Sound World Solutions CS10 Bluetooth Series Personal Sound Amplifier - Left & Right Ear

My original estimated delivery was unacceptably slow, so I dinged the rating, but Liberty Health (the retailer) actually delivered 4 days faster so I have removed my complaint on that score.The product itself, now that I have it, is a marvelous piece of engineering and workmanship. I bought the left and right set, I use the left as a sound amplifier and my wife uses the right for mild-moderate hearing deficiency.Pros:Most importantly, the thing works great for boosting hearing. My wife is very happy with the improvement and I like the boost for TV viewing.Even without customizing, the three presets are very useful - preset one boosts only the upper register, two does upper and mid and 3 does all three upper, mid and low. I find the low boost is counter-productive and distracting, so for me preset 2 is best.The CS10Customizer app is easy to use and worthwhile. You listen to tones, indicate when you can hear them, and the app will set the amplification settings high/mid/low that compensate best. It seems to work very well for both of us.If you do customize your profile, you get three new settings - baseline, restaurant and entertainment mode. Baseline amplifies at your profile in all directions, restaurant uses the directional mic in the earpiece to emphasize sounds coming from in front of you and entertainment adds a low boost to the baseline. Very nice and easy to use by tapping on the program button in back of the earpiece.The battery design is quite sweet. The BTE part of the unit is the battery, and it attaches with a magnetic bond much like the power cord on a portable Mac. Very easy to connect and permits you to insert the ear canal piece firmly first and then clip on the battery. Very slick.The charger is easy to use - just plug the base into a USB port on a computer or into the provided AC plug and the batts attach easily to the base. Red light means charging, green for charged. Can do two batts at once. I haven't had the units long enough to note if there is any issue with memory effect in charging the batteries.The feedback management is very good. You can induce feedback, such as by cupping your hand over your ear, but once the thing is on it doesn't squeal the way a cheap hearing aid can do.Cons:To my ear, the sound is rather thin and tinny, but all in-the-ear aids have this quality for me. Definitely not a Bose speaker.The app doesn't run on an iPhone or iPad, or even a Kindle. Only Googleplay supported Android devices. I would expect this to be rectified shortly. I used the Mac downloadable application, and there's a Windows version too. I'd expect in time any Bluetooth enabled device should get a version of Customizer.Bottomline, I'm really impressed with the performance of the units, the well-thought-out engineering and design and the build quality.

I've suffered from hearing loss for some time but was put off by the cost of hearing aids and the fact that insurance often pays a paltry amount toward them. Consequently, for $300 each (I bought a single unit), I figured this product was worth a try. It has exceeded expectations. The best features are the rechargeable batteries (last about 6-8 hours) and the program that allows you to customize the device to your hearing issues. You listen to a series of sounds and indicate whether you can hear them and then it tunes the device to needed frequencies. I've had it for about a week but will follow up with another review as I get more use from it.

I have been a frustrated user of hearing aids from various manufacturers for the last 16 years. The source of my frustrations have been (and remain) that these devices are sold without performance-related specifications, are very high cost and do not promote "independent" use/operation by the end user. They also tend to use "old" technologies (such as the tele coil) rather than the modern technology that is being widely used in computer and sound system products. The recent aricles and coverage in the media of the SWS hearing aid was very encouraging to me and I hoped that the CS 10 device would be sold as a device over which the user would have full operational and adjustment control, clear specifications, upgradability for new developments (software & hardware), full warranty coverage, accessible operations & technical manuals (online, text & audio formats), self-service tutorials on how to per ate and adjust each feature and "real" customer support.Instead, I found a relatively inaccessible website that focused on promotion/marketing of the device, no specs. no readily accessible warranty statement, no mechanism to engage me (an interested and potential user) in dialogue/communication.Am I going to buy and try out this product? Probably not anytime soon!JWB