by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady wrote:

If my dad gets some new hearing aids in the not too distant future, the loop system will work better for him. His hearing aids only have either the T [t-coil] or M [microphone] setting, not the M/T setting. When it is on the T setting, he thinks it is just too much noise and, of course, he doesn’t like the fact that he can’t hear others in the room.

I can understand a person wanting the M/T setting so they can hear both the TV and people talking in the room. Personally, I wouldn’t like this arrangement as I have too much trouble hearing one sound by itself. Hearing two sounds at the same time would be next to impossible for me. However, if that is what your dad wants, here is a way to do that with his current hearing aids (even though they do not have the M/T setting).

What you can do is plug a microphone into the microphone jack on the back of the Univox 2A loop amplifier. (The TV is plugged into the mic/line jack with the switch in the “line” position). This way the microphone picks up room sounds and puts them on top of the TV sounds, exactly as if he were listening with hearing aids that had a M/T position.

Either place the microphone in the center of the room to pick up everybody’s voices, or better yet, get a lapel mic and clip it to the person speaking. That way the voice will be clear and hopefully stand out above the sounds from the TV.

For a room microphone, I’d suggest the MM-200 microphone set on the coffee table near the people talking or in the center of the room.

The lapel mic I’d choose is designed to be used with the Univox 2A loop amplifier. This microphone has an extra long (10 foot) cord so it can reach to several people in a typical living room.