most of the time, but for some TV programs, the voices obviously switch levels between loud and soft when the TV program without the voice enhancement wouldn't do that. (On the game show, America Says, the host's voice keeps switching back and forth, so I have it set on the lowest AC1, which has minimal to no enhancement) People with more hearing loss than what we have might find that a minor issue for the things they like to watch.Alternate remote... So, this is set up for an elderly person that isn't going to understand using two remotes. I was very happy to set up the current cable remote to change volume and mute, just like we've been doing for years. It was easy to change, the directions were great, BUT to turn off the system, the remote cycles thru CBL, TV, AUX, and DVD. This cycle doesn't work with the ZVOX speaker because when the TV turns on, the sound signal thru the optical cable turns the ZVOX speaker on. When the remote cycles to the AUX power signal, it turns the speaker that off right after it the speaker turned on. The result is the speaker is off, when starting the system. This speaker is for an ELDERLY person that won't understand a different way of operating the TV, so this is a major minus for us.Using it with Alexa... It's problematic. The speaker has to switch from TV to Alexa -- by the time the ZVOX speaker figures out Alexa is saying something, she's already said the first two or three words, and we didn't even hear it. Another problem is the sound level of Alexa. I have to have Alexa set on 10 in order to get a reasonable volume out of the ZVOX speaker. Even so, the Alexa sound is considerably lower than the TV volume we are using. I would expect better control here.A problem that just happened... the speaker spontaneously turned off.Customer Service... The CSA I got wasn't the best. I asked how to switch my ZVOX input setting to BOTH. His immediate responses was, "You don't want to do that!" BUT I want to use it with the TV and Alexa, and I remember that the directions said can be done. It further explained that when Alexa is talking, the TV sound is lowered. The agent didn't know anything about this and had to put me on hold. Meanwhile, I read thru the pamphlet that came with the speaker, and found the paragraph that explained how to set it up with an Alexa. (I just couldn't find it before calling for some reason)After all the above, the sound from the TV is easier to hear -- maybe because it's directed forward and is just a clearer sound vs the old TV speakers. The sound from Alexa is compromised, unless you are listening to music or a book. It's not the best for short answers to questions. e.g. I ask "Alexa, what's the time?" The answer we hear is 11pm, when it's 1:11pm. We missed the first part of the answer while the speaker was switching from TV to Alexa. NOT good.

So far working grate. My hole family is HARD of hearing. THIS sound bar makes all very happy.