Mine hearing is never been that great and without aids, I have a hard time hearing electronic sounds that the volume is not turned up on. If I increase the volume, then my wife says it's too loud. So, the reason for this post is to tell you of a product I just bought that so far seems great! My biggest hearing problem is listening to the audio from a video on my iPhone in a noisy situation such as on a flight. I usually have the volume turned all the way up and even then, sometimes I have to hold the headset tightly to my ears. The device that I received today is a headphone amplifier. It is only about 1.5" square or less and 3/8" deep. It has a rechargeable battery via a USB port. A on/off switch and a volume control that WORKS. I can now set the volume on my IP to halfway and have plenty of volume control left to actually hear. I have 20 movies or so on my netbook that I couldn't hear the audio on because it was even worse than the IP. The unit is called a FiiO E5. I bought it on amazon.com for around $20 at the site below. It's available for less than that via google. [url="http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-E5-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B001P9EQH8"]http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-E5-Headphone ... B001P9EQH8[/url] The best thing about it is that I don't have to have the IP/netbook up to max volume anymore. I think the main thing that does is blow out the speakers. If you have any problems in this area, I recommend this unit. I'm thinking of buying another one for a spare. I've been looking for something like this for a long time now. IMHO, the best $20 you can spend for your netbook or any other audio device will limited audio volume.
