ZVOX Dialogue Clarifying Sound Bar with Patented Hearing Technology - AccuVoice TV Sound Bar with Twelve Levels of Voice Boost - Home Theater Audio TV Speakers Soundbar - AV157 Black

This is a good addition to your TV. It makes the sound fuller and makes dialog a lot clearer. It has a nice full sound and good bass without being muddy. However, when I used the higher settings of Accuvoice, it sounded odd to my wife, so I would usually have to also play the sound through my hearing aids to be able to understand all the dialogue, especially if there was music or people talking in the background (like restaurant scenes).I would have been quite happy with it, if it hadn't died. I bought one in March, and we had a power surge in December that killed it. Zvox sent me a new one quite quickly. This one I plugged into a surge-protecting powerbar. This past month, 7 months later, I was moving the new one from one TV to a newer one, and this second one died, and I don't know why. I contacted customer service at Zvox directly a week ago and they haven't got back to me. When I got the replacement in December they told me that it was covered by Amazon under the original 1-year warranty. So because it is 16 months after I bought the original, I am assuming there is no warranty coverage. Time to try a different brand. My recommendation is that if you buy one of these, plug the unit into a surge protecting powerbar, and then leave it hooked up to one TV. Or if you have to move it, turn it off and unplug it from power before you do anything else. And for sure, get the extended warranty.EDIT: There was some confusion about my messages getting through to support, but once it did, ZVOX sent me a replacement right away. They also told me to make sure the AV-157 is turned off before turning the power off, and protect it from surges. In the meantime I had tried a different TV speaker (from well-known brand B) and found that it wasn't nearly as good. The AV-157 has much better highs and lows, great bass adjustment (no extra subwoofer required) and the Accuvoice really does a good job. The other TV speaker wasn't much better than the TV's speaker, but the ZVox sure is.

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.

It works great, my (90+ year old) grandparents can finally hear what people are saying again on tv. I will be recommending it to anyone that is struggling to hear what is being said on tv. I am so glad ZVOX have addressed this common issue.

Après un tour en magasins, j'ai appris que la plupart des barres de son amplifiaient surtout les basses et qu'il ne fallait rien espérer de mieux dans mon cas, quel que soit l'argent investi.Par curiosité, j'ai essayé l'Accuvoice AV157. Miracle, après réglages, j'entends très bien les conversations et j'ai même baissé le son de 2 niveaux.Mon téléviseur a une sortie optique brouillée, aussi je me suis rabattu sur la liaison classique, qui fonctionne très bien. L'affichage des réglages est parfait et discret car caché par la grille.

Superb Clarity of speech Soundbox well made packaged no other manufacturer approached including Bose could not guarantee better speech clarity with Bose over twice the price I was so pleased within 2hours two of my friends had bought one also own recommendation the clarity and choice is superb and put tv sound to shame having to rely on bounced sound off walls cmon tv manufacturers get to grips with a huge problem for the elderly the sound quality from Tv cannot compare with this soundbox I don’t have to rely on tv wordscript any more or keep returning backwards to catch what someone on tv has said .A great product Zvox worth every penny and so easy to handle after set up lots of serious brownie points here 👏🙏