comfortable bluetooth headphones for a hearing aid user

By Daniel, 16 November, 2020

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

Hello everyone

Have just recently purchased an Apple Watch SE and I'm really enjoying my experience so far. However, because I wear two hearing aids, I am looking for advice on which Bluetooth headphones would be best suited for hearing aid users.

firstly, they would need to be
)comfortable) I.E. not admitting (feedback) from the hearing aids when the headphones are over my ears. This is my main concern.

secondly, although not essential, as I will be primarily using the headphones for listening to podcasts, music purposes. A plus would be finding a pair that could provide little to no lag with Voiceover on the watch if that is at all possible.

Before anyone recommends Apple's own wireless airpods, this solution wouldn't work for me. Currently, I use the wired headphones that you get with the phone but hook the ear buds "behind" the microphone of the hearing aid and switch to the T setting to hear the audio from the device. a bit of a strange setup I know but it works for me. So if these were Apple's wireless headphones, well as you can imagine, they would be forever falling off my ears. Hense with wired, at least they would just dangle when fallen.

so, any advice on brands, models ETC from anyone or those who wear hearing aids would be most appreciated in hearing your suggestions.

Thank you

Daniel

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Comments

By Travis Roth on Sunday, November 22, 2020 - 18:34

Hi,
First, I am assuming your hearing aids are not mFI capable? This is the most comfortable solution. That said, mFI doesn't work with the watch so you still might want something else.
Apple recently released the Beats Flex, https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MYMD2LL/A/beats-flex-all-day-wireless-earphones-yuzu-yellow?fnode=c6701c371d515cef48c7101011594d2601bccdf649f2d42714e25bb32edc11f20f8df756d373c1325221e73add498039611bae1275747e386659c853943ea3f22b8b95400f0d004ff8a5607f95fce6045773a55f86972947b7edf943dd21626f0aed6d3daa1ef98685c674fe3ef05c204d142b60fb7268d3cea76aa39c650203 .
The way I understand it is they're basically the earpods made wireless, so there is still a wire running between the two. I am not convinced this is the most comfortable but if this is the setup you're currently comfortable with it just may work, and they're about the cheapest thing in Apple's ecosystem.
There are third part earbuds with the same wire though they are less common now.
Of course there are other styles such as over the ear headphones, on-ear headphones, etc. On-ear are the hardest to get to work with BTE aids in my opinion. Most modern hearing aids can handle over the ear headphones now and suppress feedback. However, the comfort level may vary. I can't wear this style for to long myself.
Another idea is to go with a neck speaker or headphone. The Bose Soundwear is the dominant one in this category. It is essentially a horseshoe shaped device you place around your neck and it has upward facing speakers to give you a fairly private listening experience. Obviously it is not as private as something on the ear. It does work with just about any style of hearing aid and is pretty comfortable.
When I had BTE aids that had t-coil built in, I was also able to use the t-coil to pick up sound from bone conduction headsets. I used the Aftershokz Trekz Air. These are amazingly light and no hardship to wear. But you would have to test to see if the BTE on your aids would pick up from their receivers well enough.
Along the similar idea, the Bose Frames sunglasses with speakers on them would be interesting. I have not had the opportunity to try them. They would strike me as being slightly more private than the Bose Soundware. I've not seen them though so I have no answer how the positioning of the speakers work if it'd give a good path to the aid's microphone or not. I'd be curious to know...
That's some food for thought, I hope. Good luck.
Travis