hearing impared devices

So someone I know is heading to a show in a few months, she can't hear that great and I told her that most shows (I think all by now) have a device you rent from the lobby that I guess is like some sort of listening device.

Has anyone on here ever used one? how does it work? is the sound quality on it ok or just a feed from the sound board mics? and how much does it usually cost?

I dont want to reccomend it if it sucks. Once I did hear someone next to me using one of the translators, it was loud but I dodnt exactly listen to it directly, sounded a bit annoying to me.

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My wife is deaf in one ear, and she uses them all the time. They work very well, and we've haven't been in a theater (Broadway, off, or regional) in the last five years that hasn't offered them.

And JG2 is correct - there is no rental cost; you need to leave ID until you return the device.

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"I'm deaf in one ear, too, and was wondering if these would work for me."

The devices my wife has used have not been stereo.

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The device is mono, but goes into both ears. The entire device is integrated, so you can't use any other earpiece. I would imagine a government issued photo ID, like a passport, would be acceptable.

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The only thing that I do know about them is that ADA regulations state that they cannot charge for the usage of them and they have to be given out to all who ask for one. So, in a technical sense, you can be someone who has no hearing problem and still use them so long as you give them your ID. I was actually with a friend of mine who has hearing aids in and needed one and he didn't have any government ID on him so they let him use his student ID. I do think that that was in a rare case though.

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Well, things are a bit backward in my country, Our ID cards and Liscences do not have on any phone numbers or addresses. Heck, we only started making card liscences this year, in the past we actually had to drive around with a booklet as a liscence. And our ID cards are always laughablly fake looking and really I dont think I would be walking around with my passport.

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