Mike – I am using Phonak Audeo hearing aids which are Bluetooth LE and they connected fine. My wife was also using one of these units with Apple Airpods and they connected fine. The sound we were getting was far superior to the earpieces that Tauck gives us with the Vox devices. I can’t comment on other HA brands.
I’m glad it worked for you but if you research it you’ll find that LE is specified as not interoperable with full Bluetooth.
My aids are LE and they will not connect to full Bluetooth.
Both the Apple and Google phones support LE.
Perhaps your Bluetooth dongle implements LE.
I use Bose headphones with a wire to the vox and just put them on over my Lexies hearing aides. It works fine. My only concern is knocking off a hearing aid while removing the headphones. I’m careful about that.
I'm still using my Phonak TV Connect Bluetooth wireless transmitter with the VOX and my Phonak hearing aids as I posted above. It is not ideal since I need a power bank to power the Connect, but I have yet to find a better solution.
You just need to find a Bluetooth transmitter that will plug into the VOX and that is compatible with your hearing aids. Unfortunately, I suspect hearing aid manufacturers so far are forcing you to use their own brand of transmitter- the Phonak TV Connect sells for $188 on Amazon! Compare that with the cost of a generic Bluetooth transmitter like JohnS bought! (luckily my TV Connect came with my Phonaks which I got from the VA for free).
I tried the Apple AirPods on this trip. Good and bad.
The good is that you can input your hearing curve and the AirPod will equalize - up to a certain number of db. I think 37db. I have more loss than that but it worked.
The bad is that I had to go through removing my hearing aids, making sure I don’t lose them, and the AirPods make you deaf to outside sounds.
Maybe when Apple finally releases the hearing aid software for the AirPods it’ll be better.
Since the AirPods implement full Bluetooth it takes more power and an AirPod charge only lasts a max of 6 hours so you can’t use them all day.
For the price, however, you could have two sets.
MikeHenderson
Perhaps your Bluetooth dongle implements LE.
I looked through all the specs about my Trond Bluetooth device and could not find anything that mentioned LE but I suspect it does support that. At $26.99 I was willing to take a chance on these and it worked out fine. I could have returned these if they didn’t work. Compared to what we spend on our Tauck trips factoring in air, extra meals, incidentals etc. this is a drop in the bucket.
The problem I discovered when trying to determine if a generic Bluetooth transmitter would work with my Phonaks is that there just wasn't good info available. The Phonak site(s) said they would work with Bluetooth, but then qualified that with specific models of Phonak and specific Bluetooth 'devices', e.g. iPad, iPhone and one or two other smart phones. Nowhere did they say it would work with a generic Bluetooth transmitter. I did some deep digging on the Internet, too. Another piece of missing info was on pairing with a device that does not have a Bluetooth utilities or settings screen. To avoid losing settings that work, I have been unwilling to experiment with generic pairing instructions without knowing for certain it will work with a generic transmitter.
I have a set of the AirPod Pros and Apple has released the hearing aid software. I've worked with it for a while, but it looks like my hearing loss is more than the AirPod will accomodate. After I set it up as a hearing aid, I can hear outside sounds (with the normal AirPod outside sounds are blocked) but not to the extent that I can hear the sounds with my regular hearing aids.
The best solution for the Vox units is for them to implement Bluetooth LE, as well as regular Bluetooth, so that I could connect my hearing aids to the Vox unit.
If they don't implement Bluetooth LE, I'll try to use the AirPod Pros in hearing aid mode. It will be better than not hearing anything of what the tour guide is saying.
Comments
Mike – I am using Phonak Audeo hearing aids which are Bluetooth LE and they connected fine. My wife was also using one of these units with Apple Airpods and they connected fine. The sound we were getting was far superior to the earpieces that Tauck gives us with the Vox devices. I can’t comment on other HA brands.
I’m glad it worked for you but if you research it you’ll find that LE is specified as not interoperable with full Bluetooth.
My aids are LE and they will not connect to full Bluetooth.
Both the Apple and Google phones support LE.
Perhaps your Bluetooth dongle implements LE.
I use Bose headphones with a wire to the vox and just put them on over my Lexies hearing aides. It works fine. My only concern is knocking off a hearing aid while removing the headphones. I’m careful about that.
I'm still using my Phonak TV Connect Bluetooth wireless transmitter with the VOX and my Phonak hearing aids as I posted above. It is not ideal since I need a power bank to power the Connect, but I have yet to find a better solution.
You just need to find a Bluetooth transmitter that will plug into the VOX and that is compatible with your hearing aids. Unfortunately, I suspect hearing aid manufacturers so far are forcing you to use their own brand of transmitter- the Phonak TV Connect sells for $188 on Amazon! Compare that with the cost of a generic Bluetooth transmitter like JohnS bought! (luckily my TV Connect came with my Phonaks which I got from the VA for free).
I tried the Apple AirPods on this trip. Good and bad.
The good is that you can input your hearing curve and the AirPod will equalize - up to a certain number of db. I think 37db. I have more loss than that but it worked.
The bad is that I had to go through removing my hearing aids, making sure I don’t lose them, and the AirPods make you deaf to outside sounds.
Maybe when Apple finally releases the hearing aid software for the AirPods it’ll be better.
Since the AirPods implement full Bluetooth it takes more power and an AirPod charge only lasts a max of 6 hours so you can’t use them all day.
For the price, however, you could have two sets.
I looked through all the specs about my Trond Bluetooth device and could not find anything that mentioned LE but I suspect it does support that. At $26.99 I was willing to take a chance on these and it worked out fine. I could have returned these if they didn’t work. Compared to what we spend on our Tauck trips factoring in air, extra meals, incidentals etc. this is a drop in the bucket.
The problem I discovered when trying to determine if a generic Bluetooth transmitter would work with my Phonaks is that there just wasn't good info available. The Phonak site(s) said they would work with Bluetooth, but then qualified that with specific models of Phonak and specific Bluetooth 'devices', e.g. iPad, iPhone and one or two other smart phones. Nowhere did they say it would work with a generic Bluetooth transmitter. I did some deep digging on the Internet, too. Another piece of missing info was on pairing with a device that does not have a Bluetooth utilities or settings screen. To avoid losing settings that work, I have been unwilling to experiment with generic pairing instructions without knowing for certain it will work with a generic transmitter.
I have a set of the AirPod Pros and Apple has released the hearing aid software. I've worked with it for a while, but it looks like my hearing loss is more than the AirPod will accomodate. After I set it up as a hearing aid, I can hear outside sounds (with the normal AirPod outside sounds are blocked) but not to the extent that I can hear the sounds with my regular hearing aids.
The best solution for the Vox units is for them to implement Bluetooth LE, as well as regular Bluetooth, so that I could connect my hearing aids to the Vox unit.
If they don't implement Bluetooth LE, I'll try to use the AirPod Pros in hearing aid mode. It will be better than not hearing anything of what the tour guide is saying.