First of all I must WARN YOU that my post is a lengthy one… so many factors I take determining the best fit for a totally hand-free device to work with hearing aids.
Since this is my first post I’m going to tell you a little bit about myself. I’ve worn hearing aids with t-coils all my life from Phonak analogs to the my first digital widex hearing aids for 10 years… add another 5 years of wearing Starkey DaVinci with Eli Bluetooth (with included DAI shoe) and recently just 1 month ago I fitted with Starkey Destiny 1200 BTE
I received the Artone Bluetooth Neckloop from Harris Communications after negotiating with the cost because Tecear sold the same product for $149 shipped I don’t trust that Tecear play nicely with the returns on all of their products, not to say I bought anything from them… So anyway, a week of trial and error with artone I’m slightly sold because I didn’t realize how much potential the t-coil had in all my 27 years of wearing HAs. I used t-coils mainly with headphones or handheld flip phones instead of candybar phones because the cellphones “buzzing” issue generally omitted by the battery where the transmitter is also located. But I am overly satisfied with artone at least but not at last, mainly because I cannot stream any music from my Palm Pre which became almost a total let down for me.
But later down the road I discovered something else. Because I often use Sprintcaptel.com; a vco feature for most of my calls. After a little experiment I later found out that I was able to accomplish streaming music only with a bluetooth enabled netbook. (I imagine carrying a 10’ netbook with me at all times only to hear just itunes. I just couldn’t picture it happening besides the music sounded really mono or otherwise crappy on youtube and media player) But it works exceptionally well in handling voip calls… very loud and crisp clear reception the other end of the line had no issues hearing my voice. Unless you’re really standing in really poor GPRS signal or too far away from your cell phone.
The Bad: 1 issue to point out with the artone is the lack of spectrum the product advertised as 10m or 33 feet distance… Here’s my findings, when the artone paired with nokia 2620 or palm pre and it’s sat in the back pants of my pockets. The results my calls become choppy and tends to lose signal with the phone. If I placed it in my front pockets or on my waist side in the holster I’m good. Even better if placed it in your shirt pocket (which I do not recommend) the transmission is flawless!Same thing happened with my bluetooth netbook, front is better. I owned the Eli bluetooth for 5 years now (cost me 500 USD) the eli sound quality is by no match for the neckloop because the artone wins hands down. The only drawback is not able to hear yourself during phone converstations like with the Eli Bluetooth and DAI. But I wouldn’t hold that against Artone, just yet… As of now I’m looking at the Eli and thinking What am I going to do with it since I’m not using it anymore I don’t think it’s compatible with the Destiny 1200. I will find out tomorrow anyway. Also, on my list of products to check out is the Artone MS but I’m very spectacle regarding the size of that thing. I looks like some malformed army dog tag. I like the size of the Artone Bluetooth… but how big or small the Artone MS? I searched for a answer but google or bing or isn’t helping.
I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining but honestly why aren’t there any pictures of anyone modeling with the artone ms? I can see that the artone ms is poorly marketed here in the US. I’ve only been able to find picture of one wearing the artone bluetooth neckloop but not artone ms… the design sold me out especially with it’s miniature size. I want the MS for the palm pre. Which has MP3 built supports only A2DP. I believe if I order this, I shouldn’t bother purchasing extras to make bluetooth-enabled music devices to work with the loopset. Other alternatives are the DAI bluetooth with A2DP but not too comfortable about wearing a wire.
To the guy who said can’t hear himself in a conversation with the Neckloop! Yes for some it may be a distraction. However for some, like you and I, well I find it helpful for judging the loudness and the tone of voice. You won’t be asking someone at a phone interview about a job you applied for every 5mins “can you hear me now…? okay great” I’d leave that up to Verizon and their wireless advertising campaign. But I suggest you to see the audiologist… I have the appointment with them in the evening so I will post update and let you know how it goes once I have a programming set for neckloop … I believe I can have up to 5… currently have 3 presets: 1 for automatic telephone response and mic, 2 for FM and automatic telephone response and mic, 3 for T-coil only but no mic (currently I’m able to use the neckloop only on this program). There is an auto coil that i wish to test to see if that picks up the neckloop while hearing myself in phone conversations. In the meantime, keep posted. Thanks.