The key here is bringing sound direct to your hearing aids, which is what the Pocket Talker does whether you are using it with ear phones of with a neckloop connected to your hearing aid's telecoil components. If the sound you wish to hear, whether it's a speaker or a sound from elsewhere, comes directly to you from the Pocket Talker's microphone as it bypasses the other sounds in the room. That is referred to as the signal to noise ratio (SNR). We all know that background noise makes hearing difficult. In short, the closer the microphone is to the sound you want to hear, the less background noise can interfere, and the more clearly you will hear.

I use a Williams Pocketalker to listen to the TV. I attach the microphone where the TV speaker is and use 20 ft extension cord to my Pocketalker. I also use a headset attached to the Pocketalker along with captioning on the TV program. Using only my hearing aids listening TV is not loud enough. This is why one should join the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), The Pocketalker has a volume control and a control for sounds.

@hedgerow Remote mics can be a huge help in certain situations. I use the small Partner Mic for my fellow passengers in the car when I am driving. The road and car noise keep me from hearing anything they say but if they wear or hold the mic their voices go directly into my hearing aids and overcome the road/car noise.

I've also been using the Roger On in Board meetings. I put it in the middle of the board table or on a chair if we the tables are in a U-shape. It allows me to hear people from each corner of the tables if I sit at the head of the table. Without it I would have to resign my board position because previously I wasn't hearing people with soft voices or those at other end of table. As the Treasurer it was important that I hear everything discussed.

I just got my cochlear implant activated last week so now i have to practice with my stereo CI and hearing aid combination.