Yes there are several brand-specific external devices that can also pick up signals from a loop and relay the sound to the HA’s.
The beauty of the telecoil in the HA’s themselves is the discrete-ness. No other gear. No necklaces. No bulky headphones in plain beige that scream I’M HARD OF HEARING.
Just flip to the telecoil program and start listening.
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I guess it is a trade off, mine does not use one of the 4 programs. The multi mic is small and works well when it is in my pocket. Does do much screaming.
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I love t-coil when it works as it’s supposed to. The problem I have at work is we have fluorescent lighting and some affect the magnet more than others so if I try to use the landline with the T-coil I get all kinds of interference. If I am in a church, local civic theater or the local broadway it works incredibly. It’s like piping the sound directly to your ear and you don’t hear all the rest of the world. I preferred it to be T rather than MT or mT for that reason. I am going to see if they can make 2 tcoil programs so I can see if the mT will have less interference from the lights.
I have a T-coil setting in my 4-y.o. Siemens HAs. At my request, the audi set it up to give me both ambient input as well as T-coil reproduction. I love it that way. The coil has a tinny sound, a bit like a small transistor radio on an AM station. But it sure makes it MUCH easier to understand speech in our meeting hall that has lousy acoustics. I am waiting for the Phonak Marvel RT (rechargeable with T-coil) to be available. As soon as they hit the market, I will upgrade to them. My latest information is that they will be available by late summer 2019. Can’t wait!
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Re the T coil question. Yes I do use it. I am a hybrid kind of guy on this forum in that I now have a cochlear implant (Medel Sonnet) as well as a Phonak Nadia HA. There comes a time when your hearing deteriorates to the point that HA’s alone don’y Cut it anymore. So I now have a CI in my weaker ear. Another whole batch of learning to go through. CI’s are no heck on the phone either. You need some additional assistance. I am equipped with Roger equipment and find it a god send for many things - both with the HA and the CI. But not so handy in my opinion with phone use, partly because I found the volume insufficient and the Roger pen has no volume adjustment on it. I use an iPhone and find it best for my hearing. I learned on the Hear Peers forum some Medel CI people use about the Artone 3 Max neckloop device that uses the TCoil. My CI has a TCoil setting as well. So I obtained one and it works well. Haven’t seen it mentioned in this forum. The Artone 3 also has bluetooth that connects with the iPhone AND has a volume control button on it. The signal is sent to the T coils on my hearing devices which I switch into the TCoil setting with the remote (Finetuner) for the CI and with my finger with the Naida. And it works well. I find my word recognition is better with the setup than anything else I have tried and the volume I get is fine. This is for me what counts. The Artone folks have another device that can connect to modern TV’s that take an audio signal and sent it to your Artone 3. I don’t use this as my Roger equipment is fine for this purpose.
So in conclusion, while the TCoil tech is “old” I found it worked well for my needs and Medel folks must feel the same as their latest CI’s are equipped this way.
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So’s the wheel but we still use it. Just because it’s old tech does not mean it isn’t useful and good.
Thanks for the story.
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I have not used telecoil for around 11 years. I find the hassle of it and the interference of it, is too much and I can hear better without as Noise Control on my Phonak’s is so good.
The auditorium where I live has terrible acoustics. The telecoil in my 4-yr old Siemens HA adds an '”overlay” of clarity to speakers’ presentations and enhances my experience. I have my T-coil program set to add the telecoil sounds to the ambient sounds. Also, I use open domes. I am waiting for Phonak MRT HAs to come on the market so that I may continue to benefit by a telecoil assist. Supposedly later this summer. 
When I was shopping for HA’s I was aware of the Telecoil option, but could not think of one place that we go to that has the service. For that reason it wasn’t even on the list of wants for a HA option.
Program #4 on my Siemens HAs kicks in the telecoil. Re: interference – I surely notice the buzz in Program #4 when I am near our microwave oven or even when the LED spotlights are dimmed in our den. So, I just switch back to Program #1.
What’s MT/mT, please. Thanks.
The capital M is normal mic input. The lower m is less mic input. For while using the telecoil.
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When I was shopping for HA’s, there were only MFI options. I don’t do Apple. Then I learned about the telecoil and how to make my own loop for those few times I prefer it over normal tv audio.
Please tell me more! I have Resound with all the bells & whistles, including the mike. Our church has a “Listen Technology” fm system which I now plug directly into a ClearSound neck loop which then energizes my T-coils in my HA. The results are very good - the nuisance is that this requires using the neck loop. Are you saying that you plug directly into the remote mike and it talks to your HAs without a neck loop?
I also use a BT neck loop, which couples up with a BT transmitter that I plug directly into a sound system mixer that has a tape-out jack. Good results - but maybe the remote mike input would bypass the neck loop?
I’ve been trying to get our church to install an loop around part of all of our sanctuary to no avail.
I think much of the problem lies with the audiologists who, for some reason totally ignore the benefits of the T-coil. Most users don’t have any idea if their HA has a T-coil - energized or not.
LRA
For your smile for the day. Last night I watched two presentations by the people at Medel about their new Sonnet 2 cochlear implant device and the updated software that is used to set it up by audi’s In the field. The latest and the greatest and very interesting if you are technically inclined. It was late in the evening so I used the telecoil setup on my HA and current version Sonnet to listen to the video quietly in the house. Worked very well.
Just relied it with my brand new Phonak M90-RT in a room with admittedly poor acoustics. It worked wonderfully!
What is the downside (if any) of having telecoil available in the HA?
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It makes the devices slightly larger, is the only downside I can think of physically. It can be confusing for some users to increase the number of programs to include it as well.
The upsides definitely outweigh either of those for me!
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