Headphones over hearing aids

Hearing Aids
#1

Headphones over ha….

Is it a viable option to use head phones while wearing hearing aids (Oticon intent). I’m a heavy gaming that loves the quality of the head phones, (where as my wife does not…lol) and why I like head phones for sound quality and isolation as to not disturbed others. But now that I have hearing aids ordered and a fitting soon…I was wondering if I could still wear head phones over them at the same time….or is that over kill? I have two kinds of hearing loss, and completely uneven both ears (left is profound)…so hearing aids fix that (mostly)…and why I want to wear them while gaming with headphones.

I did order the tv adapter, but still like the idea of head phones for that submerged quality. I realize he feedback is a issue, but not sure if a preprogram setting could be set up to offset that…

Anyway…anybody out there with hearing aids and head phones?

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#2

I don’t have nearly as bad a loss as you. But I can wear headphones with big cups over my Phonak RIC hearing aids and not get feedback. It takes a bit of adjustment to get the cups right over everything. And my molds have to be well seated. I greatly prefer streaming where possible. My employer doesn’t always permit that however. (Just like no wireless keyboards, mice, or other such conveniences in those circumstances.)

So it is possible. Best wishes.

WH

#3

Thanks for the feedback…no pun intended :slight_smile:

#4

I’m not as up to date as you will be equipment wise but I’m able to use old-school, large, closed back, wired “monitor” headphones (BeyerDynamic DT 770 Pro) with my Oticon Real 1 miniRITE hearing aids. At very loud levels I have intermittent feedback but at normal levels things are just fine. Same for older Oticon aids (More 1, OPN S1 and OPN) with the same headphones. However, my loss is not near yours so it will probably take experimenting to know if they will work for you.

Whether you can use headphones or not probably depends on lots of factors including the size of the headphone cup, the damping of materials, the gain of the aids, the venting, if any, of the molds or “domes” and more. With the Real and More aids, I have vented molds and that seems to work better for preventing feedback than domes but that is probably very dependent on lots of details.

#5

I have the INTENT1 aids, and the Bose headphones. I am not a gamer, I use the headphones over my aids for listening to audio books, and now that I am finding i can enjoy music again for listening to music. I also have custom ear molds, i don’t have any feedback issues and the sound is really good. I have made adjustments to the sound equalizer in my companion app to boost the base some as well as the mid range while listening to music. For audio books i don’t need as much low and mid range boost.

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#6

It is a very good option to enjoy music and play games. I own a pair of beyers DT 770 and DT 900 Pro X and they both work great with my Intents.

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#7

I use Bose over-the-ear headphones over Signia BTE with closed dome. Works like a champ. Before I had closed domes i could sometimes get feedback, but you can manage that with volume settings on both the Bose and the HAs (typically turn the Bose up and the HAs down until you hit the sweet spot.
To make sure to get the fidelity, I recommend having a ‘music setting’ on the HAs which amplifies across the board, not just focused on speech, that tends to make music sound ‘tinny’.

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#8

I use headphones, two types, with my K10s with the one caviet that the domes must be fully inserted into the ear. For Zoom calls the headphone mic is far better than using bluetooth through my device.

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#9

I always hated using headphones over my HAs. Apart from the feedback (depending on the fit) I find sound is generally distorted when HAs must amplify sound coming from a speaker. Wired headphones in combination with an equalizer deliver quality sound at high volume, so I just don’t see the need. But I see others here have different opinions!

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#10

If you have a telecoil in your HAs - use the telecoil program when using over-ear headphones. Vastly improved sound and no/vastly reduced feedback.

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#11

I get good sound quality with music through my wired Sennheiser HD600 over-ear headphones. They are large around my ears and comfortable, and the sound is accurate (not bass-weighted). I’ve had them about 15 years.

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#12

@RobHooft I agree with you about the approach of removing my HAs and using headphones with a headphone amplifier that has some form of audio equalisation that I use to moderately compensate for my hearing loss at high frequencies.
I wear Wide Moment 330 hearing aids and came across a research report analysing the Widex Music program performance with these aids - lots of “artifice” processing along with the fact that frequency response dropped off sharply from 9KHz upwards. It made me decide to remove the Music program from my HAs.

#13

I’ve always found the quality of the sound from streaming directly to the aid to be better than any headphones but perhaps that’s just me.

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#14

I think results vary widely depending on aids & on headphones. I could use my Sony MX with my former Oticons but can’t with my current Phonaks. As finovox says I find the Phonak streaming stellar quality though. BUT it doesn’t allow noise cancel isolation hey :frowning:

I will be looking at these closely when my MXs cark it - though I can’t say if they would be ok for profound hearing loss. If you are U.S. vs Aus - I’m sure there are local suppliers &/or equal products about … Audeara Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones – Value Hearing Store

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#15

@someozi - When streaming to your Phonak HAs you can reduce Ambient Sound to zero in the myPhonak app - i.e turn off the HA mics. This is very similar (and possibly better) to “noise cancelling”

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#16

Yes I do the same for my Oticon aids.

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#17

The Resound Enzo Q allows you to set the level of microphone when streaming, so for example on a train you might set this to zero and not be disturbed. But when walking you may want to be able to hear traffic etc. Play around with your app and see what options you might have not seen yet.

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#18

Add a Tcoil program into one of your 4 allotted programs and use this in conjunction with your headphones. This will avoid any feedback issue you might have if you use the normal program with your headphones. That is because the Tcoil program doesn’t use the mics to pick up sound from the headphones, thereby possibly inducing feedback. The Tcoil program activates the induction coil in your hearing aids to pick up the electromagnetic field generated by your headphone speakers, and the mics are disabled. If you use Tcoil and Mic, then the mics will be enabled to pick up the sound in your environment, which is not a desired setup with the headphones scenario. So just use the Tcoil only program.

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#19

Feedback aside, the best signal to noise ratio is with both mic and tcoil on, no? In my case with the Intents that’s how music sounds best with my over the ear headphones. The catch is I need to lower some frequencies to avoid feedback.

#20

That’s quite inspiring. Thank you. I’m going to try this…