by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A working woman explained:
I have just recently been fitted with a BTE Oticon Syncro hearing aid for one ear only. My question is that if I obtain a Single Music Link and assuming it will work not only with an M3 player, radio, CD/Walkman player, but also with a VOR micro cassette recorder, how do I use it at the same time using a headphone for my other ear?
I’ve been having big trouble listening/hearing my bosses dictations (using the VOR micro cassette recorder) and thought that the Single Music-Link may be a solution for me.
Yes, this could be an ingenious solution to your problem. The single Music Link will work with these devices as it is wired with a standard 1/8″ (3.5 mm) stereo plug. (Incidentally, both stereo channels are wired together so you won’t miss any sound on either stereo channel.)
I suggest you get a 1/8″ stereo Y adapter from Radio Shack (part #274-879; $5.99) and plug it into your stereo devices–eg MP3 player, cassette recorder, etc, and plug the single Music-Link into one jack of the “Y” and the headphones into the other one.
Now you will be able to hear via one headphone/ear bud in your good ear, and via the t-coil in your hearing aid in your bad ear.
Another solution, if your headphones are dynamic ones (meaning they are miniature loud speakers with voice coils in them) is to place the headphone over your hearing aid, switch it to t-coil mode and listen that way. You won’t get any feedback because the hearing aid microphone is switched off in t-coil mode.