I would put my overall hearing ability at about 80%, which is probably consistent with age 82. I refuse to get "hearing aids" yet because my hearing works for me in my home/work/social situation, and I have no problem hearing in traffic and other attention-demanding situations where hearing is of paramount importance.
I bought an inexpensive hearing set from Amazon which is a knock-off of the more expensive models, and I sometimes use the right earpiece when at a social gathering just to clearly hear what others are mumbling. What is odd: after wearing the right earpiece an hour or so, my overall hearing actually improves for a while ... I think the device actually "trains" me to listen and hear instead of letting the mostly-mumbling dialogue of others just, so to speak, "go in one ear and out the other".
I can hear most newscasters at very low volume because they pronounce their words distinctly. Broadcast and journalism schools probably stress diction and pronunciation to the max.
I have a big problem with Netflix and Amazon Prime videos because:
1. The sound track has reduced bandwidth to provide greater bandwidth to the video component
2. A lot of B-and-lower actors have had no voice training
3. The background noise/music drowns out a lot of what the actors are saying, so I use the CC feature and read WTF they are saying, thus further leading to decline in my hearing ability.
Virtually all my standard and Blu-Ray DVDs have high-quality sound, but then they feature only high-quality movies and actors. No B-movies.
Tony Randall was the Master of Diction.
Keira Knightley has great diction, but she appears to "chew" her words as she spits them out, and she over-acts most of the time. Not one of my favorites.
Speaking of movies, I was never impressed with Anne Hathaway until she appeared in "The Idea of You", in which case she transitioned from "silly" to "hot".
I got'ta go now before Chris posts another outrageous Miss Cox blathering.
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