Hey, I’m new to hearing aids, and I was curious to know what one does when they have hearing aids on and have to pick up the landline phone?
Additionally, I assume if one has to use headphones for work to a computer (windows).
I am picking up my KS8.0 tomorrow and was wondering about those two situations since I’ll be running into them for work.
I only call people on my iPhone. When I put my iPhone to my ear, it automatically switches to my DuoPhone program so I get the call in both ears.
For me it has always been an issue to hear a landline phone. I have had good results with using over the ear headphones while wearing my hearing aids but I have to say I wear ITE custom hearing aids, that are completely in the ear, and feedback hasn’t been an issue. I have had one pair of BTE hearing aids and never really figured out how to use headphones or be able to hear on a landline phone.
If they are in the ear, or in the canal, you should be able to answer like usual. If they’re behind the ear you have to position the receiver near the mic of the hearing aid–sometimes you have to find the “sweet spot” by moving it around a bit. I’ve had some that went a little wonky on a landline; beeping and such. So far the Phonak’s haven’t done that.
Using a cell phone isn’t an option at work, since my desk phone is landline
If your new aids have a telecoil, they should work reasonably well with a plain old landline phone. If not and you are using RIC or BTE aids, you need to hold the phone speaker near the aid’s microphone. I also use over the ear headsets with my Starkey Z-series RICs and they work very well for phone use. Get yourself a good gaming headset, I have the Sennheiser Game Zero and its great. I use this adapter to plug into my landline phone’s headset jack and it works very well www.ebay.com/itm/312471877116
I have the KS8’s for about two weeks now. I don’t have a big problem talking on a landline phone just as I always have. You just have to remember to hold the phone receiver a bit higher beside the HA.
The other solution is to ask the fitter to set one program up as an XPhone. I have not done that, but will ask for it at my upcoming fitting appointment. The XPhone is supposed to use the HA ear to ear communication to transfer the phone audio to both ears so you hear better. I have gotten mixed reviews on how well it works, so my plan is to just try it and see for myself. You can initiate the XPhone mode in one of two ways. You can do it manually just by selecting the XPhone program, once one is set up. The other way is to attach a magnet to the receiver of the phone that you use. The magnet is supposed to switch the HA’s to the XPhone program automatically, but you still need the XPhone program there to do it.
The nicest solution is with an iPhone. It automatically sends the incoming voice to your HA’s using BlueTooth. It goes to both ears.
I have used ordinary noise cancelling full over the ear headphones and they seem to work reasonably well, but since the HA is off center, I think the high frequencies are suppressed. I think a headset that goes right to your ear and not above your ear where the HA mics are, would be a problem.
I have the same headphones and use it for work calls if through the computer. Our work phones will be updated soon so will have the headphone jack soon.
In the mean time I’m using the senneisher hd noise canceling BT for computer things.
Since I usually use my cell phone at home I turn on the speaker phone on both cell and LL. Both cases help a lot. Maybe I should upgrade from ks7 to ks8.
We still have a landline at home (I know, dont ask me why). FIrst I look at caller I’D to see if it is really someone I have to talk to. Then I look around to see if there is any way my wife can get it. 
Then, if I have to get it, I set my hearing aids for Phone program and answer it. The Phone program makes the Mic hotter and transfers the speech to the other ear, so I get it in both ears.
Mine are the Costco Phonak but the KS8 do the same thing.
I also have the Phonak Compilot 2 Bluetooth device and at work my phone has a Plantronics MDA200 with a Bluetooth dongle plugged into it, and I take work calls hands free like I had headphones. All our meetings are Webex now so I’m using this setup several hours a day, and I can hear everything.
The KS8 has a Bluetooth device but it only connects to one device at a time so when you get to work you will have to turn Bluetooth off on your cell phone. The KS8 works fine and the Bluetooth device works well. It’s just that I’m used to having multiple devices active.
If you go Bluetooth and want to hear the computer, there is sometimes a driver problem with built in Bluetooth. I handle that one of two ways. On my Thinkpads I choose headphone protocol which feeds the sound to the hearing aids, and use the ThinkPad built in microphone. Their mics are really good. People can’t tell I’m not on a handset, as long as the surroundings are not too loud.
Another way is to use a Sennheiser bt500 or 800 Bluetooth dongle. It solves the driver problem and you can get full headset protocol to work with the hearing aid Bluetooth device.
Phonak has a landline phone called a dect ii, which you can get for under 250 dollars. The sound goes into both aids - like on a bluetooth connection, although it is not bluetooth, but a proprietary wireless signal - Note, this is for Phonak aids only. It’s pretty clear. Not sure if resound has such a phone. I think Oticon has an adaptor.