Usually hotel telephones are a nightmare for me. They almost never work, even with my telecoil setting turned on and my hearing-aid volume set as high as it will go. (And then, insult is added to injury when the first call I want to make is to complain about the closed-captioning on the TV set not working, but I have to schlepp to the front desk in person to complain instead). I have the same problem with phones I try to use at clients, at friends' houses... anywhere other than home, where I can rely on my trusty amplified desktop phone. But on our recent trip to New York, I tried out a ClearSounds IL40 Portable Telephone Amplifier, and now I believe my hotel phone problems may have disappeared forever. When I plugged it into the standard hotel-room phone, all of a sudden I could hear the voice at the front desk as well as if I were calling from home. In no time I was making dinner reservations, calling the parking attendant, and just for fun, calling for the local weather.
The ClearSounds IL40 is a deceptively simple little black box that sits between the telephone handset and base. A special connector cord links the base to one end of the amplifier, and the phone cord plugs into the other end. The ClearSounds IL40 is a new breed of phone amplifier that includes sophisticated new features that, for me, make the difference between a phone amplifier that works and one that doesn't. First-generation of amplifiers often suffered from compatibility problems, so depending on what kind of phones you wanted them to work with, it was a hit or miss proposition whether they would work for you. The new ClearSounds product has a dial with 20 settings on the bottom that will make it compatible with virtually any phone you want to use it with. And whereas first-generation amplifiers had simple volume controls, the Clearsounds IL40 has variable tuning for both volume and tone, enabling you to adjust the signal according to the kind of hearing loss you have and the kind of connection you get. That's a lot of sophisticated circuitry fitting into such an unassuming package.It provides you with the best possible shot at comprehension, regardless of the quality of the phone or connection. Powered by two AA-sized batteries, the unit is good to go on any trip as well as for use at home. The ClearSound IL40 makes good use of sophisticated technology already built into other ClearSounds products, including the ClearSounds CLA7 Amplified Power Neckloop, the Clearsounds CLC40 and CLC50 Amplified Desktop Phones, and the Clearsounds A50 Amplified Cordless Phone. ClearSounds is a company whose stated charter is to meet the needs of hard-ofhearing consumers. It did a lot of work developing new technology and integrating extremely useful features into its initial products. And it's great to see ClearSounds intelligently and aggressively leveraging these features and technologies across its product line.
Posted by David at 09:33 PM on Nov 20, 2005 in AMPLIFIED PHONES, ASSISTIVE LISTENING, NEW PRODUCTS
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