Tour group audio systems

This is a postscript to my letter “Pros and Cons of Tour Group Audio Systems” (Sept. ’08, pg. 15), with clarifications.

My wife, Janet, and I cruised the Danube from Vienna to Nürnberg with Grand Circle Travel (Boston, MA; 800/248-3737, www.gct.com), Nov. 24-Dec. 12, 2008. En route we visited Melk Abbey and the Christmas markets in Linz, Passau and Regensburg and at the cruise’s origin and destination.

In each of these venues, the shore tour entailed the use of personal audio receivers and headphones. These were the property of Grand Circle (not the local tour guides) and kept charged on the ship. Our experience with these devices was much better than with those discussed in my previous letter.

The receivers bore the name “Stage Line” and had at least eight channels, only three of which were used by the groups from our boat. But the headphones made all the difference. They were of the old style with an adjustable, spring steel headband and rather large earpieces (more than one inch in diameter) which were cushioned with plastic foam.

I was able to position the earpieces so that they did not cause feedback to my hearing aids, and the system worked flawlessly with quite good fidelity of sound.

The bonus was that they served as very comfortable earmuffs against the 30°F temperatures we encountered.

R.B. WATSON

Devon, PA