Philips 9040 connecting to Macbook?

A bit different question, have Philips 9040’s from Costco, these work well with my Samsung S22. But I’m wondering if the 9040’s can connect for audio to my 2021 Macbook with an M1 processor running Monterey. My Macbook does allow many iphone and ipad apps to work on it but haven’t been able to download Hearlink 2 on it. Is there another way to get audio directly to my HA’s?

I have Phonak Audeo Lumitys (2 weeks now), and they connect to my 2019 MBP just fine. I don’t need any app or anything like that on the computer, they just connect as “bluetooth headphones” - not any different than connecting, say, AirPods.

Works surprisingly better than I would have expected.

I’m on Sonoma, but I don’t think it makes a difference as long as you are using a fairly modern version.

Phonak works on any device since they use regular Bluetooth.
However any MFi hearing aids can connect to M1/M2/M3 Macbooks, but most probably you will not be able to have the mobile app in the mac app store like some iPhone apps (and if you find it and install I doubt that the app will see the HAs connected).

Anyway to connect them you have to make sure they’re not connected to your phone first (preferably turn off phone bluetooth all together) and in your Macbook go to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Devices You should see them and connect them along side some OS features such as bass, treble and change program settings.

The headache I find with this is that to connect/stream from phone then connect to laptop I have to disable the Bluetooth of one and enable the other, every single time, which is annoying.

2 Likes

Your aids are MFi and can connect to iPhones and iPads without intermediary devices. Your aids also can connect directly with certain Android phones using a similar protocol called ASHA. Depending on the model and macOS version, certain recent Apple Macs can connect to MFi aids. See the following Apple URL:

https://support.apple.com/en-me/guide/mac-help/mchle83953a5/mac

If your Mac doesn’t meet the requirements, there is an intermediary device that connects to the Mac normal Bluetooth and translates to the MFi required by your aids. I think it is called a Philips AudioClip. I have a similar device called the ConnectClip to allow my Oticon Real 1 aids to communicate with my older iMac.

Looks like I’ll have to upgrade my macbook to Sonoma. I’m not seeing Hearing Devices in Accessibility.
But my internet is too slow here at our cabin to upgrade. I’ll upgrade it when I get back to the city in April.
Thanks for the tips!

I just recently learned how to use my ReSound external mic, Multi-Mic, to connect to my older Macbook, using the 3.5mm cord that came w/ the Multi-Mic. Great to know! I wear the newest Jabra Enhance Pro20s.

1 Like