@ssa could provide a far better answer than I could, but the BT radio and any acknowledgments it has to send are far less active when there is no streaming. The HA is acting as a RECEIVER in streaming and then amplifying the radio signal it receives. BT LE means it’s not active when it doesn’t need to be and transmits only in bursts, not a continuous stream. BT Classic involves continuous ON activity. By contrast, the Phonak Marvel battery life decreases from 24 hours just listening to environmental sounds to only about 11 hours when both constantly streaming and listening to environmental sounds at the same time. Phonak unveils Lumity hearing aid platform - #73 by jim_lewis. I would imagine that BT LE signals from a smartphone to an HA are otherwise only emitted when the user changes HA settings on the smartphone.
Here’s what I means that most battery power in HA’s that are not heavily streaming is consumed just by running the onboard electronics. The following line is from a table of Omnia 961, 962 specs for LP (two left entries) and MP receivers (two right entries) for Quiescent and Operating HA’s, You can see that ~80% of HA power is just consumed “idling.” I should imagine “quiescent” is when the dang thing is powered up awaiting sound or streaming input but there is none.
Source: datasheet for standard receivers on following page: Hearing aids ReSound - ReSound OMNIA - Hearing Aids
Bing ChatGPT search for ISO definitions of “quiescent” and “operating” :
- Quiescent conditions: The hearing threshold deviation is measured in the absence of any sound stimulus.
- Operating conditions: The hearing threshold deviation is measured in the presence of a sound stimulus.
I like the M&RIE receivers, but you have to essentially require MP (medium power) receivers or less and have a certain shape type of loss. If you search on M&RIE receivers, you can come up with a bunch of posts on that subject.
Also, see the following post along with mine below it: ReSound Omnias with M&RIE Receivers - #31 by JT337