Do you NEED Bluetooth Hearing Aids?

Do you NEED Bluetooth Hearing Aids? Doctor Cliff Olson, Audiologist and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Phoenix Arizona, discusses the necessity of having Bluetooth hearing aids and why he stopped making the Best Bluetooth Hearing Aids Review Videos.

Oticon More Bluetooth, Phonak Audeo Paradise Bluetooth, Apple AirPods Pro Bluetooth, ReSound ONE Bluetooth, Starkey Evolv Bluetooth, Widex Moment Bluetooth, Signia Pure Bluetooth, Unitron Bluetooth

[dinosilone]

I just got my new Sabra hearing aids at Costco a week ago, to replace my 9-year old Starkeys. I can’t believe how far the technology has come. The old Starkeys had bluetooth, but only when used with a control box that you wore around your neck - and the implementation was pretty bad. The new ones from Costco are fantastic. Besides all the customizability/EQ and noise reduction, the bluetooth implementation is excellent. I’m using them to listen to podcasts while walking, YouTube from my iPad, phone calls … the sound quality is a little tinnier than with good headphones, but is actually better for intelligibility - probably because they’re optimized for speech. The bluetooth capability wasn’t a priority for me when I was shopping for new hearing aids, but now that I have it, I wouldn’t want to go back.

[jhelsel]

I have been using Bluetooth technology in my Phonak Marvel Audeo rechargeable hearing aids to listen to music (e.g., during the Christmas season), answer my smartphone, listen to podcasts, etc. I think it has helped me to tolerate the chronic Tinnitus I have had for several decades. I will continue to use it and look forward to the Bluetooth improvements coming in the next few years. Perhaps these improvements will help me justify getting a new set of hearing aids in the next several years, as I have moderate hearing loss (which seems to have stabilized from my recent years' annual hearing tests. I thoroughly enjoy watching your videos and look forward to continuing to learn from you. I appreciate your great Vlogs and YouTube videos to bring the latest news on hearing and hearing aids to us. Cheers !!!

[Richard-wznl]

You help me immensely. I may come ro Phoenix from Florida for an appointment. You care about your patients and that's very important. Thank tou.

[nighthawkgc]

I got my first Bluetooth hearing aid (Xceed) a few months after the pandemic started. (have been wearing hearing aids pretty much all my life) WHAT A DIFFERENCE it made!! With all work shifted to telework, all meetings were being held by teleconference. After an hour of holding my phone to my ear, my arm was extremely sore, and my ear would be sore from holding the phone next to it to get access to the T-coil in the hearing aid. The first day I got my new hearing aid and called in via Bluetooth, I almost went back to hug my audiologist. My hands were totally free to take notes, look up things, etc., my ear wasn't sore at all, and the clarity was significantly better! I tend to keep my hearing aids for a long time, so I'm excited about what I'll see in the next generation. Meanwhile my wife should be getting her first Bluetooth hearing aid next month, I'm looking forward to setting up the Bluetooth in her computer so she doesn't have to wear the big clunky headphones when watching her streaming shows. I'm betting she'll be kicking herself for not getting it earlier as I recommended.

[sarahstyles]

Yes. Depending on how hearing loss affects a person then this control is essential. Not for all but for many it is necessary

[snelson]

When you have serious hearing loss in one ear and profound hearing loss in the other ear, Bluetooth is really the only way you can even begin to appreciate music. I can get by with the TV with just the ambient sound augmented by captioning. But if I listen to music ambient lyrics, I just hear jumbled sounds. I recognize very few songs. But with BT, while it’s no where near as crisp and some instruments are blurry, I can at least identify and appreciate the music I’m listening to. But each person’s hearing ability is different, both with and without aids. I’m just guessing, mind you, but I would imagine someone who needs amplification would likely have much better music appreciation than someone like me.

I have a ridiculously low word recognition score in my right ear. Even with aids, it only gets to the low 40’s. My left ear is better and even though I’m still only in the 70’s for word recognition, I scored a 98% in sentence recognition in a recent cochlear implant evaluation.

[charlesroyal]

I have been wearing hearing aids for over 35 yrs and Bluetooth has definitely been the best thing ever! It's great to stream music/podcast whenever you want and nobody knows. Of course people may think you are a jerk when you don't reply back to them, haha!Really enjoy your video's Doc!

[enigmabletchley]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Thanks to your videos for the past year I have been using a pair of Phonak Audeo Paradise bt enabled hearing aids and they are fantastic. I am not a shill for Phonak but the hearing aids are just fantastic. I do watch a lot of videos and stuff on my PC and I can finally hear everything without turning up the volume on my old headphones to compensate for my hearing loss. Same with music on my PC or Android smartphone. I also love the double-tap feature to answer calls or pause streaming. I would have got them from you, Dr Cliff but I live in England so visiting your clinic in person was not possible. Thanks again for your videos and advice.

[joannesteiner]

My Widex hearing aids have Bluetooth and are connected to my iPhone. As a musician this allows me to adjust input in a rehearsal setting; however, any input to my phone or surrounding mechanical noises all send the hearing volumes the to the maxmum possible. I have to reset hearing volume back to normal 15 or more times a day. My hearing audiologist sent me to the app representative whose solution is to turn off all iPhone sounds.

[yodelersparadise]

I have Oticon OPN3 hearing aids and bought an iphone 13 to be able to use the Bluetooth. A bad decision. The hearing aids sometimes works with listening to Youtube, some times doesn't. The videos work for 30 seconds then stop working for 30 seconds then come back to life. Oticon says it's my wifi, my Spectrum wifi provider says it's my hearing aids. The other big problem is with the maps/spoken directions feature on my car. While iphone works with my Subaru car speaker (my old android phones wouldn't) the bluetooth apparently switches to my hearing aids and shuts off car speaker or vice versa. I wind up listening to directions in my hearing aids after I get out of the car, or very often the app refuses to give me directions at all. Spectrum can fix this in Settings, but when I leave Spectrum store it starts switching back and forth between car speaker and hearing aids, then stops working altogether. I'm tempted to return to an android phone which won't pair with my hearing aids it would make life simpler. I think I actually hear better with the phone up to my ear than with the Bluetooth, so that's what I do. Also, if the compulsive texter in my life goes on a text bender, I hear the text alerts incessantly in my hearing aids. Not good.

[BKTX]

I have one Phonak Marvel audio and while BT is a great feature to have, it's not perfect. The most annoying thing about BT is managing application notifications like text chimes/alerts and the ability to listen in on a conversation. For example, if I'm in a room talking with someone and I get a constant stream of texts, I will hear the text alert (bing!) which completely interrupts the hearing aid's ability to transmit sound to me for a fraction of a second. And if that person continually texts, well you miss a lot of the conversation. So i decided to go into my settings and turn off text notifications to my BT. Also the audio quality of music to my hearing aid is not that great. Lastly, anytime I make a call using my BT hearing aid, everyone says that my corded iPhone cable is 100x better. If I had to buy another hearing aid, I'd definitely skip the BT option.

[BillMetter]

I would highly recommend Bluetooth hearing aids, I love my Phonak Marvel’s. I stream my IPad and phone calls to my hearing aids and it really makes a big difference.

[johnlawfourtyfyve]

I connected my aids to my laptop as well as my phone so I can use it without bothering others plus it adds a lot of clarity to my laptop audio.

[Mowikan]

I am testing the the resound gn 961. They are made for iphone. But to be honest it’s slow. It takes 15 seconds to connect when i start the app. A pair of Bluetooth headphones are way better!

[waxy]

One question you didn’t address: if the non Bluetooth hearing aids can be so much smaller like the titanium ones with the size 10 batteries (you can buy rechargeable batteries too!) so that they get really close to the ear drums, that should be an advantage outweighing the comfort of Bluetooth. Also you didn’t address the question of the possibility of using headphones in those situations where one wants to listen to classical music or watch a good film. If the aids are so small, they won’t get in the way of headphones or even loosely fitting ear bugs.

[WaynoGur]

My Widex aids have Bluetooth and telecoil. The TV link does not require a gateway device, but Bluetooth requires a gateway device. My hearing aids would not require a Bluetooth gateway device (neck loop) if I had an iPhone. However they choose not to implement this on Android platforms.
I have the evoke series. The moment line does direct connect to Android.

My audiologist programmed Bluetooth virtually seamlessly. The remote mic was more difficult however.

[pagzplay]

And it would be good to be able to control the volume of what I need to hear because I need more amplification to hear things like the TV than other people do who can hear it.

[Zinniasgo]

Getting my phonak paradise (70) in a few days. Excited for the Bluetooth I have left side loss. Was told for years that my reverse loss would not benefit from a hearing aid. But with the newer hearing aids I can benefit now. (Ask multiple audiologist to confirm this.) First analog in my thirties was 👎 I am now in my sixties 😁 so hopefully it will help. I had sudden loss, no answer why. It has gotten worse in the past few years, audiologist said the aid will help from further progression because of using the hearing loss ear. Can you do a video on reverse curve loss (low tones) and is it common? Thnx!

[circotribecirco]

I bought the Kirkland 10.0 in November. I am enjoying the Bluetooth phone calls. Both parties can hear the conversation more clearly. Maybe because I also got a new phone the week before. 🤔

I made one program with total noise suppression and narrow sound focus. It seems to work well. I was really hoping for more noise suppression. 😔 Perhaps my expectations were too high? I have a closed dome on one ear and open dome on the other.

I went in for my three week check. I mentioned the buzzing in the speaker while streaming music and videos. It sounds like a busted speaker you might have in your house. He replaced it, but it's still sounds the same. I guess I have to turn down my treble and I have, but that is a custom program. I would like it to be in my music program.

Anyway... that brings up more questions! If the speaker is buzzing, is the volume to loud? Am I harming the hearing I have left? Does amplifying sound do damage to the ear? I know it helps me hear now, but does this make my hearing snowball downhill? My ringing seems to have increased.

Who has the answers? Perhaps some good topics for future videos?

Thank you for all you do for us!

[pagzplay]

For videos like this I am using Captions and reading your lips at the same time but I think that Bluetooth will help with maybe being able to hear the TV and on the phone better than now.