I’m kinda surprised at your experience with the easyTek. That’s disappointing. How certain would you be that the fitter set it all up properly? I seem to think that the factory ones use their own transmission protocols and not Bluetooth.
I’m not sure the neckloop/telecoil would be any better than the factory method.
The Clearsounds unit that I tried could accept Bluetooth connections and direct cable.
Don’t worry about all the other Bluetooth devices around…you pair to one and then connect to it. Some devices can pair to multiple Bluetooth devices but you would still only connect to one. (iirc) Note the two terms…pair and connect. Pairing means each end know about the other. Connect means now you’re actually connected to and using the connection.
I suspect the EasyTek wasn’t set up quite right. The volume should be adjustable by fitter. I tried one for awhile and when it worked, it worked quite well. However, it failed after a short time and I took it back.
Uh oh. I think you may have just put your finger and the problem. The penny dropped for me when you both asked about… setting it up. Being essentially clueless, I used it right out of the box without a thought of it needing to be set up to work properly. Insert emoji of a self dope slap here.
When the magnetic phone telecoil activation was unsuccessful, I asked my audiologist about the easytek. She didn’t seem to know much about it but said she’d order it if I wanted. I told her I’d see if I could get a deal on ebay, which, luckily, I did. Since she hadn’t mentioned that either scenario would involve the need to set it up, I didn’t think about it when the easytek arrived. See what I did there? I tried to justify my stupidity.
Since the connection was bad to the point of useless, I returned it. So now I can’t take it to the audiologist to test whether the unit or my brain were at fault.
Yes, it really was disappointing. Because when it worked at home when it was dead quiet, even feebly, I was blown away by the potential. It was as if all my hearing aid struggles melted away. Angel chorus, light beams shining down from heaven, etc.
And that epiphany of potential is what’s been driving me to find a kludgey setup that replicates what I hoped the easytek could do. As for trusting my audiologist for a proper fitting, I’m uncertain. Her unfamiliarity with it surprised me, as well as her not mentioning the need for it to be set up. She probably works with a million patients however, and I may have spaced out when she said it needed setting up.
Thank you for the clarification about pairing vs connecting. If I may ask before concluding this book length post, did the Clearsounds unit you used do what an easytek could do, only using an open system rather than a proprietary one?
Thank you guys again soooooo much.
The Clearsounds was a neckloop to t-coil only. The easyTek has it’s own way of communicating with the HA’s using a semi-quasi bluetooth method (iirc).
The fitting software needs to know about the easyTek. Which then gets sent to the HA’s so that they know what to expect. It’s not simple “plug and play”.
I think for where you’re at, you should re-look at the easyTek accessories. Don’t settle on t-coil yet. It’s inferior to a proprietary solution. Unless you’re more stationary in your listening needs. That’s why I made my own room loop. I would just use it for stationary listening.
I am just going to add that there is one other way to get stereo. In my experience the magnets in most headphones are strong enough to drive the t-coil. That is why I use a headset with my office desk phone.
Good heavens, I was confused about t-coil and I didn’t even know it. When you mentioned neckloop to t-coil, I realize I thought that a neckloop was itself a t-coil, which then connected with the t-coil in the hearing aids the way they all do. So at the beginning of the primer at the top of this thread, I was confused about what was proprietary in the easytek system since it too connected via neckloop and t-coil as well.
If I understand what you’re saying, easytek does indeed connect via neckloop to t-coil, just as any neckloop system communicates with hearing aids that have t-coil. The difference with easytek is that the communication technology it uses between the two is proprietary, different from the standard that neckloops that can work with any hearing aid t-coil do.
Does that sound about right? I hope it communicated clearly, even if it was dead wrong. I really didn’t understand how much I didn’t understand when this thread started!
I’ll say it again…I’m no expert.
Here’s what I understand.
The easyTek uses it’s own communications from the external device to the HA’s. It also makes stereo. Think of it then as an inactive necklace with a medallion.
The other non-proprietary devices use induction loops that the HA telecoils can pick up. These are inherently mono. Thus the term neckloop. Think of it as an active neckloop with a medallion.
I hope that sounds about right. 
Ah, I think I’m getting closer. It’s not the connection between the necklace and HA t-coils that’s proprietary with the easytek, it’s the connection between the device and Siemens/Signia hearing aids in particular.
If so, something like the ClearSounds Quattro functions similarly from a user’s perspective, but is technologically different. The Quattro medallion receives Bluetooth that it’s paired with and connected to, then transmits it via solely by the neckloop to the hearing aids via non-proprietary t-coil. If I got that right, then you could pair and connect the Quattro with any brand of Bluetooth transmitter, connect it to an audio source, and achieve the same desired function, but with a different technology.
I hope that’s getting closer. I’m really grateful for your help and patience, and you’re definitely an expert to me!
There you go. That’s how I understand it. Yes. The connection between the easytek and the HA. The medallion acts similarly to the aftermarket products. But you get the added benefit of stereo.
There are also what I think they call earhooks that are small localized loops that can give one stereo side as the inherent mono to one HA telecoil. Sorta kinda almost just about like headphones. They hang over your ear and radiate to the telecoil in the HA. But then you’d want to make sure that the HA’s don’t just transmit a copy to the other side. XPhone in Connexx-speak (the fitting software of my Costco Rexton KS7’s).
I was thinking afterwards that I suppose there’s the possibility that the necklace of the easytek might be its antenna but I’m not sure.
I can’t tell you how helpful all this has been. Thank you again.
I tried to look up telecoil activation, autophone vs. programmed setting, etc, on the Signia Cellion Primax’s but found almost nothing. I wonder why this aspect wouldn’t be covered in the gazillion product line brochures on spec sheets online. I called and left a message with my audiologist, asking her to clarify.
True confession though, I decided to get a Clearsounds Quattro Pro. I couldn’t get the deal on an easytek I thought I could, and a new Quattro Pro is 2/3 the price of a new easytek… The big difference though is that the Quattro Pro gets consistently good reviews, while the easytek reviews are decidedly mixed with many people reporting the same problems. I’ll take the Quattro Pro with me on vacation next week. The beauty of Amazon is that, if it isn’t to my liking, I can return it. I’ll report back on the results either way.
I think your hunch about the easytek necklace may be right. I remember now that if I unplugged one of its 3.5mm jacks from one side or the other, it stopped working altogether. If the necklace isn’t a t-coil proper, then you must be right that it’s an antenna.
Thank you for asking those questions and reporting the issues you encountered with those products! I am a hearing-aid wearer myself (the model: Phonak Naida Q), and I have been also looking for good options that can transmit music to my hearing aids wirelessly for quite a while. This conversation is quite informative and it’s good to know someone has the same situation with me.
Just checked this page on hearingtracker, it says that your model has a telecoil: Signia Cellion primax Hearing Aid | Product Info, Reviews, Prices, Videos, and More. But it’s not from the official info source. Please keep updating the progress of your audiologist!
My aids have the built-in t-coils as well. I have asked my audiologist to activate it. It works well. Mostly, I use those t-coils to pick up the sound from the speaker of my phone while making phone calls. They work quite well. I had been using some product similar to your Quattro Pro, such as Contacta - IR-NL1 (https://shop.cie-group.com/shop/audio-visual_1/assistive-listening_14/infrared-assistive-listening-systems_1102/assistive-listening-inductive-neck-loop_26874.php) and Music-link earhook (Music-Link Bilateral Inductive Ear Hooks | iHear).
The experience of using both of them didn’t satisfy me 
. Contacta-IR-NL1 is just like another version of Quattro Pro with a 3.5 mm jack (and without that bluetooth connectivity). Music-link earhook also has a 3.5 mm jack, and, by making the induction loop as small as a tiny coil inside each of the hooks, it provides dual-channel stereo sound. The sound by Contacta-IR-NL1 is bad, and, it’s mono. I was thus not able to localise the sound (specify the right/left positions of the sound) while listening with it. The problem with the Music-link earhook is simply its terribly poor sound quality. I guess it’s because of the tiny size of the coils.
I wonder your experience listening with Quattro Pro if this can work with your hearing aids. Please keep us posted here!
It would be really nice if there is a product which 1) makes use of pure non-proprietary t-coil technology which can be paired with any aid with built-in t-coil and 2) does provide a similar good quality of stereo sound somehow as good as the one of easyTek. I tried to look for a product like this, but failed. Really wonder if this kind of product does exist.
Thanks for reading my lengthy comment! It’s just so nice to see there are some people facing a similar problem to mine.
A telecoil is non-proprietary.
An induction loop is inherently mono. It just is. And non-proprietary.
Remember that the induction loop is the source that radiates such that the telecoil in the HA can detect it and play that sound in each HA. All open and non-proprietary. Many of the major manufacturers have HA’s that include a telecoil.
Only the proprietary external devices like the easytek can put stereo into the HA’s. The major manufacturers all have some kind of external device.
Orrrrr…get HA’s that can receive bluetooth from a source whether proprietary like Apple’s mfi or non-proprietary using standard bluetooth.
Many current products do mfi. Only the Phonak Marvels use standard bluetooth.
I know the Roger Pen Microphone “connects” to more than one person. We (of course) pair multiple Roger Pens and then connect them to each other, sitting at a table and able to talk to each other with each one of us using a Roger Pen around our neck. That is a Phonak device & you need telecoil activated in your hearing aids–across all brands of hearing aids, by the way. Each Roger Pen uses a proprietary neckloop that accompanies the Roger Pen and it is also around your neck.
Did you read the information, Install Telecoil or Not in your hearing aids?
To add to the above post:
The “loop” (whether a neck loop, room loop, table loop) uses magnetic induction technology. (Remember your high school science class winding wire around a magnet?) It sends the sound from the loop to your hearing aid. To get the sound from the sound source to the loop, I use an audio cord (so it is not bluetooth for me) from the sound source (head phone jack) to the head phone jack in the neck loop. Auditoriums can send the sound from their sound board to that black receiver box, which ushers hand out (and which connects to your neck loop) via FM Radio waves. (or there is Infared Technology --instead of FM Radio-- for some auditoriums). That is all the technology I know.
Thanks for your input. I understand. But once you’re outputting to a loop, it’s all mono. The OP had a wish for stereo.
As another external device sure. The Roger Pen outputting to a loop would then be just like any aftermarket neckloop.
I stand corrected on pairing/connecting to multiple devices. I didn’t know that was possible to actively pair/connect multiple devices to one device. I thought it was one-to-one.
Trying to follow this thread and understand my eqpt
Have a Compilot 2 and Phonak Audeo 90 HA and use Roger Pen. How does my neck loop work?
Should i have gotten a HA that could work with T Coil for shows in auditoriums ?
Thanks in advance
I believe the Compilot talks to the HA’s in a different manner than telecoil like the easytek mentioned in this thread for Signia products. That’s the proprietariness.
I think the Roger Pen talks to the Compilot which then relays up to the HA’s.
Check to see if your HA’s have a telecoil in them. What exact version of the Audeo do you have?
When I used this setup, the compilot had a Roger receiver plugged into it. The the signal from the pen went to the receiver and was then transferred to the Phonak hearing aids. When I switched to a Medel CI on one side there was a compatability issue between the Compilot and the Medel equipment. I had to ditch the Compilot and use a receiver on each ear’s device to get the signal in both ears.
(another mammoth post, my apologies)
It’s been a while since I’ve written, though I kept up with the thread and I’m so grateful for everyone’s help. I’ll give my QuattroPro review, but first…
Thank you to imyentsen (greetings, Finland!). Your experience with the Contacta and earhooks helped me understand my own questions better.
I apologize if my first post conveyed that I wanted stereo. I was just trying to understand differences in how neck loops are labeled. I’m fine with mono.
Those with the Roger pen and Phonak, your experience with that helped me understand another brand of proprietary system better, so thank you.
Pathurley, your experience of using headphones to activate t-coils is brilliant.
OK, the Quattro Pro. First, I had to wander down to the audiologist’s office where she activated 2 extra programs on my HA’s. Both include sounds from the t-coil and HA mics simultaneously, they just differ in which input is favored. Can’t wait to try that in a theater, etc.
Connecting on the Quattro is easy, thankfully, though a little fussy the first time you pair something. (This is getting into Bluetooth language which I’m also just learning.)
While the sound quality isn’t stellar, having the sound from a call (or watching a YouTube video from a BT connected phone) is surreal and awesome. The trick here is expectations. It won’t sound as good as having the phone next to your ear, and nowhere near as good as headphones. But if you want to be able to hear a call without struggling, this is great.
There are 2 “gotchas.” The first is that the sound isn’t nearly loud enough for outside the home. I’m working on that one. Even with the phone/Quattro (the volume control is paired) volume at full blast, it’s not easy to hear the call in a crowded restaurant. So I’ve been playing with Android apps that boost the phone’s volume. There are really sketchy apps out there, but in case anyone else goes down this past, the best apps I’ve found so far are Equalizer FX and Slider. If anyone has other suggestions for boosting the volume of a phone beyond its intended limit, I’ve be grateful to hear about it.
I’ve tried turning my HA’s up louder, but at a certain point, things sound distorted, as if I’m listening from within a human sized tin can.
The other gotcha is that - if you’re connected to a call through the Quattro - it necessarily uses the mic embedded in its unit, and it’s not great. People tell me they can hear me fine, it just sounds tinny. I’m not convinced I’ve tried all my options on that to see if I can indeed use the phone’s mic, not the Quattro’s.
I haven’t tried the Quattro with the boosted phone volume in a crowded setting, but will report back on that and trying to control which mic is used.
There’s been one dream that I’m disappointed with. The Quattro Pro (not the other Quattros, I think) comes with a detachable mic, the idea being that you could set it in the middle of the dinner table and not struggle hearing. The impossible dream. The mic works as advertised, but it picks up every extraneous noise imaginable, even at its lowest sensitivity setting, whether that’s a fork hitting a plate or a glass being put down on the table. It also picks up your voice at equal volume to everyone else’s. I haven’t decided whether that’s better yet. It’s less of a struggle understanding speech, but it’s as if someone is standing next to you, speaking perfectly clearly, as they tap a fork against a dish they’re holding. It’s a different kind of struggle that way, the struggle to ignore the stuff you don’t want to hear, rather than struggling to understand the words themselves.
I’m trying to find a homemade version of that mic concept, but no luck so far. I plugged a wireless 3.5m mic into a BT transmitter, but of course the mic itself had no power, nor was there any means of “broadcasting” what the mic was picking up in order to transmit the sound via BT. I posted a question about this a week ago on Reddit, but nobody nibbled. If there’s anyone with suggestions out there, I’d be grateful for them!
Would I recommend the Quattro Pro? It’s a little too soon to say since I haven’t worked out the kinks, and like hearing aids themselves, I suspect there’s an adjustment to get through. Plus, I’ve been lazy at remembering to put the loop in every morning. If you can get it discounted (I got mine heavily discounted on ebay) I’d highly recommend it just on the basis of what it can do for making calls easier in the quiet setting at home, and the potential regarding boosting the volume and connecting a Bluetooth, dinner-table mic (i.e., the impossible dream).
I will report back on all this. In tangential news, I’m not nearly deaf enough yet but I just got a video phone. The ease of having conversations ASL (American Sign Language, for our friends in Finland) has made the contrast between that and the struggle during regular conversations even starker.
Not many places have induction loops installed for entire rooms, auditoriums, churches, etc. in my area, but when I travel I find them more often. I attended a symposium lately in a looped hotel ballroom and it was amazing to be able to just click my ha into telecoil program and hear everything clearly regardless of audience noise. Of course the loop only receives amplified sounds so you miss anything said without use of a microphone. My Oticon One ha with use of remote mic ( the connectclip) is not as good in noise (and is only available in smaller locations as BT does not have the range for large forums).