I am trialing phonak sphere I90 and have connected the accompanied connector to my tv. While my sphere is LE audio capable (future) but the tv connector is not. However, I have noticed that Starkey Edge AI connector is advertised as LE audio capable. In response to my question, phonak replied that their connector is capable of connecting two or more hearing aids or compatible headphones suggesting I won’t need LE audio in my connector. I recognize that the LE audio is not implemented as yet in TVs etc.but I wonder if Phonak is behind in this area or perhaps the tv connectors would become obsolete once LE audio is fully implemented. I just do not want to buy another connector in few months. Your thoughts.
Although true that that the Phonak TV connector doesn’t support LE Audio, I don’t think it matters. It’s a solid device and does what it’s supposed to do. I would expect it to serve dutifully for at least the life of the hearing aids. Edit: There may not be any advantage to having a TV Connector support LE Audio. I can see TVs supporting it possibly eliminating the need for a TV Connector, but not sure a TV Connector would gain much by having it. Perhaps analogous to Streaming Devices that still have an Ethernet connector supporting only 100 Mbps Ethernet because that’s all that’s needed. There would be no benefit to gigabit or multigig streaming device.
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I bought a used Phonak TV Connector 2 off Facebook Marketplace for less than $100. Just buy used one now for cheap and then sell it when a new one comes out.
Jordan
Good advice except my package comes with the connector and they won’t give me a credit. I learned that Roku is another option as they connect to hearing aids although not clear whether it can drain the battery. Similarly. Amazon fire cube may also work for specific hearing aids.
I had not heard of Roku connectivity. How does it connect? I’d guess classic Bluetooth and if that’s the case, yes it would drain the hearing aid battery much more so than TV Connector.
The issue with Roku and other devices is that they turn off the speaker on the TV when you use them connected to your hearing aids. With my TV’s, I can be listening through the Phonak TV Connector 2 and my wife can be listening through the TV’s speakers at the same time.
Jordan
Just a heads up to those following this thread. I have Spheres on order and asked my audi if my Phonak TV Connector would work with them. She said they could put the TV connector serial number into the Phonak portal and it will check for compatibility. Fortunately mine is compatible.
As far as I know all the Phonak TV Connectors that have come out since Marvel series are compatible with all Phonak aids since.
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Yes, that’s correct. I could connect Paradises, Lumity and Spheres to the TV connector. The main advantage of the TV connector is that it has zero lag. This is important if you want to keep the TVs speaker on. Otherwise you will hear something similar to an echo.
The other advantage is a lower power consumption for the HAs than with any classic Bluetooth adapter.
TV connector is not using the Bluetooth protocol. It’s Phonaks proprietary solution using the same frequencies as Bluetooth.
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Zero lag. Very low power consumption (uses Phonak proprietary wireless connection) but the signal range is quite far. Very tiny so you can travel with it. Also…you can hook it up to just about anything.
I suspect they will release an updated version soon that uses USB-C, Bluetooth LE Audio and probably a few more types of connections. They just updated the Roger so maybe this is next.
Jordan
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Indeed. It’s an AirStream connection. The same is between Phonak’s HAs and PartnerMic.
I wonder about the differences between AirStream and the Roger connection protocol.
You can also have multiple hearing aids paired to it and to many different ones too.
I have one, my mum has two (for two TVs) and we are both paired to all of them.
Great little devices, often on eBay for peanuts too and you as others have said work with all Phonak aids from Marvel, Paradise, Lumity and Infinio.
I also have a Roger On V2 which I use to do the same on my second TV (but this needs a Licence).
Once LE Audio is native in things you won’t need a streamer, your Infinios can just connect directly as they can to Bluetooth now.
If you have an LG TV you can have Bluetooth/Digital and TV sounds at the same time. Bluetooth is more laggy than TV Connector or Roger tho.
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Sure, I forgot about it, so thanks for the answer. I wonder about technical differences, too (apart from the necessity of licenses for Roger).
A few years ago (almost 10?) I read a technical paper about Roger technology which says that it has 19 ms latency.
I have not found similar paper for AirStream.
The latest Auracast for Resound Nexia and Starkeys has ~50-60 ms:
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I also saw the 19 ms latency spec for Roger. I haven’t found anything about AirStream but Oticon specifies the latency for their similar in function TV Adapter 3. It depends on the input source and is specified as the time delay from the input to the adapter to the output of the hearing aid speaker:
Analog: 25 ms
Digital: 28 ms
Dolby Digital: 45 ms
Oticon also specifies an audio bandwidth of 10 KHz/stereo from input to hearing aids.
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