by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A man wrote:
I have worn non-telecoil hearing aids for 8 years now and will be ordering mini BTE hearing aids with a telecoil soon.
Our satellite TV audio feeds into a stereo receiver and I currently wear headphones when watching TV. Am I correct to assume I could plug a neckloop with a proper size adaptor into the stereo receiver headphone jack which then would pass the audio to the hearing aid’s telecoils?
Yes, that’s exactly the way it works. You can plug a neckloop into any jack where you would plug in headphones or earbuds.
However, a word of warning. Neckloops are always mono devices, so you wouldn’t hear true stereo as both stereo channels would be “smooshed” together into what I call “dual mono”.
Also, if you are using a neckloop, you’d need to have a stereo to mono adapter (which you can easily get from Radio Shack) or you’d only hear one channel while the other channel would be shorted to ground (not a good idea).
If you want to hear true stereo, you’d need the Music Links I have on HearingLossHelp website (or something similar). They work exactly the same as neckloops, but are true stereo devices since the signal at each ear is too weak for the opposite t-coil to pick up. You can see the music links here.
The man continues: “I would also be using a patch cable between the neckloop and the stereo, as I do now to lengthen the neckloop cable.”
That’s not a problem. If you’re going to be using a stereo patch cable with a neckloop, then the stereo to mono adapter goes at the neckloop end—in other words the neckloop plugs into the adapter and the adapter plugs into the extension cable. Note: If you use the Music Links, you don’t need any adapter.
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