Bluetooth Problems with Oticon OPN S and iPhone XS Max

Hearing Aids
21

OK. It’s definitely breaking up, even from the iPad.

I also have a Windows laptop and the Oticon streamer, but I’ve had the streamer turned off the last few days to try to isolate the problem between the iPhone and hearing aids.

Maybe I should try the streamer with just the Windows laptop and no iPhone or iPad? I first noticed the glitching problem streaming from the laptop, and I was thinking the problem might be with the laptop’s Bluetooth chipset. Now I’m having doubts about that. Oticon recommends a particular Bluetooth dongle from Sennheiser (BTD 800) that runs about $60 on Amazon. I’m glad I didn’t buy that!

22

You might be better to leave it with the older iOS?

23

That would drive me crazy! :wink:

It was back on 11.0. I haven’t used it in a long time, so I thought I better bring it up too speed.

The iPad is so old, I didn’t think it would connect at all!

24

I have an iPhone 5 and in another thread it was said that the iPhone 5 worked with the OPN. I think iPhone 5 is limited to iOS 10. I had no problem connecting and streaming to my KS8’s with the i5. But then I don’t have trouble with the i7 either.

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25

I’m now streaming through my Windows laptop via the Oticon streamer (Connect Clip 1.1).

I turned off the Bluetooth on both my iPhone and iPad for good measure.

If it breaks up again, I think I might be reasonably sure the hearing aids are the problem.

26

Well, not necessarily. The OPN uses a different Bluetooth protocol to communicate between its OPN and its TV Adapter and ConnectClip. I think they licensed this technology from CEVA. It’s not necessarily the same protocol as the one used with the iPhone for MFI.

The CEVA protocol used between the OPN and the TV Adapter and ConnectClip has so far proven to be quite solid from what I can tell. Nobody has ever complained about unreliable connection between the OPN and the TV Adapter.

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27

Hmm… that might explain why streaming through the ConnectClip seems a bit different.

I’ve gotten a few clicks and pops, but they don’t seem quite the same or as bad as I was getting from the iPhone and iPad. Nothing garbled… at least not yet.

Other things I’ve noticed is that I can adjust the volume of the streaming through the ConnectClip, but not streaming through the iPhone. On the iPhone, I can mute the hearing aid function, but still hear the streaming. This has good and bad points. I like being able to control the volume of the streaming, but it also turns up the hearing aid function at the same time, which isn’t so good. My iPhone at the highest volume seems like it needs a bit of an audio boost.

Another odd thing I’ve noticed is a slight audio delay when watching video on my PC. Maybe this was happening with the iPhone but just didn’t notice.

28

You can adjust the streaming volume on your iPhone by going to the MFI control function (triple click on the home is one way), and you’ll see an independent volume slider if you’re in the streaming mode like with the TV Adapter. If you’re streaming from the iPhone, then the iPhone volume buttons regulates the streaming volume.

29

I don’t have the TV adapter, but when I’m streaming music from the iPhone, I can move the volume with the on-screen slider, but it will only get so loud and no louder… less loud than my hearing aids can actually produce.

Oddly, I can’t change the volume with the physical buttons on the iphone… it’s normally set at 100% and if I try to turn it down, it goes down a little then bounces right back to 100%. Strange.

What I’d like is to have what is now 100% streaming volume to show as maybe 90% or so, thus giving me a little extra volume or noisy environments, but I can’t seem to do that.

30

When streaming through the iPhone, the MFI volume slider is not for the streaming volume. It’s for the mic volume on your OPN. The only way to control the streaming volume of the iPhone is through the iPhone volume as far as I know.

Mine doesn’t bounce up to 100% if I change it a lower volume. It stays at the volume I set it to be while I’m streaming. There’s something weird with your iPhone apparently.

Does your iPad behave weird like that, too?

31

And the distance you can be from the TV connect is much farther than with the iPhone,

32

You must have a problem with the iPhone. My 7 plus doesn’t act that way

33

I’m not sure what was causing the “bouncing” when pressing the iPhone buttons. I switched to the iPad to see if it would do that, but it operates normally. I then went back to the iPhone, and now the buttons work properly. Must have just hit a strange glitch.

34

I had similar problems and fixed it easily
Make sure your phone is updated to latest software
Then check with your Audi doc to make sure you have the latest firmware update on your hearing aids
Then repair the aids with Bluetooth on your phone
Reboot & you should be good

35

There is a setting under General -> Accessibility called “Hearing Aid Compatibility”. Try turning that on. This reduced the occasional static I was getting on my Bernafon Zerena 9’s.

Tom

36

An Update:

I saw my audiologist today. Unfortunately the replacement hearing aids did not make it in time for my appointment. I’m going out-of-town for the 4th of July, and won’t be back until the next week, so the replacements will have to wait.

He was able to hear the Bluetooth breakup problem I was having. He replaced the wires and receivers as Oticon suggested. It seemed to clear the problem in his office, but later at lunch the Bluetooth started to break up and one of the hearing aids spontaneously reset.

He made some other unrelated adjustments to improve the streaming volume level and physical comfort of the domes. Everything else is working great.

I’ve had the ConnectClip on the last few days. Sometimes when the Bluetooth breaks up, the aids switch over to the ConnectClip instead of rebooting.

For example, I was listening to Spotify. Spotify showed the audio was going directly to my hearing aids. Then the Bluetooth starts to break up and things went quiet. I looked at Spotify on my phone to see what was going on, and saw the volume was set to 0. I adjusted the volume back up, and the music started again, but Spotify was then showing the audio was routed through the ConnectClip.

While on the ConnectClip, the audio is more stable, but not perfect. Things don’t sound quite the same through the ConnectClip.

Through Spotify, I’ve switched the audio back to direct to my hearing aids, but the breakups continue.

So, to sum up, when I get back to town we’re going to try the new hearing aids. Whatever the problem is, it seems to having something to do with the direct iPhone streaming to the aids.

37

I have the OPN S1 hearing devices and have a iPhone XR I don’t have any issues with streaming.

1 Like
38

I have the exact same problem with my Widex hearing aids and the exact same phone.

39

Problem seems to be getting worse.

Something new I’ve noticed is sometimes all iPhone network connections seem to freeze up when the aids start failing. Not every time, but sometimes.

Have to do a network reset on the iPhone to get it back to normal.

So both sides of the connection seem to get really confused. I’ve never had an iPhone lock up this way before.

Can’t wait to try out the replacement aids to see if it narrows down the problem. I have AppleCare in case it seems to be an iPhone hardware issue.

40

Went to the audiologist today for the replacement hearing aids. Unfortunately, they kept making a clicking sound even when I wasn’t using Bluetooth. They’ll have to go back to Oticon.

After more testing, we decided it was time for Apple to take a stab at the problem. I went to the local Apple Store and they started working on my problem right away.

Long story short, they decided to give me a new iPhone and start from scratch. Unfortunately the problem persists. :frowning:

So now we’re sure it’s not the iPhone hardware. We’re not sure about the Oticon hardware due to the replacements not working right. I assume the next step is order yet another pair of hearing aids.