I hope you realize that overdoing the wrong kind of supplemental amplification will just make things worse. If the sound level he wants hurts your ears, it will cause more noise-induced hearing loss, aggravating his condition -- probably presbyacusis. Just boosting the loudness across the audio spectrum can make it painful in the frequencies which do not need to be amplified. And that's all turning the volume up, or using store-bought headphones will do.
So far, on this thread, I haven't seen any wise counsel on this. All seem to be advising to just boost the sound, and likely that is the WRONG approach, over time.
Don't steer your relative with advice that will harm him more. See that he gets professional advice. Do some research on this with the experts, The American Hearing Research Foundation
Find him a professional near you: http://www.asha.org/findpro/
He should also find funding help for the tests and device. I did. Unsure about who you can contact for information about audiology services and hearing aid coverage? There are a variety of resources at the state and national level that may have answers to your questions. Is he a veteran? Is the hearing loss service-related?
More loud noise will just make his condition worse -- slow enough so you won't be blamed for it -- but worse. Now you know.
One of the things I've done with TV and/or DVD movies is to turn on the "Closed Caption" feature. It helps you get the speech a little better, a kind of synergy.
Again, if he hasn't gotten advice from a professional audiologist, it's way past time. If he already has and refuses it, or won't -- figure out whether it's your problem or not, eh?
Hearing aids are a big, big business. Who to believe?
I went to my HMO and had my hearing tested sitting in a sound booth. Mild hearing loss. I have trouble understanding some people, but not others. The audiology nurse (I think that’s what she was), told me that hearing aid wouldn’t help me much if at all.
A year later I went to a free Italian lunch funded by a local hearing aid shop and signed up for a free initial hearing test. This time I sat next to the owner of the shop (whose speech I understood perfectly!), computer screen in front of him, and I tapped my knee whenever I heard a sound in the headphones. Mild hearing loss at certain frequencies, he explained quite a lot, and invited me for a comprehensive test which I knew would be followed by a high pressure sales pitch. Told me that of course a hearing aid would help me. Costs had been explained during that group lunch a week earlier. I declined the invitation.
I have hearing aids, you might mention they aren’t cheap. Mine were a little over $8K.
I’m 67 years old and hear just fine with my aids. When I go to visit my parents and they turn on the tv, I have to remove my aids. Mom’s 92 and has hearing aids but doesn’t usually wear them.
Thanks for that advice.
This is only a short term solution when he is visiting us which would only be a week or two every year with perhaps 2-3 hours per day watching TV-maybe not even every day. He only watches TV at night. He reads during the day.
I wouldn’t think in those conditions, there would be harm if he were careful.