#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.

#21

I’ve had exactly this question in my head. Just because you walk into a meeting room doesn’t mean that you immediately want to hear only what’s coming over the mic. Suppose the guy next to you says something to you? Or suppose you’re broken up into smaller discussion groups and the stage mic is still on. That can’t be good either. I definitely want to switch the t-coil on/off myself, even if it costs me one of my four program switches. (The so-called Live Music setting doesn’t impress me anyway. For live music I generally end up preferring my Restaurant Table setting or my TV/Radio setting anyway, depending on the type of music.)

#22

After your comment here, I went back and rechecked the effect of the refrigerator magnet that I described and I cannot duplicate what I described before. I’m now suspecting that in the process of pressing the magnet to my ear I may have bumped the program selector and just kicked into a neighboring program that was set higher. Now when I more-carefully apply the magnet to my left HA (my telephone ear), I hear a single beep out of my left HA only. Usually the right HA beeps, too, when I change a program, either simultaneously or a few seconds later. My HAs are programmed such that the left HA selects the program for both and the right HA controls the volume for both. After waiting for 20-30 seconds after applying the magnet, when I remove the magnet from near my left HA I again hear a single beep out of the left HA only.

So, it sounds like the magnet is making something happen, but not as I described it before.

#23

Have you audi/HIS switch HA’s to manual mode through program selector and if they don’t know how to do it, have them get on the phone to Bernafon so they can walk them through it. When I have my HA’s in t-coil mode I hear a slight buzz and what is going though the loop I’m in but I don’t hear anything amplified.

#24

OK, that makes more sense now. The magnet is just a “switching” device. It is what triggers the automatic feature in your HA to switch the HA into t-coil mode.

#25

Yeah, for land-line telephone use, anyway. But the Bernafon tech support guy is telling me that a strong enough magnetic field from a looped room or neck loop will activate it, too.

I just now ordered a Sennheiser SET840-S. If it activates my HAs’ t-coil, so much the better. If not, I’m going to make an appointment with my audiologist to set one of my program switches to activate my t-coil manually. If none of that works out, then I’ll just use the Sennheiser system with my own plug-in headphones, which must certainly be better than just listening to the TV speakers at my wife’s volume.

#26

I have 2 of the Bernafon TV Adapters (and one of the Phone Adapters). I have one at work connected to our LifeSize conferencing system and one at home connected to our TV. Unfortunately, the Soundgate can’t be paired to both TV adapters. To switch the Soundgate’s pairing to the other TV adapter is easy, but takes about 1 minute. After doing this many times, it seems like it takes longer than it orginally did.

Once the TV adapter and Soundgate have an active connection the range is very good. I can wander out of our conference room … easily 60 feet and still hear the audio coming through (though a bit broken up). BTW - With the phone adapter, I often get a ring directly into my hearing aides when talking outside of my office - easily 60+ feet and I have to pause our conversation and explain. It’s happened enough that I just point now :).

There is no automatic switch over. Manual only. Press the button on the SoundGate and it typically takes about 10 seconds to connect to the TV adapter.

The ‘tele-coil’ for the phone in the Verite 9 is not what is used with the SoundGate. What I’m getting at is that it’s not possible (as far as I know) with the Verite 9’s to connect to a loop system.

Hmmm, might be possible to have one of the HAs programs be able to manually enable the phone coil - I seem to recall the setting as automatic or off. I’ll check it out in the next couple weeks. Also, I hadn’t considered using a magnet to enable it when in a loop system. I’ll check that out this coming week.

Bernafon Verite 9
Freq. LL – RR / WR 44% - 60% (2010)
250 55 - 70
500 60 - 70
1000 60 - 75
2000 60 - 85
4000 90 – 95
8000 100 – 110

#27

dg,
If you are going to keep the Bernafon’s it might be worth buying a second Soundgate; one for home and one for work, since I believe you can have up to two Soundgates paired to your HA’s. I know you can do this with Oticons Streamer which is basically identical to the Soundgate and I have two Streamers paired to my HA’s. It might be worth looking into.

#28

Well, my Sennheiser SET840-S arrived today and I’ve learned some things already:

  1. Even if the system never works through my Bernafon Veras 9CP hearing aids, it’s still terrific just playing through five-dollar Panasonic light headphones. Wow, the TV volume now is set at half of what it usually had to be for me and I can clearly understand every word–even in a movie when they’re whispering. Including when I’m two rooms away or outside in the yard. I really did not expect that it would work this well.

  2. The system does not work with the automatically-activated t-coils in my aids, but that may be only because of the way they presently are set up. When I’m two rooms away from the TV, I can manually activate the t-coil by holding a refrigerator magnet up to either of my aids and suddenly hear the TV clearly through that aid only. So I think it’s a matter of setting up my aids so the t-coils are manual for both ears. According to an email I got from Bernafon tech support, that can be done by my audiologist. (We’ll see.)

  3. The system plays music from my satellite TV’s music channels in clear stereo—a really nice bonus.

It’s only been one day, but I’m very happy with this system so far.

1 Like
#29

I stuck a small piece of magnetic tape on the sides of both of my Bernafon Veras 9CP hearing aids. That activated the t-coils and now I can clearly hear the TV through my aids via the Sennheiser SET840-S system. The sound is very clear although not as loud through my aids’ t-coil as it is when the 840-S plays through my headphones instead. With the TV set at the same low-moderate volume level, I need the volume control on the Sennheiser receiver set to 3.5 out of 6 with the headphones, 5 out of 6 with the t-coil. That doesn’t appear to be a problem, though, since the Sennheiser receiver is rechargeable.

I also discovered that you can boost the volume of the t-coils enormously if you drape the induction loop over your ears so they’re right close to your aids. It probably doesn’t look pretty (kinda like having your glasses on one of those neck cords), but if you need the extra volume for some reason, it’s there. I need my Sennheiser’s receiver volume set only at 2 out of 6 if I do this.

As I see it, the PROS of the t-coil over the headphones are: Watching a movie with my wife is more natural since I can easily hear her over the movie if she talks to me, like a person with normal hearing can, and I don’t have to pull off the extra device, i.e., the headphones, or otherwise mess with it or its cord.

The PROS of the headphones over the t-coils are: The headphones produce the TV sound in stereo and even with really-cheap headphones the sound quality is far superior to that of my t-coils—particularly when listening to a music channel, but even with voices. The t-coil sound is quite clear, but by comparison to even cheap headphones, the t-coil sound is tinny and, of course, only in mono. I also have more headroom in the Sennheiser receiver’s volume control with the headphones than with the t-coil, unless I’m willing to drape the induction loop over my ears.

Otherwise, the two options seem to work identically well. Both crystal clear with no static or drop outs.

So the next step is to have my audiologist set one of my four settable programs to manually switch on the t-coils, as Bernafon tech support tells me can be done. [EDIT: Apparently, that cannot be done with Bernafon Veras 9CP HAs with their automatic t-coil. The tech support guy must not have understood my question.]