The first question to ask is 'Is she happy with her hearing aid?' - a simple test is to stand at arms length from her in a quiet room and cover your mouth. Can you have a conversation without her lipreading you?

The test above will give you confidence as the quality of sound is limited by the hearing aid which will have been adjusted by the audiologist to match your Nan's hearing loss and likewise it is the hearing aid which provides the volume. If you are not happy then you will need to get your Nan to return to her audiology clinic to have the hearing aid re-assessed before you can judge whether an assistive product is suitable.

The problem that a hearing aid user has in listening the sound from a TV is that the sound is affected by the room acoustics and becomes echoey/distant with lost volume. An assistive listening product 'brings the sound to the user' without adding the problematical effects of room acoustics. In the case of the Crescendo the sound is picked up by fixing the wired microphone near the TV speaker (or between the speakers if you have stereo sound).

Headphones are not suitable for hearing aid users so you would require the neck loop version for your Nan. The arrangement would then be ... microphone on TV with an approx. 4 metre lead which runs back to the Crescendo unit, which is beside the user so they can adjust the volume ... a neck loop is plugged into the Crescendo output and is worn around the neck of the hearing aid user who needs to turn their hearing aid(s) to 'T' - please note when turning to 'T' the hearing aid's own microphone is muted which is a good thing as it means that the sound from the hearing aid is not 'polluted' by noises in the room, a possible disadvantage is that she would not hear the doorbell or telephone which becomes another problem to help with!

When considering which assistive listening product to purchase please remember that whilst the wireless products are noticeably more expensive they do not have the potential trip hazard of a microphone lead trailing from the TV.