Install Telecoil or Not in your hearing aids?

Hearing Aids
#1

I love telecoil…there are so many uses that people are unaware about. Telecoil is a setting in your hearing aid, across most models & brands. (Your audiologist needs to activate it.)

For example, I purchased a neck loop from Amazon (ClearSounds CLA7v2) for $60 and an audio cord. I plug it in to my TV and hear TV with the hearing aid set to manual Telecoil setting. When I fly I bring it and plug it in to the airline sound system and hear the movie without background noise! It cancels that airline backgroun humming noise. Wonderful. I use it like noise cancelling earphones–on any device that has a headphone jack…computer, audio books. Better sound than fancy earphones!

Of course auditoriums and chuches that have a loop and you can have direct sound, blocking out background noise. Even if the venue has only Assistive Listening Devices (not looped) you can use your neck loop to plug it into the jack on the FM Radio receiver–must better sound than using their ear buds or earphones!

There is a difference with automatic telecoil & manual telecoil.
–The automatic turns on when it senses the loop–neck loop, building loop, counter top loop, etc BUT it does not eliminate background noise: it mixes the sound coming from your hearing aid with the telecoil sound! You cannot turn it off.
–The manual telecoil setting (button on your hearing aid) can be PURE telecoil sound with NO hearing aid sound. This means you get NO background noise when listening to the direct sound source–which could be a microphone, a computer, a TV etc.
I choose the “manual” option and ask for 2 settings in my hearing aid:

  1. Pure Telecoil (so it eliminates background noise)
  2. Telecoil + Hearing Aid (when I want to talk to the person next to me at a movie)
    So consider this when you choose whether you ask for automatic or manual telecoil!
    Carolyn Odio carolyn@odio.com
3 Likes
Neckloop primer needed
Telecoil - what is it?
#2

Fantastic information.
Thanks

#3

es…you are getting a “pair of noise cancelling earphones” for a cheap price! And not only that…additionally it can be used for the church/auditorium venues!

Good luck!

#4

Will that article work with my HA? I think they do not have telecoil are signia motion 13p nx and the battery door is standard

#5

My article refers to “generic telecoil” which is a setting in your hearing aid. This article does not refer to any proprietary hearing device that is made by any specific manufacturer hearing aid. Their technology is a mystery to me. I have no idea about how any brand of “streamers” work.

#6

Wow carolyn1!

I chose not to get a Telecoil because I did not know that I could purchase a neck loop and a cord. I listen to NPR and PRI with headphones plugged into an Mp3 device. I will try to exchange my KS9s to get them with the Telecoil. Also thanks for the explanation about automatic or manual.

Thank you.

#7

@berylgolden Bottom Line: Telecoil is like having “noise cancelling headphones built into your hearing aids”-- Who would not want that! And the sound is attuned to your hearing loss settings, another plus. I use it for my TV and my zoom calls on the computer…or any device that has a headphone jack. I wear a $50 hearing loop and plug it into my headphone jack. (I don’t use a bluetooth hearing loop, since my TV is not bluetooth enabled. Bluetooth does have the advantage of eliminating a cord however.)

I was able to get my hearing aids exchanged at Costco back in 2017 by writing to the Costco CEO. Many states have enacted laws that require audiologists to explain telecoil when you buy your hearing aids…my Costco specialist did not do that, so I appealed to the CEO. It worked.

#8

@juliborgo There is a publication that shows all of the hearing aids and which one do or do not have telecoil. My Costco Hearing Aid Center had it. I purchased it (through HLAA) and gave it to my library. “2021 Consumer’s Guide to Hearing Aids” It is a publication for Hearing Aid Vendors. Ask your audiologist about it.

#9

No offence intended Carolyn… If it works for you and others then that is brilliant. In all truth, I never found many Inductive Loop Systems that had good sound quality, some did, but they were few and far between… Most systems were cheap and cheerful and the audio left a lot to be desired, that is not to say they were not helpful, they were! For me, they were more frustrating than anything else, simply because you were never quite sure what you were getting, they also have to be installed and set up correctly. Occasionally whilst working with deaf services I had to install a temporary Loop system for meetings, or sometimes it was a permanent fixture and quality of the Loop system and indeed the pickup mic/mics was paramount, maybe they have vastly improved in the last few years? Nowadays Bluetooth or Phonaks TV Connector 2 with the optical out connection are light years ahead in terms of sheer sound quality and if you are like me in the Severe/Profound threshold then poor quality audio isn’t going to cut it with a Loop System, unless it’s a good quality one. I still have a portable Loop System kicking about somewhere in the house, also a portable “VHF Radio Loop System” given to me in 2007 for work at a cost of £1400 back then, they work but are now obsolete. Cheers Kev.

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#10

I find telecoil in buildings that isn’t my own to be really poor.

Like back in 2011 I was working for a learning disability charity and they had, had a loop system installed for meetings for around 3 years. I went to use it and it didn’t work! I asked why and they said ‘oh, no one has needed to use it, yet’!!

I find my loop system for my TV and radio at home to be good but I have control of volume and tone control.

I went to the theatre before COVID started and there loop system was not loud enough. I went with 2 other deaf friends who both have CIs and they said it wasn’t loud enough either.

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#11

Yeah Zebras, been there on many occasions… Public Loop Systems even quality ones need to be maintained and then checked by someone who uses HA’s, the amount of times I have asked someone to switch on the Loop System, and they look at you as if you have started growing horns, they have no idea what you are talking about, and no idea where it is or how to switch it on… Funny enough I also worked with learning difficulties as a relief supervisor for 8 weeks at a special needs college, in truth my all-time favourite job, twas an absolute pleasure to go into work each day, I had these young adults to take out each day and teach them gardening, fencing, painting and grass cutting and other menial tasks, it was hard work, but they loved it and I had the lot of them wound up to hell, always joking and teasing them, but always treating them with respect, every morning I could see their eyes light up if they knew they were in my squad, it was a sheer delight working with these folks and I think all they ever wanted was to be treated as a normal human being… I was offered a full time position but unfortunately my wife would not let me move from the council as when there are cutbacks in government financial funding, they always hit those who can’t speak up for themselves first, ultimately her prediction proved correct, Cheers Kev.