Hearing Aid users

dfk41

I received mine today. In amongst the presentation, they told me that the brand worked with Apple so being an Apple user I thought great. I spend a lot of time on my laptop each day and invariably have music on. SO, I came home, followed the instructions and got nowhere! I then found that Apple could not use a standard bluetooth so invented their own low energy version. My Macbook is a 2020 model and of course this is only available for 2021 and newer. The hearing aids are made by Oticon who support the Apple initiative and my iPhone does connect up. SO, further reading and Oticon do a product called Connectclip which acts as a bridge between phone and tablet but of course, not a Macbook!

I wondered if any members who use Apple products have a work around to me having to buy a newer model Macbook!

HarveyMushman

dfk41 I then found that Apple could not use a standard bluetooth so invented their own low energy version

Do you have a link to where this is stated? Not saying you’re wrong but possibly been misinformed and I wanted to read into it. Usually any compatibility issues with Apple over the last few years are caused by their switch to their own silicon chips rather than Intel but this shouldn’t affect audio streaming.

As far as I know there aren’t any proprietary Bluetooth implementations.

Unless it uses AirPlay, which is a proprietary Apple thing but then that should work across Apple devices.

HarveyMushman

Apologies, I just read into it and MFi (made for iPhone) hearing aids can only work with Apple silicon MacBooks (M1 chips onwards).

So I was totally wrong but I had no idea the above would affect audio streaming.

Adrianmsmith

HarveyMushman

@dfk41

A real good time to ditch the fruit 🍎

Power to the Android 😎

FWIW i have nhs hearing aids and Specsavers talked me in to their top end offering “because theres a 100 day money back guarantee so you cant lose”

Both work well with google and oppo phone and android auto in the van.

At this point in time im going for the refund and keeping the NHS.

No really because the £2k are bad but the nhs are better than they have credit for.

Have an appointment friday to return them. Anyone have any comments to change my mind?

dfk41

HarveyMushman On my 2020 Macbook, you go Settings, Accessibility, HEaring Aids except there is no Hearing Aids section. If you try to pair them via Bluetooth in the usual way nothing happens. If I try the same on my iphone everything works ticketyboo! I have installed the relevant app on to my Galaxy tablet and I can get them to recognise and pair but have not quite worked out how to play music through them yet……but my son will tomorrow!

dfk41

Adrianmsmith I went down the NHS route, simply because I could not see an advantage in paying for them. Oticon work exclusively for the NHS and as you would expect, supply middle of the range stuff. Compared to what I used to be able to hear, it has made me realise that there is a whole new world out there. It looks like I am going to buy a Macbook Air of the relevant vintage……this is the listing if you scroll down it lists all the apple gear that works with it

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/106341

HarveyMushman

The new MacBook Airs are very good. I recently bought one for my PA and was very impressed, they’re very thin and light and much quicker than the previous generation.

dfk41

I ended up visiting Currys yesterday morning. I was shown the cheapest current Air version at £949. It accepted my pairing request and played music. Not normal audio quality mind you! So, I bought one and went home. I have one Sky network but somehow the system duplicated an additional Sky network ending in EXT. I have never queried this until yesterday! No matter what I did, my original laptop would not connect to the normal network, only to the EXT one. The new one was polar opposite. This meant I could not use Migration Assistant during set up. I reverted back to a hard drive back up I had that was 4 weeks old just to get me up and running!

I then remembered I had bought a Time Capsule 2 weeks ago and set it up. I could not connect to it at all. I had not written the password down of course but I use the same sequence of numbers and letters for most things. Then in Keychain I found that I had used my latest secure password but had inadvertently left the caps lock on! By this time I had sorted out all the little foibles and after a days use am quite happy. I can close the lid, then open it later on and the hearing aids connect immediately. It makes me wonder now if it is worth shelling out for a pukka pair of aids, or perhaps I can find an equaliser or something to give me a bit of bass!

My Macbook Pro will go up for sale in time for someone to get an Xmas bargain! I might list it here first!

dfk41

After a couple of days of use, I must say I am very impressed with the ability to listen to my laptop through my hearing aids. Ok, for purists the sound quality is not amazing but for my ears quite acceptable. I am sure any reasonably modern hearing aid will work with your pc, whether Windows or Apple based if you dig a little. As soon as I turn the aids on in the morning they pair seamlessly. The only caveat is when in the house I ‘forget this device’ when I have the phone and laptop on as bluetooth only works with one at a time and the phone always seems to win!

HarveyMushman

dfk41

I’ve not actually used one but you might be able to get an EQ app for the Mac to have a play with the bass a bit.

Spotify has an EQ in the desktop app too but will obviously only apply to Spotify playback.