Picture the scene: you’re watching Dune (in preparation for Dune 2) and you’re having a ball. Then bam – it happens again. The scene gets serious, voices drop to whispers and one of your group can’t hear what’s being said amid the cacophony of sand worms. Cue a dash for the remote, the spilling of chips and a broken mood. That’s apparently why the new wireless speaker OSKAR was created – faller (the company which makes it) is a new brand from revered German audio specialist sonoro, and its inception comes from this growing real-world issue – hearing difficulty. Founder Marcell Faller decided that he would find a way to help his father enjoy watching the TV again with his family, so started work on the OSKAR wireless TV speech amplifier.
OSKAR was developed and designed in Germany and is available now for £259/€269 in the UK and Europe directly from faller as well as Amazon and selected TV and audio retailers. That works out at around $325 or AU$480, although official availability and pricing for these regions is not yet known.
Why is this particular wireless speaker any different to one of the best soundbars or best TVs for sound, say? OSKAR focuses on two things: ease of use and dialogue definition – and given that the National Institute of Health claims about one-third of older adults have hearing loss, it’s a good niche to have identified.
With three voice levels to pick from, OSKAR should mean even the muttered intense dialogue in Tenet comes over loud and clear. OSKAR boasts an “innovative voice optimisation technology,” which once connected to the TV actively emphasizes voices and important frequency bands for speech, while dynamically filtering and minimizing distracting background noise.
Two full-range 35mm speakers and a passive bass driver do the heavy lifting here, and the supplied docking station provides an easy way to charge the voice amplifier when not in use – faller says you’ll get 16 hours of wireless playtime from OSKAR, and it’ll charge fully from flat in four hours.
With a range of up to 30 meters, OSKAR also allows you to take the sound of the TV with you if walking a little further from the source. It’s hard to say if it’ll be better than other solutions such as a Sonos Beam 2nd Gen soundbar at the small end or the five-star JBL Bar 1300X soundbar at the high end – both of which have speech enhancement options. However, neither has OSKAR’s advantage that you can place it right next to you. It’s a relatively cheap and simple solution aimed at the older user, and one we can’t wait to test. Watch this space…
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Alex Smith is a writer and editor with over 10 years of experience. He has written extensively on a variety of topics, including technology, business, and personal finance. His work has been published in a number of magazines and newspapers, and he is also the author of two books. Alex is passionate about helping people learn and grow, and he believes that writing is a powerful tool for communication and understanding.