The title sounds like an exaggeration, but it's not. I can't believe my family went so many years without owning one of these, and I plan to buy more of these in the future.
We own multiple TCL Roku Smart TV's. My dad is hard-of-hearing. Before we got this speaker, he would raise the volume to 75 or 100 so that he could attempt to hear a TV show or movie. But then, when the commercials come on Hulu or YouTube, they were so loud it blasts your eardrums out. My parents have gotten into so many arguments over this. (My dad refuses to wear a hearing aid.) Even at 100 volume, he STILL could not hear half the time.
Two months ago, I saw the Vox YouTube video called "Why We All Need Subtitles Now". (I highly recommend watching it, especially if you need to convince someone why you need this speaker.) Suddenly it all made sense. Movies and TV shows are mixed for sound made for surround-sound speakers, not the crappy speakers we get in our flatscreen TV's. So of course the sound quality is messed up.
At first, I tried saving money by buying a $40 sound bar here on Amazon. But it wasn't compatible with the Roku TV's, and the sound quality was questionable if it was even doing anything at all. So I decided to return the cheaper one and just go for it and spend the $85 on this refurbished speaker.
Oh...My...Goodness. I am so glad I did. Because from the moment we installed it, there was an immediate difference right away. My brother was laughing, saying, "It's almost TOO good. It's like I'm in a movie theater."
My dad watched a TV show on Hulu, and he confirmed that the speaker lowers the sound of commercials as-advertised. He said, "This was 10,000 times better."
I was busy with work all day, so I only got to watch one episode of The Mandalorian tonight. Yes, the sound quality is amazing. But something else I noticed was that the sound of the explosions were a lot softer- or rather- more balanced. Before, if we were watching a movie with an explosion, my dad would quickly have to grab the remote to mute it, or turn the volume up and down constantly throughout the course of a movie. Now, it feels like we're finally hearing the sound the way it was meant to be heard.
We kept the volume at 25 the entire time, and my dad could actually hear it. Unbelievable. It was almost too good to be true. I had to confirm, "Can you really hear it now?" He said yes- and that before, he could really only hear 50% of the words people were saying, even at 100 volume. Now, he can hear 90%.
I feel like that other 10% is understandable. If you watch that Vox video, you'll understand that sometimes, actors just mumble, and there's not a lot you can do about it. We re-watched an especially mumbly scene of Mal from Shadow and Bone Season 2 as our test. And I could actually hear it perfectly fine this time around, where as we needed subtitles to understand him before.
My dad said, "I'll never feel bored watching a movie again." (Poor guy. He really needs to get his hearing aids working. I can't imagine living like that.) So if you or a loved one is hard of hearing too, I think this will also change your life.
Also, even though this is "refurbished", it seems basically brand new to me. I love it. No complaints whatsoever.
I am 100% planning to buy additional Roku speakers so that we can kit out the living room into a proper home theater. To me, this is worth the money. And it's a lot cheaper than a lot of other sound systems out there. I can't recommend this highly enough.
| Brand Name | Roku |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 2.4 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 16.25 x 7.5 x 4.25 inches |
| Batteries | 2 AAA batteries required. (included) |
| Color Name | Black |
