Audio News & Opinion

Have you ever had trouble hearing the dialogue on a TV show because there’s so much else going on in the soundtrack? Background music, sound effects, and other audio in a TV show compete with the dialogue (main character voices) to drown out your ability to understand the words.

The good news is that a soundbar can be an effective and simple solution to most TV dialogue comprehension problems.

Walmart carries soundbars from top brands, such as ZVOX, TSV, Vizio, Samsung, LG, VIP, iLive, and Sony, as well as onn., Sonos, and JBL, among many others.

Certain brands that Walmart carries, like ZVOX, are specifically made for users with hearing loss. Other manufacturers focus on other features to appeal to different customers with different needs. 

Why is television dialogue hard to understand? Hollywood is mixing sound for drama, not clarity. We recently Googled the phase "hard to understand dialogue movies" and got 162 million hits. Hollywood is using more adventurous audio mixing techniques – often resulting in unclear dialogue. 

“How much do hearing aids cost” is a question that is commonly asked after learning about, or coming to terms with, hearing loss. It can be hard to know where to turn and whose advice to trust when treating hearing loss. Thankfully today, there are a range of affordable hearing aid options that put control back into your own hands. 

Retail-based health care is a growing trend as consumers look for less expensive, more convenient alternatives to traditional medical settings. Costco entered the hearing aid market more than 25 years ago, but now sells about 11% of the hearing aids in the United States. 

Finding the best, affordable hearing aid can be an exercise in frustration. There are many online options to choose from. But something significant happens before someone begins researching hearing aids, and that is the life-changing experience of coping with the news or discovery of hearing loss. 

As hearing aids become more widely available, you may have seen them for sale at the ubiquitous warehouse shopping center, Costco, as part of their commitment to bringing customers a one-stop shopping experience. In addition to bulk groceries and office supplies, Costco also provides health services such as optometry, pharmacy, and hearing aids with hearing tests and follow-up hearing aid care. In this article, you’ll learn:

The AARP says that the average price of a hearing aid a few years ago was $2,300. Some models sold by audiologists even reach into the $12,000+ range. Hearing aids tend to be expensive for two main reasons: lack of consumer choice and lack of pricing transparency.

Would you have guessed that more than 1 in 10 American adults over 18 have reported some form of hearing loss? While that might be surprising, this next statistic is far more sobering: research from the WHO (World Health Organization) states that only 17% of the people who need a hearing aid actually use one.