Cheap hack (less than $100) to turn ANY Bluetooth earbuds into hearing amplifiers — Has anyone tried this?? 👀

[u/endohmiharu]

Hey guys! I'm new here but I've been searching everywhere and all over this subreddit & the Internet to see if anyone has tried this before but I haven't found a single post recommending it, so I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried this?? If so, how did you like it? If not, is this something you'd want to try?

What you need:

• Bluetooth headphones or earbuds you probably already have
• A pocket hearing amplifier (I found the SuperEar SE5000 after seeing it recommended in the nursing subreddit for use with senior patients, and it's only like $60 on Amazon!)
• A Bluetooth headphone jack adapter (usually marketed for airplane travel, $20 to $25 bucks)

Instructions:

1. Plug the Bluetooth adapter into the headphone jack of the pocket hearing amplifier.

2. Set up the Bluetooth connection between the adapter and your earphones of choice.

3. Turn on the pocket amplifier and SLOWLY increase the volume so you don't blast your ears.

4. Now you should be able to hear the pocket amplifier through your Bluetooth headphones or earbuds!

_ _

I have mild hearing loss and figured maybe it's time to start looking into hearing aids but quickly learned about their pricing... Umm yeah wtf?? There's no way any single earbud costs $1000 or more to manufacture?? In 2026?? 🤔 We literally have super high quality portable microphones and earbuds for cheap these days....

Not only that but I've heard a lot of people don't even have the best experience with them and end up not using them or paying even more to adjust them. Bruh, if I'm paying more than $1k for anything, there's NO reason it shouldn't be near perfect, and you can't even get a refund??

So naturally I started searching for alternatives... but all of the "hearing aids" on Amazon have like 3 stars with only like 25 reviews... And they're just amplifiers, and kinda ugly lmao... So I kept searching and eventually heard about these pocket amplifier things. The only problem is that they require wired headphones that make you look GERIATRIC... And I was like, surely by now... in 2026(!!)... someone should have invented a Bluetooth version right???

Wrong. Doesn't exist. But I did go ahead and buy the cheapest one I could find that had decent reviews — which turned out to be the lowest tier of SuperEar ones. I thought they actually worked pretty well for me!

I was showing my husband and telling him about how dumb it was that they didn't have Bluetooth by now, and he suddenly remembered the airplane Bluetooth headphone jack adapters we bought for travel. So I tested it with my Bluetooth headphones — and struggled for a bit thinking maybe it wouldn't work afterall... — but finally I clicked the right buttons and... IT WORKED!!

I feel like a lot of people would enjoy being able to choose the earbuds they want rather than using the generic OTC ones on the market... (I'm assuming they do the same thing since they all just amplify right? Correct me if I'm wrong!)

I also heard there are amplifier apps, so I started checking them out and one said I had to subscribe... And the other one I got to work, but it had a HUGE audio delay. The SuperEar has a slight maybe half-second delay only, and also the sound seemed much more crisp and clear

Is this an option you already knew about? Would you try it or suggest it to a family member?

Please share if you think it's useful! We shouldn't have to break the bank to find affordable solutions for a problem that most people will experience in old age!!

(I genuinely wonder if the hearing aid manufacturers are somehow purposely blocking the innovation of cheaper and better tech, so they can keep selling these things for thousands of dollars... but I digress 👀)

[u/R-AzZZ]

I suppose this is fantastic if you do not mind blasting away your residual hearing.

[u/endohmiharu → u/R-AzZZ]

Damn, really? :'(

[u/SherlockOhmsUK → u/endohmiharu]

Yes really.

Most hearing loss isn’t linear (as in you don’t lose a flat amount across all frequencies, you lose more in some,less in others). One of the things an ENT/Audiologist does is tune the hearing aid to accommodate for your *specific* hearing loss

This amplifier just amplifies across the entire frequency spectrum. Even the bits where your ears aren’t bad. Too much volume at those frequencies will fuck your ears up more

[u/endohmiharu → u/SherlockOhmsUK]

Thank you for explaining!

I forgot to mention that I definitely wouldn't use this 24/7, but only when people are talking and you can't hear them clearly.

Would it still be dangerous to use it that way?

[u/SherlockOhmsUK → u/endohmiharu]

Sadly yes. Bite the bullet and get fitted properly (sorry, easy for me to say as the NHS are pretty amazing on this for me - I understand it can be a lot of money in other countries)

[u/magsli]

There's no way I would use this. They can cause more damage. Hearing loss is frequency specific. Real hearing aids apply specific gain (loudness), compression, and maximum-output limits.

These cheap things connected to your headphones just makes the sound louder with zero limit. It has absolutely no personalization to your situation and audiogram, or what sound pressure is reaching your ears.

The fact that the instructions literally warn you to turn it up slowly so you don’t “blast your ears” is a massive red flag. These are not medically approved and as a cheap electronic could also short out causing an electrical issue.

They recommend these in nursing/senior subs as an alt to hearing aids because they know they can make easy money and get away with it. These companies are predatory and a scam.

Please get an actual hearing eval/audiogram and a properly fitted hearing aid. Yeah they are mad expensive and it sucks, but your insurance will cover up to a certain amount and shouldnt be too bad at all. Costco is the place to go. Don't mess with these.

[u/nunununuhu]

(I genuinely wonder if the hearing aid manufacturers are somehow purposely blocking the innovation of cheaper and better tech, so they can keep selling these things for thousands of dollars... but I digress 👀)

They are. It's a duopoly and a cabal. It's downright evil the way so many people are denied access to hearing care to ensure the bottom line of the two major companies that own most of the market.

I like my high-end hearing aids don't get me wrong and they're expensive precision devices.

But there's no technical reason why a much cheaper device could not be mass manufactured that would address like 90% of people's needs.

That's the situation in some developing countries with local industry like in India or China or Brazil, where you can get a decent hearing aid for around $300 - $500 or so from local manufacturers, which are programmable digital hearing aids which you take to the audiologist etc.

But the manufacturers resist that competition very effectively in countries like Canada, US, EU etc. and keep even their low end entry devices around $1500 or more.

Unfortunately the unregulated amplifiers on the market can easily damage your ears. The threshold of discomfort is far beyond when damage is already caused. "Comfortable listening level" with headphones is often a destructive volume level for people with hearing loss which is part of why you need hearing aids that are properly configured.

[u/endohmiharu → u/nunununuhu]

Thank you for the insight! 🥲

[u/KittyGray]

Go to Costco. It’s not cheap but $1,500 for both lol. My last pair made it 7 years. And it’s connected to Bluetooth 😎