my audiologist has suggested that, to maximise my environmental awareness and to help with my tinnitus, that I should get hearing aids. I believe a few of you use them and was hoping you could help me.
I'll be getting these on the UK's NHS so there is a certain limitation to the devices I can have but, having looked at what they do offer, I understand that classic bluetooth devices are a no go with voiceover and that to get an acceptable latency we need bluetooth LE or devices that are Apple MFI certified. I think the alternative they might be able to offer, should I make my argument plainly enough, is an Oticon device, though I don't' know which model. Are these any good?
With Siri getting an overhaul in 27, I was wondering how it worked with hearing aids. Is it the same as with AirPods in that I can start a request by saying Siri and the microphones on the hearing aids pick that up? Also, how does it work for phone calls? Presumably I can't hold the phone up to my ear as that will cause feedback.
If anyone would be kind enough to step in and explain how hearing aids work for a voiceover user, what advantages they might have, what drawbacks compared with something like AirPods, that will be fantastic.
Final bonus question: Music, as I'm sure it is for many of us, is pretty important to me. Music piped through hearing aids, or at least the ones I'll be getting with the little tweeter like speaker floating in the ear canal, will not be great. How do you get high fidelity? Is it a case of taking off the hearing aids and switching to something else, maybe AirPods or alike that have been tuned to our specific hearing loss?
Thank you.
Comments
I disagree
I have never experienced mfi hearing aids, but when I had them, they were hearing aids from phonak, using classic bluetooth. I've never had to worry about voiceover cut or latency, both were as good as with airpods. Plus the music listening quality is still unmatched by any airpods imo :)
But I am in Montreal, I have 0 idea of which brands you can get funding for in uk / anything outside my quebec. But I really think most hearing aids that do not use mfi use the correct bluetooth protocol for audio ble lc3 (I am probably 99% wrong about the name here). This was my experience back then in 2018-2020.
Another advice, if you can, don't ever get hearing aids with rechargeable batteries, get those with swapable button cells. Your life will be way easier.
To answer your question, depending on the brand... My hearing aids ever since the first model which didn't even have a companion remote for bluetooth (back in 2013) had this mode that could be both manually and automatically triggered where it would change a bit how the mic was capturing sounds from around you but anything very close to it, headset, phone, was heard with little to no feedback and would partially isolate outside noise.
Both models I experienced also had a 3 pin connecter (1 per hearing aid) to standard jack 3.5mm for wired connection though I used it less as with bluetooth it was very easy and conveniant to use both my iphone and laptop to study in school.
Hearing Aids
mFI aids are made for iPhone specific and yes certainly work with iPhone. They tend to work with VoiceOver very well with little latency as long as VoiceOver is speaking. Most will conserve power when VoiceOver stops speaking after 2-3 seconds and there can be a tiny lag to get going with the next utterance but this has really improved. Current mFI models do support what is called two-way communication in the iPhone world so you can use it hands-free. I have had some bad sound quality issues, well more my callers have had, so I don't use it currently but this is constantly changing so you should certainly try it with your new aids. One-way is very good at least, this streams the audio to your aids, and you use the phone's microphone to speak back. I believe you will find this helps a lot with hearing and understanding.
As for other Bluetooth, two things: there is classic Bluetooth, e.g., what a headset often uses. The only company that uses this in hearing aids is Phonak. This does work with VoiceOver, some people love it, some not so much. Then there is the new Bluetooth Low Energy Audio (Bluetooth LE Audio) that is better than mFI both for one way and two way communication. This works with Android phones, and even modern Windows laptops, you can also buy USB dongles to retro fit any PC. Sadly iPhone does not support Bluetooth LE Audio. The good news is many of the new aids that support mFI also support Bluetooth LE Audio. For example, my Starkey Edge AI (now a generation behind the newest Omni) can do both protocols. I use them to stream audio from my iPhone and laptop interchangeably daily.
Most importantly of all though, get aids that help you hear better in your daily life. Consider how it sounds chatting with people, how your environment sounds, how traffic sounds if you do that, etc. The connectivity to your iPhone an be sorted out, this is a secondary issue to everything else. Also get aids with as many buttons as possible so you an control as much as possible from the aids. The one thing to know, audiologists have fallen in love with mobile apps to control the aids. This is impractical for a VoiceOver user as using VoiceOver has to toggle the aids into streaming mode which
then the app can't control other things such as switching to a Crowd program. And many apps are not accessible, or barely. So make sure you can control things including volume and switching programs via the aid directly.
Classic Bluetooth
From what I can tell, the Phonak devices still use bluetooth 4.2 which can have latency up to 250 ms. I absolutely agree the point of the hearing aid is to improve general awareness, but if I have to switch them out for AirPods to get low latency, I"m very sensative to that, it becomes a bit of a pain. These would be not the full in ear, not sure of the terminology here, but the ones on the little stem so ambient sound comes in too...
So, to clarify, the classic bluetooth has a stronger connection, but will have the worse latency, whilst the MFI devices will have very low latency but have issues with voiceover waking the device up and that pause?
That's rather frustrating.
Edit and apology
It would seem the Phonak Nova, the one I will be offered, uses bluetooth 4.2 but, as it is classic bluetooth, it holds the channel open unlike the MFI devices which have to wake when voiceover comes on.
Also, the latency of the AirPods Pro 3, the ones I have, is about 120 to 150 ms, which is very similar to the Phonak even if the version of bluetooth is a generation behind.
Travis, you mention getting ones with replaceable batteries rather than rechargable ones. Why is this? I'd assume I'd pound through batteries if they are also working with voiceover? I think the audiologist's reasoning was, it's easier to plug in a device than muck about with little coin batteries.
Rechargeable
Hi, that was the other poster. I've used both kinds ,and have rechargeable now. The advantage of disposable is you can just carry a packet in your pocket and swap them out. Rechargeable requires a bit more management at times. Depending on the model. Phonak for example, tends to run 16 hours, whilst Starkey will go much longer. Nevertheless, it is getting more and more difficult to get disposable battery powered aids even if you want them. I'd say you're probably as well off starting with rechargeables because that is where you will end up anyway.
What are you going to do while you are recharging?
What you can do is promptly install fresh batteries and immediately resume whatever you were doing. Or, if you prefer, with rechargeables you get to wait . . . how many hours?
Sorry for the identity confusion!
I'd assumed the rechargeable devices lasted all day? Though I do get that the rapid switch over is a benefit with replaceable batteries.
I'm in the fortunate position that my hearing, though losing the higher registers, is mild to moderate so I'm not reliant on them, which is of course a factor. Really what I'm looking for is to bump the higher frequencies for environmental awareness. A few times I've not been able to hear bikes or EVs as they pass, whereas when I've turned on the hearing aid feature of my AirPods I have. Hoping that a boost in my tinitus frequency will ehlp my brain stop stressing out over it too.
In short, though I get the replaceable batteries are probably essential for those who rely on their hearing aids, I think the faff, for me for acquiring, carrying and fitting batteries every couple of days isn't as convenient as over night charging or a brief peroid where I might need a top up from the battery case.
I've moved on from the NHS offered aids as, reading up on it, they tend to emphasise speech whcih, though useful, might end up actually narrowing what I'm wanting to hear. I'm now looking at the Octican Intent line which, it seems, have features that help with switching modes but also good customisation for a 'navigation' mode, for example with wider band microphones.
it seems our needs will be different to those who exclusively need speech clarification which, of course we need too, but we almost need god hearing mode when out with dog or cane.
Had a baha which is not an in ear one but my thoughts
I've had a baha hearing aid before.
It depends which kind you're getting.
the baha was like on the back of the head with a band and meant I could still wear my airpods.
Are these in ear ones?
that you need?
if they're not I'd recommend not connecting your phone to them as it really drains battery.
Best to just let the hearing aid to do its thing and use normal earphones or headphones for your phone.
but if you're getting in ear hearing aids I couldn't say.
Sorry I can't be more helpful.
Re: Rechargeable
For mild-moderate hearing loss they will take less power and even the shortest run-time rechargeable aids will likely be fine. Your audiologist should know what model aids provide the sound scape that both works with your hearing prescription and what you want to hear. From what you are saying I would take a guess at Widex which claim to have some of the widest range and claim to be natural sounding. Almost all hearing aids to emphasize speech understanding and focus a lot on compression - moving high frequencies down into a frequency range that the ear can still hear.
If you have the option, take a couple models for test drives. You may need an audiologist that sells multiple brands but at least hear in the U.S. you can get 30-day trials which is pretty easy when you do not need custom earmolds which it sounds like you do not need. As you have already observed yes, each manufacturer
takes a little different approach to sound processing and each sounds a little different. What works for one person doesn't always work for another and vice versa.