[MrHumbucker]

Hello!
My Grandfather struggles with his hearing, so he uses headphones to help him understand what people are saying on TV and (at the moment) on video calls.
They help, but he finds them a bit muffled, so he recently asked me to see if I could find him something that would sound clearer for a maximum of £125 (we’re in the UK).
Initially I expected this to be easy, as I know that his current headphones are very bass biased, but I gave him an old pair of Sennheiser HD 201s just to see how he got on with them, and he says he can’t hear a difference in tone between those and his current ones (which are by OneOdio).
I’ve used both of those headphones, and I know the Sennheisers have a much more balanced sound.

This might mean his hearing has gone too far for better headphones to help, but I still want to at least give something higher end a try before we give up.

The headphones I’m currently looking at for him are the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro for a little under £100 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-HD280pro-Closed-Monitoring-Headphones-Black/dp/B000065BPB
Although that uses up most of the budget, I also wondered whether a super-cheap headphone amp would be worth getting, like this one from Liam & Daan:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LIAM-DAAN-...ones-black/dp/B07GH3K9Y4/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&

It needs to be portable so that he doesn’t have trouble moving from one device to another. Although it has good reviews, I couldn’t find any notable specs on the UK amazon page, but with a fair bit of digging I managed to find and google translate these specs from the amp’s German amazon listing:

Maximum output power: 270mW (32 Ohm THD <1%) / 450mW (16 Ohm THD <1%)
Recommended headphone impedance: 16-300 Ω
Signal-to-noise ratio:> 108dB
THD: 0,004%

Would there be any point in getting the amp? The musical quality of the setup doesn’t really matter, just the clarity & volume.
Any headphones he gets need to have only one wire coming from the cups like those Sennheisers, so that it doesn’t become a trip hazard. It also needs to be closed-back so that it isn’t deafening to anyone nearby!

Thank you for your time.

 

[Roseval]

The problem with hardware is that it is a one trick horse.
It might be bright or bass heavy but no way to change this.
Maybe a headphone you can tune (build in EQ) will help like: https://www.weareeven.com/

Some other examples: https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/Headphone/Dsp.htm

 

[MrHumbucker]

The problem with hardware is that it is a one trick horse.
It might be bright or bass heavy but no way to change this.
Maybe a headphone you can tune (build in EQ) will help like: https://www.weareeven.com/

Some other examples: https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/Headphone/Dsp.htm

Thanks for your reply, I’d never heard of the headphones mentioned in that article before, aside from the Sennheisers. The Weareven headphones look like they would be brilliant for him, except his TV doesn’t have any bluetooth support, and I also can’t find any UK stores selling it. I’ve had a look for both headphones and headphone amps with physical EQ controls built in, but couldn’t find any.
Do you think that we would be better off just getting the Sennheiser 280s without any amp? Or do you know of some EQ headphones that are bit more simple?

 

[Roseval]

Most of the time a TV has optical out and/or line out and/or HDMI
You can use these outputs to drive a bluetooth transmitter.
Maybe this one is of use, it claims to enhance speech and it is wireless adding some comfort in the proces.
https://en-us.sennheiser.com/wireless-tv-earphone-headphone-stereo-flex-5000