by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A man wrote:
I gather that silhouettes and ear links can support true stereo sound (where the left and right ears hear different channels of sound.) What about room loops and neck loops?
In order for true stereo to occur, your t-coils must not pick up each others sound channels (or you’d hear the same thing in both ears, which I call dual mono).
Therefore, by definition, room loops and neckloops are always mono devices since both t-coils pick up the same sound signals.
In order to have true stereo via your t-coils, the magnetic signal for each sound channel must have sufficiently low power that the t-coil on the opposite side of your head can’t pick it up.
At this time, the only truly stereo device that works with t-coils is the dual Music Links.
These Music Links are similar in concept to silhouettes. In fact, silhouettes could be true stereo devices if they were correctly wired to a stereo plug. However, all the silhouettes I have seen are wired to a mono plug–so you’d only hear dual mono with them.
Thus, if you really want to hear in stereo via your t-coils, get the Dual Music Links and enjoy true stereo sound. The Music Links plug into any standard stereo audio device such as your computer, MP3 player, DVD player, iPod, etc.
In case you were wondering, although the T-Links were similar to the Music Links, and look like they should be stereo devices, they actually were mono devices. This is because the second wire/pin that would normally be used for the second stereo channel is used for the microphone signal instead. The t-links were designed to plug into your cell phone’s headset jack and let you hear beautiful clear sound on your cell phone.
Note: the t-links are now obsolete as smart phones can use the Music Links to let you hear on your phone.