I have just received my first UK Specsavers Advance Elite.
I have two Bluetooth questions.
Firstly is it normal for the Bluetooth reception to be quite poor? If my iPhone is right in front of me the quality is fine. But as soon as I put my phone into my front right pocket the left hearing aid gets all crackly and out of sync when streaming from my phone.
The second question is: besides connecting them to my iPhone I would like to connect them to other devices, like my kindle for audiobooks or PlayStation with Bluetooth dongle. I can’t seem to figure out how to. Do the hearing aids only connect to an iPhone? And if so is there an app where I can use the phone basically as relay? Meaning connecting my iPhone to the kindle that then streams it to my hearing device?
Thank you!!!
It is common for bluetooth to have problems transmitting through body parts so yes your front pocket will be a problem. As for the kindle try using the iphone kindle app for audio books
Unfortunately, the companies who make the hearing aids also make profit on accessories such as TV streamers and remote microphones. They use proprietary CODICS of Bluetooth to force you to buy their accessories. You can’t pair your hearing aids with a PC running Windows 11.
Thanks for the info. Obviously mine doesn’t have the correct driver because my hearing aids won’t connect. Because my PC is owned by and controlled my employer, I doubt they will let me download the proper driver even if I could find it. The IT department guards their PCs like a mother hen guards her eggs. But thanks for the info. I stand corrected.
could you send us a picture from your hearing aids ? Or send us the full modell name of your hearing aids. Because Specsavers sell different hearing aids brands und their Advance Elite name.
see here:
If the UK Specsavers Advance Elite is a hearing aid from Phonak/Unitron , then it should be possible to connect with any bluetooth audio device like iPhone , Android phones, Kindle , PC , Notebooks.
All other hearing aids from brands: Oticon/Philips, Signa/Widex, ReSound/Jabra, Starkey, supporting only Bluetooth-LE (low energy) connections mostly to smartphones , iPads and certain Android Tablets.
For Playstation 4 i don’t know if there is a working bluetooth dongle available, because the PS4 have no integrated Audio-output via Bluetooth. The internal Bluetooth device inside the PS4 is only for the propietary wireless-connection of the PS4 game-pad controllers, and does not support audio-output codecs via Bluetooth.
So if your hearing aids are from makers Phonak/Unitron (Sonova brands) then they will utilize Classic Bluetooth and can connect via classic bluetooth to a wide variety of bluetooh devices.
Here is a help page from Unitron for Bluetooth pairing
For Phonak/Unitron hearing aids , only one side connects for the Bluetooth Audio part, normal the right side hearing aid is setup as the master hearing aid (standard setting). But your HAP also could change the bluetooth master hearing aid to the left side device.
So during the pairing you should see one hearing aid for Audio streaming , if you have hearing aids from the Phonak/Unitron brand.
If you connect the HAs to a smartphone or iPad you get additionaly two low energy bluetooth pairings (BL-LE) which are only for the connection to the hearing aid APP.
Hearing issues are a disability and your employer has a legal obligation to minimally not create situations that exacerbate the disability and in most cases take steps to accommodate.
