Senior Audiologist Reviews Every Australian Personal Sound Amplifier Option — From Government Subsidies to $5,500 Private Clinics — and Reveals What She'd Actually Recommend

My name is Dr. Janet Morris, I'm a retired clinical audiologist with over 30 years of experience fitting personal sound amplifiers in Australia.

And I've never been more frustrated with this industry.

Every week I hear from people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who are stuck in the same impossible situation.

The Government's Hearing Services Program will give them personal sound amplifiers subsidised — but the waiting list is over a year, and most people only qualify for a basic model.

Private clinics will see them tomorrow, but they want $5,500 or more.

And Amazon is full of cheap devices that promise the world for $55.

Most people end up doing nothing.

They turn the TV up.

They ask people to repeat themselves.

They stop going to places they used to love because they can't follow conversations anymore.

After 30 years of watching this happen, I decided to do something about it.

I bought all the different personal sound amplifier options with my own money and tested them all.

On real people. Over six months.

Here's what I found.

Government Hearing Services Program Personal Sound Amplifiers

They're heavily subsidised — sometimes free if you qualify under the Office of Hearing Services. The technology is decent, the government buys from the same manufacturers as the private clinics.

But you'll wait 6 to 18 months to get them. When you do, you'll most likely get behind-the-ear aids.

The big beige ones with a tube that hooks over your ear.

They work. But the batteries die every four days.

They whistle every time you pick up the phone. There's one volume setting for everything. And everyone can see them.

I fitted these for years. I know how many end up in a drawer.

About 2 in 5 people stop wearing them. Not because they're broken. Because living with them is exhausting.

Specsavers, National Hearing Care, and the Private Clinics

Average price at Specsavers Audiology: $2,200. National Hearing Care: $4,400. The Hearing Co: $5,500.

The technology is good. I'm not going to pretend it isn't.

But after 30 years in this industry, I can tell you exactly what you're paying for.

The personal sound amplifier itself — the receiver, the chip, the microphone — costs about $120 to $155 to manufacture. I've seen the supplier invoices. I know what these components actually cost.

The rest of that $5,500?

The retail location.

The sales staff.

The audiologist's commission — and yes, most private clinic audiologists earn a percentage of what they sell you. That's why they always recommend the premium range.

The regional manager.

The head office.

The TV adverts.

And nobody tells you about the ongoing costs before you buy.

Batteries: about $70 a year for two aids.

Replacement parts when something wears out: $60 to $105.

When something breaks, one customer told me her private clinic charged $155 just to assess the problem.

Repair on top: $530 to $770.

Over ten years, you're looking at closer to $7,700.

For technology that costs $155 to make.

I spent my whole career watching pensioners choose between their power bill and their hearing. It made me sick.

Amazon

This is where I get genuinely angry.

What Amazon sells are not personal sound amplifiers. They're amplifiers. I need people to understand this because it's the single biggest reason people think cheap personal sound amplifiers don't work.

An amplifier makes everything louder. Voices, traffic, the fridge, your own breathing — all at the same volume.

It cannot separate speech from background noise. That's why voices stay muffled while everything else gets painfully loud.

A real personal sound amplifier has a digital processing chip that filters sound.

It makes voices clearer and pushes background noise down. Completely different technology.

That processing chip for personal sound amplifiers costs around $120 on its own.

If you're buying a complete device for $55 on Amazon, that chip is not in there. What you're getting is a speaker and a battery in a plastic shell.

In my testing, Amazon amplifiers were the worst option by far. Potentially dangerous. Risk of further hearing damage from unfiltered loud noise.

If you've tried Amazon and given up, you weren't trying personal sound amplifiers. You were trying amplifiers.

Please don't let that experience put you off.

Direct-to-Consumer: Lunova ($257 AU)

This is the one that surprised me.

When I first heard about Lunova, I assumed it was another Amazon-style amplifier with better marketing. $257 for a pair of personal sound amplifiers? It didn't seem possible.

So I did what I'd do with any device. I opened them up. I looked at the components. I tested them on real patients alongside everything else.

They use Knowles receivers. That's the same supplier Specsavers and National Hearing Care use.

Same digital processing chips. Proper multi-channel sound filtering, not amplification.

The technology is genuinely comparable to personal sound amplifiers costing ten times more.

They're registered with the TGA as a medical device. Same registration standard as every personal sound amplifier sold in a private clinic. Same inspections. Same registration process.

Amazon amplifiers don't have this. Lunova does.

I looked into the company.

Founded by a man called David Taylor.

His father was in his seventies, struggling with his hearing, couldn't afford the private clinics on his pension, wouldn't wait over a year for the government programme.

Taylor had worked in the personal sound amplifier industry. He knew what the components actually cost.

When direct-to-consumer personal sound amplifiers became more accessible, he set up Lunova. Same components as the big brands. No retail location, no commission, no markup.

I emailed the company with some technical questions. A woman called Diane replied within four hours. Specific, detailed, knowledgeable. Not a chatbot. Not a template.

Returns: 45 days. Full refund. No cancellation fee. Guarantee: two years. If anything goes wrong, they replace it.

Rechargeable. No batteries. No fumbling over the sink every four days.

In my testing, most patients couldn't reliably tell the difference between Lunova and the personal sound amplifiers costing thousands.

The feedback was the same, over and over: "Why didn't someone tell me about this sooner?"

What I hear from real people

Since publishing my findings, I've heard from thousands of people who've tried Lunova. The same things keep coming up:

"TV volume went from 50 down to 8."

Robert, 78, Brisbane

"I paid $4,800 at National Hearing Care two years ago. These are better."

Colin, 72, Melbourne

"Wore government aids for six years. Put them in a drawer after three days with these."

Roy, 74, Sydney

"Wasted $440 on Amazon before my neighbour told me what I'd actually been buying."

Keith, 71, Perth

My recommendation

After 30 years fitting personal sound amplifiers, here's what I tell everyone who asks.

If you can wait 6 to 18 months and you're happy with behind-the-ear aids, the Government Hearing Services Program is a perfectly good option. It's heavily subsidised and the technology is solid.

If you want the best technology and money is no object, the private clinics will look after you. You'll pay for it, but you'll get good aftercare.

But if you're like most people I've worked with — who can't justify thousands, can't wait over a year, and don't want to waste money on Amazon rubbish that whistles and screeches — try Lunova first.

$257 AU. Same core technology as private clinics.

45-day trial at home. If they don't work, just send them back for a refund.

I recommended them to my own father. 84 years old. Stubborn as they come.

Wouldn't wear government aids. Wouldn't pay $3,800 at a clinic.

Now wearing Lunova every day. "Should've done this years ago," he told me last week.

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