Geemarc was founded in the UK in 1974. Initially, it manufactured some of the first cordless phones and answering machines. In 1999, it began producing amplified phones and other assistive hearing devices. Today, Geemarc is based in France and offers a wide range of products from vibrating alarm clocks to doorbells that flash lights.
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Sonarya TV Listening System Brings Clearer Dialogue for People Struggling to Hear
Sonarya enhances TV dialogue clarity with easy voice-boosting technology—a promising accessory for viewers who struggle with muffled TV audio.)
Published on Aug 20, 2025
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For people with early hearing loss, TV dialogue often gets buried under music and effects. Sonarya is designed to bring those voices back.
Watching television—or more accurately, listening to television—can be very frustrating for anyone with hearing loss. And it can also be frustrating for family, friends, and neighbors who may have to endure window-rattling volume levels.
The main issue is the difficulty discerning dialogue amid all the background sounds and music in the soundtrack. Sonarya is designed to address that challenge. It’s an auxiliary, remote speaker that takes sound directly from the TV via an optical cable, processes it to suppress background sounds, and delivers isolated, clearer dialogue.
The input plugs from your TV connect via supplied cables into the Sonarya base unit, which also serves as a charger for the portable wireless speaker, which can be placed anywhere in a room.
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Who can benefit from Sonarya?
Sonarya was developed by Geemarc, and according to Managing Director Andrew Grossman, “The target customer is everyone who needs to increase the volume of the TV. It has also been found to help hearing aid users.”
I wear hearing aids, and when testing Sonarya, I found that it did deliver enhanced dialogue and a lower level of background sounds as promised. It was particularly effective when watching sports such as football, where the announcers’ voices often seem to be submerged in crowd noise. You can take the speaker wherever you want in the room within an advertised range of up to 50 m (about 160 feet).
Sonarya may be especially helpful for those with mild hearing loss who find TV dialogue frustrating but aren’t yet ready for hearing aids.
The Sonarya system is expected to cost around $250 when it becomes available in the United States. It is currently available in online retail outlets like Richer Sounds in the UK, Israel, and the EU for around £219 (UK).
There is a base for the speaker that connects to the back of your TV and plugs into an electrical outlet via a USB Type-C power adapter. When set on the base, the Sonarya speaker can be charged to full power in 4 hours, which gives the Sonarya speaker an advertised battery life of over 16 hours, according to Geemarc.
Yes, there is an Audio Out jack on the speaker with a 3.5mm socket for a headset.
When placed together as one unit (both speaker and base), Sonarya measures 22 x 12 x 9 cm (8.7 × 4.77 × 3.5 in.).The portable Sonarya speaker is 22 x 12 x 9 cm (about 8.7 x 4.7 x 3.5 in.). The base is 20 x 2.5 x 8.2 cm (about 8 × 1 × 3.2 in).
Simplicity is a key attribute
Sonarya is primarily aimed at people who have milder hearing loss but don’t wear hearing aids. The system might also be a godsend for people who are not overly fond of technological gadgetry. What sets Sonarya apart is its simplicity—no apps, no setup menus, just a portable speaker with two buttons and a volume control.
“It’s simple to use even for the most technophobic among us,” says Grossman. “It has two buttons and a volume control.” One of those buttons is for background “noise cancellation” to reduce background noise on TV programs, and the other offers three levels of “voice enhancement.”
The TV speaker is suitable for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. The general audio quality may change when the voice enhancement feature is on.
Geemarc provides an excellent 2-page Sonarya User Manual [PDF] for those interested in more details on the setup and how it works.
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How does the technology work?
Grossman says Geemarc has developed unique technology: unlike some competitors that bluntly cut low frequencies, Sonarya’s AI algorithm distinguishes voices from background sounds, preserving natural voice quality.
“Our noise reduction is not like the competition in the market today, which simply filters out frequencies below 250 Hz. That would degrade voice quality since the human voice can go below 250 Hz. Our AI algorithm runs on the Cortex A7 dual-core chip. It has been taught how to identify a human voice out of background noise in different scenarios and reduce the background sound. As a result, the fidelity of the voice quality is exceptionally high.”
Price and Availability
Currently, Sonarya is available in the UK, the EU, and Israel through retail outlets including Richer Sounds. According to Grossman, it will soon be on the market in the US and Canada, and the expected retail price will be around $250.
While Sonarya is not yet available in the United States, it offers a glimpse of how simpler, more affordable TV-listening technology could support people—particularly those in the early stages of hearing difficulty.
Alternatives to Solarya
It’s important to note that sound bars and some TVs also offer settings for filtering out background sounds (e.g., see Matthew Allsop's YouTube video about improving TV audio dialog for people with hearing loss). HearingTracker's Carly Sygrove has written about the top-8 technologies and tips for watching TV with a hearing loss. Many high-end hearing aids, including AI-driven and multimicrophone devices, can also make dialogue clearer, as can the various TV streaming accessories for hearing aids.
There are also numerous assistive devices specifically designed for improving television audio. For example, I recently reviewed the Bellman & Symfon Maxipro TV listening device and the HearThat App, a system that has a remote microphone that can be placed in front of a TV speaker and stream audio to a smartphone.
At HearingTracker, we're very excited about the growing use of Auracast broadcast technology, which can transmit streamed audio directly from TVs and other transmitters into Auracast-enabled earbuds, headsets, and hearing aids. Several TV models, including those from Samsung and LG, now stream Auracast, and the number of brands and models with this capability will only increase in the years to come.
However, given all of the above, we think Sonarya may be especially useful for those with mild to moderate hearing loss who haven't yet made the jump to hearing aids but are finding TV dialogue frustrating.
Digby Cook
ContributorDigby Cook is a veteran journalist with a wide range of experience in television news, documentaries, and newspapers. As a person with severe to profound hearing loss, his interest in the science of hearing is both professional and personal.