Bluetooth headphone and hearing aid

Hearing Aids
1

I have Costco KS10 hearing aid. I connected it by bluetooth to my Samsung smart TV un40mu6290. Unfortunately, although the TV shows I am playing audio through KS10, I get no sound.

So disconnected KS10 bluetooth, and connected my Jabra 85h to sansung TV, and the TV sound does come out normally from Jabra bluetooth headphone.

I have 2 questions;

  1. When I put the Jabra bluetooth headphone directly on my ears, I get a lot of feedback. So I went into target software, and allowed muting of microphone with volume down button. Now with microphone muted, the feedback sound is gone. My question is without the microphone, am I getting any benefit of leaving the hearing aids on the ear? If not, I might as well remove them and hear directly from Jabra. But then I am afraid that I will loose speech clarity.

  2. Is there any adjustment in target software that will allow me to stream samsung tv directly to hearing aid?

2

Hi @BeachBoy
If you have paired the KS10s successfully with the TV you SHOULD get sound and you should see the phone app switch to “Bluetooth streaming + speech” or music. If not - either the pairing failed or the tv has an incompatible bluetooth codec (I think) . If you see the app switch to bluetooth streaming but no sound from the HAs - either the TV’s sound is muted in some way or the volume on your HAs are muted… Can’t suggest any other cause off hand. I suspect it is the TV setup that is the issue.

I find I can use headphones OVER my ears with the KS10s - not ON ear - They seem to need to CUP the ears completely - I THINK yours do that but not sure. That way I do not get feedback even when feedback manger is turned off for the relevant program (music custom program for me). If you mute the microphones with the headphones then - yes- you are not getting any benefit. HOWEVER if you instead switch to a T-COIL program with muted microphones you MAY find the magnets in the headphones strong enough to activate the T-coil and transmit direct to your aids… Only trial and error can determine that with your particular headphones. The type of domes and the power of the receiver (speaker) you have you have may also influence the situation. More open domes ‘leak’ more sound back to the mic - More powerful receivers potentially produce a higher SPL that will also leak back (see my comment about volume) however I have open domes with an M receiver and I am fine.

Have you tried just reducing the volume of your HAs rather then muting them - that may help reduce the feedback and still allow some benefit of the HA.

As always, the effectiveness of your Headphones will also depend on the type of domes you have on your HAs. If they are not vented then they may significantly attenuate the sound coming directly in through your headphones…

Hope that gives you some avenues to explore :smiley:

PS - if you get the TV streamer from costco then it will stream directly to your HAs apparently without difficulty…

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Hi Tack: Thanks for your feedback and suggestions. I will check my Samsung TV/KS10 pairing again. Although I think it may be the bluetooth version issue. My Jabara 85h pairs and streams just fine. But it is worth for me to open the app and check bluetooth+mic settings once KS10 is connected by Bluetooth to Samsung before giving up.

Jabra 85h headphones completely covers the ears, and I can comfortably leave the hearing aids on. I am going to try to reduce volume on hearing aids during streaming to see if the feedback is decreased. I do need speech clarity so muting microphones is not a good idea.

Your tcoil suggestion is very interesting and I will certainly try that.

My last resort will be to buy another TV Connector for this Samsung TV in my exercise room. I already have one in living room. I was trying to avoid buying one since I watch tv in exercise rooms only when I am using my elliptical or recumbent bike in exercise room.

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4

Possibly HA and headphones cannot be operated simultaneously. Bluetooth is usually not broadcasting but a point to point connection. Make sure the headphones are turned off for paring and testing.

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5

This did the trick. Reducing the volume on my hearing aid by 2 levels completely gets rid of the feedback. So the best solution turned out to be Samsung TV bluetooth paired with Jabra Headphone above my hearing aids on the ear. No more feedback and speech clarity since hearing aids are functioning without microphone muting. In fact this is a better solution than TV Connector, since Jabra has noise cancelling, and I use this to watch Netflix when doing elliptical or exercise bike. With TV connector, even using the balance all the way to TV, I can still hear surround.

2 Likes
6

Happy to see you’ve found a solution that works for you!