• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Contact | 360-778-1266

Center for Hearing Loss Help

Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Reference
    • Glossary of Ear Terms
    • Drug Pronunciation Guide
    • Looping Information
    • “Learn About Hearing”
    • Useful Links
  • Museum
  • Blog
  • Shop
    • Alerting Devices
    • Assistive Listening Devices
    • Books
    • Loop Systems
    • Speechreading CDs
    • Telephones, amplified
    • Visor Cards

Need Help To Hear Better—Hearing Aids and Bluetooth Assistive Devices

 by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote,

I currently have an in-the-ear hearing aid that is not bluetooth compatible, and I need a replacement. I want a behind the ear hearing aid that is bluetooth compatible. I was hoping to find an aid that is around $900.00. The bluetooth attachment adds another $400.00. Could you help me with locating an aid that is adaptable to a bluetooth attachment.

You sure don’t want much do you—a hearing aid for $900.00 with all the bells and whistles attached?

The first hearing aids with bluetooth attachments required a DAI (direct audio input) boot to attach a bluetooth gizmo called the ELI (which stood for “Ear Level Instrument”). Unfortunately, the ELI had a number of drawbacks. First, it was quite expensive. Second, it could only attach to certain makes and models of hearing aids thus limiting its usefulness. Third, it could only work with one hearing aid so you could never have binaural hearing via a bluetooth connection. This was because Bluetooth pairs with the remote bluetooth device—thus one aid pairs with your bluetooth device (phone, etc) and the other aid is locked out. Fourth, it had limited battery life.

Current technology places the bluetooth circuitry in a remote control, not in/on the hearing aids themselves. The remote then “talks” to both hearing aids at once. However, hearing aids that use this arrangement are high end aids and cost several thousand dollars each. At the same time, if you change your aids, you need a new bluetooth remote.

A much cheaper solution (which does my Scottish heart good) is a bluetooth neckloop that can be used with any hearing aids that have t-coils. This way you don’t have to throw out the bluetooth neckloop when you get new hearing aids. Furthermore, you don’t have a “pairing” problem as the neckloop couples to both aids via their t-coils.

What I’d do is keep my options open and get a bluetooth neckloop. That way you can hear with both aids (via their t-coils). The bluetooth “dongle” at the end of the neckloop pairs with your cell phone, MP3 player, etc. This way you are not tied to any brand of hearing aid—just that you need t-coils—which you should get in any case.

Personally, I like the ClearSounds Connect360 Quattro bluetooth neckloop.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lennart says

    June 17, 2008 at 12:55 PM

    Hi Neil,

    Do you know of any good comparisions and/or tests of bluetooth neckloops?

    Also do you know any way to connect such a neckloop to a table phone which has a socket for head sets?

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hearing Loss Research & Resources

Free Visor Cards

Download your free Visor Cards for hard of hearing or deaf people here.

Loop Systems

Loop your home or meeting room. Discover how you can hear wonderfully clear sound again when listening to the TV/radio, etc, or when listening to a speaker at a meeting.

Loop systems are one of the best-kept secrets in town. To learn more about Loop Systems and what they can do for you, click here.

Take Control of Your Tinnitus—Here’s How

If your ears ring, buzz, chirp, hiss, click or roar, you know just how annoying tinnitus can be. You do not have to put up with this racket for the rest of your life. This book teaches you many things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under your control so it no longer bothers you.

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Sounds Now Too Loud for You?

Hypersensitive to Sound front coverIf some (or all) normal sounds seem so loud they “blow the top of your head off”, or make you wince or jump, or cause you headaches or ear pain, or affect your balance, or result in fear or annoyance of sounds so you feel you have to avoid these sounds, this book is for you!

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Hearing Phantom Sounds?

When hard of hearing people begin hearing phantom voices or music, they immediately worry they are going crazy. It never crosses their minds that they are sane and are just experiencing Musical Ear syndrome.

To learn more about the strange phantom sounds of Musical Ear syndrome and what you can do about them, click here to read a comprehensive article about Musical Ear Syndrome.

Or get the book—Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Glossary Navigation

  • Full List of Glossary Terms
  • A to Z Index

Footer

Center for Hearing Loss Help

Neil G. Bauman, Ph.D.

1013 Ridgeway Drive, Lynden,
WA 98264-1057 USA

Email: neil@hearinglosshelp.com

Phone: 360-778-1266 (M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM PST)

© 2025 Center for Hearing Loss Help – Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life [which also includes perfect hearing] through Jesus Christ our Lord." [Romans 6:23]

"But know this, in the last days perilous times will come" [2 Timothy 3:1]. "For there will be famines, pestilences, and [severe] earthquakes in various places" [Matthew 24:7], "distress of nations, the sea and the waves roaring"—tsunamis, hurricanes—Luke 21:25, but this is good news if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for "when these things begin to happen, lift up your heads [and rejoice] because your redemption draws near" [Luke 21:28].