Bernafon Soundgate-TV adapter vs. Sennheiser SET840-S?

Hearing Aids
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#1

I’m having the usual problem with the TV on the wall: In order for my wife to hear it comfortably she must have it turned down so far that it’s virtually inaudible. (My version.) Anyway, these days many actors in movies like to whisper a lot. (I haven’t understood many full sentences spoken by Bruce Willis for years now.)

I have had Bernafon Veras 9CP HAs for a few years now, and I finally found a good audiologist who gets the best out of them for me. But I still need some sort of boost for the high frequencies when watching TV.

The Bernafon Bluetooth Soundgate-TV adapter sounds interesting and Bernafon claims it will operate up to 30 feet away from the unit, but it also cautions about interference from the room furnishings. I haven’t found any review of this Bernafon TV adapter setup by anyone. I mentioned it once to my audiologist, but for some reason she wasn’t enthusiastic—perhaps only because she wanted me to try properly-adjusted HAs for TV first.

Sennheiser claims that its RF SET840-S will operate through walls and/or up to 100 feet from the unit. Sennheiser states that it will work with t-coil equipped hearing aids, but does not say whether it will work with fully automatic t-coil HAs (like my Veras HAs) or only with HAs that have a manual on/off switch for the t-coil. I’ve tried sending emails to Sennheiser tech support about that but no response for over a week. (Maybe they don’t know either and are checking on this for me, I dunno—no response yet.)

Have any of you tried either of these products? Before I make another appointment with my audiologist, I’d sure like to hear your thoughts about either or both of these products. Thanks very much in advance.

#2

I looked up the Sennheiser unit and it looks nice. Being RF it should provide good quality signal. It says you can also connect headphones to the receiver.

Could you have a separate program on your hearing aids for t-coil, in case the automatic setting is not triggered by the receiver loop? There must be a manual method of activating t-coil, for theaters and such.

#3

The Bernafon Soungate is basically the same unit as the Oticon Streamer and both TV adapters are also the samething. I have the Streamer and TV adapter and the adapter works quiet well, but it is a line of sight device and the range is about 30 feet as advertised. However, you don’t need the adapter to use the Streamer or Soundgate, you can get a long 2.5mm patch cord with an RCA or whatever size audio plug your TV has and plug the one end into the TV and the other into the bottom of the Soundgate; you will be tethered to the TV but you won’t miss any dialog. You can get the Soundgate at Costco for $150 if you belong to Costco. Good luck!

#4

Well, I would have thought so, too, but my audiologist says the Bernafon t-coil is automatic only. However, I’ve never noticed any sound enhancement when walking into a theater or a large hotel meeting room or such—but I don’t do that much any more. My audiologist says the t-coil automatically clicks in when you use a land-line telephone, which I haven’t done in years—not since I’ve had these aids. She says the t-coil does not click in with a cell phone, and I notice that it doesn’t click in when I use my wireless home telephone either. I did just check it with a weak magnet and something very definitely clicks in when I put the magnet up near my aid. (As I understand it, with a regular land-line phone, the speaker magnet kicks in the t-coil and the HA on that side boosts while the other HA cuts out completely. Someday I might find a regular telephone and give it a try. Useless to me, though, unless it works for TV.

#5

From what I understand, the way these automatic t-coil HA work is when you put a magnet near your HA, this is what will trigger it to go into t-coil mode. You confirmed this when you did that test. So this would mean that you would NOT go into t-coil mode if you walk into a room that has a loop system because you need something to trigger the HA to go into t-coil mode, which appears to be the magnet. I would be very surprised if you audi said your HA only works with the automatic T-coil. There should be a way to manually put the HA in t-coil mode via a program setting. This appears to be the only way to get the HA into t-coil mode with putting a magnet near your HA.

#6

I agree, the automatic mode should be in addition to the manual mode, not take its place. Maybe one of the pros familiar with Bernafon or Oticon can tell us for sure.

#7

Yes, I don’t see how my automatic t-coil would operate in a looped room, either. I was hoping that one of my four programmed positions could be used to switch on the t-coil. I’m going to check into this further.

I finally did hear back from Sennheiser’s tech support people, but they say they simply don’t know if their product would work with automatically-activated t-coils—which, of course, means that it was not designed to operate with them. So the answer is “No,” really. If the SET 840-S does operate with my automatically-activated t-coil, it will be by accident, so . . .

#8

it doesn’t surprise me that Sennheiser doesn’t know, they probably don’t understand how the automatic t-coil works, they are not a hearign aid company. If your HA has t-coil and you have the ability to have 4 programs, I would be SHOCKED if you could not program one of them with T-coil. This is exactly what I did when I told them I did NOT want the automatic T-coil feature on and have Program #2 set for T-Coil. If your Audi says it is not possible, I would ask her to show the documentation. Better yet, be prepared and find out by calling the Hearing Aid manufacture or look online for their manuals.

#9

Just so you’re aware, the Oticon/Bernafon streamer only streams in Mono.

#10

I have bernafons and use the Univox DLS-50. It’s a transmiter that plugs into the TV and transmits to your hearing aid. I have used it for several years. Go to www.tecear.com.

#11

I use the soundgate as a remote control and change the different positions of the T-coil with that. I have 3 positions in the t-coil and I access them with the soundgate.

#12

In fairness you aren’t comparing like with like here. The sennheisers are a decent set of hi-fi headphones and the streamer isn’t going to do anything like the same job. It’s mono and the streamed bandwidth is less.

The reason why they (Sennheiser) cannot say if the switching will be activated is that they have no way of knowing the sensitivity of the reed switch, given the field density they have at the front of the speaker.

What I would also say is that the Auto T is a phone mode, it might not be accessing a coil at all, just modifying the response of the aid through the mics.

In all fairness, if you haven’t heard Bruce Willis for 20 years, you haven’t missed a lot :wink: (possible exceptions: Fifth Element, Sixth Sense and Looper)

#13

Dick, which Bernafons do you have? And is your t-coil manually operated? If so, is the switch just one of the four program settings? The sound comes over only in mono, right?

I went to the website you recommended. Lotsa info there that I couldn’t get from the manufacturers of those products. But it says that all of the products I’m looking at—including the Univox DLS 50, the Sennheiser SET840-S, and even the Music Link ear hooks, all require manually activated t-coils. (I’m wondering what would happen if I put some magnetic tape on my eyeglass ear pieces; would that make my automatically-activated Bernafons work with these products?)

So I think my next step is to call my audiologist and find out if she can make one of my four programs into a manual t-coil switch. If that can’t be done, then I think my only option will be to get the Sennheiser SET840-S and just use it with regular headphones. I seem to hear very well through even light, on-the-ear-headphones, and that would be stereo, too.

Thanks for the website reference, Dick. Really helpful.

#14

What do you guys think? I’m wondering what would happen if I put some magnetic tape on my eyeglass ear pieces; would that make my automatically-activated Bernafons work with these products?

But when I hold even a weak refrigerator magnet up to my automatically-activated Bernafons, I can hear it click in and suddenly the room sound gets much louder—all the room sound. So that makes me think that these automatically-activated t-coil aids are just for use with telephones. Not looped rooms or neck loops. And since they don’t work with cell phones or home wireless phones what good are they these days?

[EDIT: I just tried to reproduce this magnet effect and could not do so. Now when I apply the magnet to my left HA I get a single beep in my left ear only. Several seconds after I remove the magnet, the left HA (only) beeps once again.]

#15

I don’t know if it operates on mono or not, as I have only one functioning ear. My T-coil does operate automatically but using the tv link I need to change to the t-coil by using my remote. It would be a chore to hit the button on the HA each time I wanted to change it. I only have 3 program settings on my t-coil. I honestly don’t know the model of the Bernafons. They only sold one model at the Costco I went to. I expect they were the top model.

Dick

#16

What do you mean they don’t work for cell phones or home wireless phones? Are you saying you can’t hear on these devices with the t-coil? Is the phones HA Compatible?

#17

Well, I use only cell phones and our house phone, which has a wired base unit and several wireless hand pieces. Nothing seems to happen when I use them. I talked to my audiologist about that (the one I think who knows what she’s doing) and she told me that the automatically-activated t-coil in my Bernafon Veras 9CPs works only with land lines. (I didn’t ask her about room loops or neck loops then.) I haven’t used a normal land line or even a pay phone in years. She said the magnet in the speaker of a land-line phone activates the t-coil. So I held up a weak refrigerator magnet to my hearing aid, and sure enough, something very noticeably kicked in. It sounds like when you run your volume control up to max, or even more. I only noticed it in the one ear. (Supposedly the other ear shuts off completely.)

#18

Okay, I sent an email to Bernafon U.S.A. and got a very rapid response saying that my Veras 9CPs do have an automatically-activated t-coil that will be activated by the field generated by a room loop or neck loop, if the field is strong enough. The tech guy also said that my audiologist can rig one of my four program switches to turn the t-coil on/off manually, if I want. I printed that email out and will take it with me to the audiologist in case she doesn’t know about that feature.

#19

I think you are better off with having the manual switch to turn the t-coil on or off. I have never used the automatic feature, but the problem is what if you try to use a phone that does not have a strong enough magnet to turn it on? You already know it won’t work for cell phones unless you glue or tape a piece of magnet to the ear piece. And while I doubt very much that it would work if you walked into a loop (even though you were told it might if the magnet field is strong enough). Lets say you do walk into a loop, you won’t be able to hear the people around you, only the source of the input into the loop. You won’t have any control over this. Is that what you really want?

Also, I am surprise you said when you heard everything amplified when you put the magnet to your ear. In T-coil mode, you are not suppose to “hear” normal sounds unless it is through a magnetic field. Maybe your HA is set for t-coil/mic which is another feature available, basically it is a t-coil and mic on at the same time.

Good luck.

#20

The Piezo-ceramic speakers in most phones use less electricity, but don’t generate the field density that conventional coils do.

The other reason why cordless phones and mobiles don’t use coil based speakers is the potential interference that they can pick up/ cause.