What are your favorite apps for hearing loss or tools you use?

FM is radio technology and pretty basic. FM systems were often put in churches in the 90s and beyond. They require receivers to access sound. A headset is plugged into the receiver, and the sound goes direct to the headset/ears from the master microphone in a PA system. When using a headset, the person has to remove their hearing aids. When using a neckloop plugged into a receiver all you have to do is turn on the telecoils in your hearing aids, and you receive the sound from the master microphone.

As the hand held wireless microphone evolved, it started as a 2 piece wireless FM system that transmitted to hearing aids via a 'boot' connected to the aid(s). Then BlueTooth evolved, and became the system of choice for manufacturers and was built into the hearing aids, so a boot is no longer needed. It is great tech, but it adds a big $ chunk to the cost of the hearing aids. (Telecoils cost about $10 to include; BT over $1000) BT has to be paired to each person's individual equipment. In other words, an FM system or a Loop system can be paired with one mike and everyone in the room can use it by turning on their telecoils. ASIDE: Less costly hearing aids can work as well as more expensive ones if they are fit right. But, there is a lot more $ to be made by the industry when more sophisticated/technical products are pushed.

A neckloop can be plugged into any audio equipment that has an input jack. I use mine all the time with my laptop. Also with a good old fashioned Walkman Radio I still have. It will work with cell phones, tablets, iPods, etc. In some cases you may need an inexpensive adapter to fit into the audio device. The secret is that it brings the sound direct to your personal devices w/o any ambient noise.

Hard to explain w/o getting 'wordy'. 🙂 Let us know if you try it.

This is more common than people realize. I've had local audiologists call me to ask if I would talk to a patient with this issue. Stigmas run deep. Hearing Loss is associated with aging in many minds. No one wants to be 'old'. There are also stigmas relating to intellect. You know the old saying....deaf and dumb? The industry's focus on 'invisibility' adds to this stigma problem. I've even been criticized recently for letting my hair grow long. No one can see my hearing aid or my cochlear processor now. I had very short hair for years and it all showed. In fact, I had blue hearing aids. Growing my hair long had nothing to do with hiding my personal hearing devices. 🙂

@julieo4 My Starkey Hearing Aids (HAs) are such that the HA in the left (bad) ear (which does not hear anything except at Jet Plane Decibels 85-90db) is just a receiver of sound from that direction which it then transmits that sound to the good ear (right side) hearing aid.. that right side hearing aid then transmits both signals through to the inner ear for hearing... It would do no good to send signals from the good ear to the bad ear .... That left side HA that retransmits to the good ear is really helpful when I am not driving and sitting in the passenger side and someone wants to talk all the time without turning toward me to speak...

I lost my microphone cover off my hearing aid. I went to get another one. There was a new girl working. I asked her the name of the previous gal who worked there. With her mask on, she replied: "Spider", I said 'SPIDER' ??? She said, no, "Skylar". That's how I hear. I hear what sounds like. I have completely different conversations with people--thinking they are saying something entirely different. My daughter used to tell me: "Mom, you answer people with the wrong answers because you don't even hear them." That's so true! I saw the look on some people's faces--shocked is what they were. I guess I didn't even know what we were talking about. That's before I had any hearing aids. They have certainly helped, but I still hear: sounds like!

I wore a bi-cross hearing aid for several years. That was my first experience with hearing aids. That was in the late 70s. Back then there was a wire running behind my head from side to side to connect the transmitter to the receiver on the side I heard on. Today, bi-cross aids are wireless. So, yes, I was only hearing in one ear, but it gave me the ability to pick up sound on the unaided side. I had been told that my 'usable hearing on that side was nil', so was not worth aiding. In 2005 I received a cochlear implant on that 'deaf' side. It has given me binaural hearing. It has been a miracle. My loss is sensorineural, most likely noise induced but with a genetic tendency. Turned out the problem was in the cochlea/inner ear. The auditory nerve was functional. It was not being stimulated so sound wasn't getting to the brain for interpretation. Have you considered a cochlear implant?

My 2 favorite hearing tools are Oticon OPN1's with bluetooth support and my Oticon TV adaptor which gives me surround sound quality TV with separate control of external speakers for my wife. I also have low vision, so I enjoy listening to books with Audible books via bluetooth connection to my iPhone.

For hi-freq. loss, for years I used a Whisper 2000 adapted to cheap stereo earbuds (Mee). Then I got a $30 behind-the-ear open-fit model from China which was fine except the battery door, which is the on-off switch, does not get properly retained, and needs to be taped, which is awkward. Then I got a V-99 from China for ~$12 (but more now/here), which is very good in that it uses an AAA battery. (The Whisper uses 2 AA cells.) Unfortunately, the V-99 cannot be adapted to earbuds (by me, anyway), but the earpiece is very good for the high sounds, and the thing can be whipped out and stuck in during the moment when you say "could you please repeat that". Hey, you folks who love to spend thou$ands on your hearing devices should take a look at AliExpress, and at Amazon (where the prices (for some of the same things) are several times higher), compared to the places where you buy your rebranded devices for really big money. P.S. the Whisper 2000 can still be found on eBay. It is worth its weight in gold. It has an internal parabolic? microphone, allowing it to be effectively pointed at the sound source. I think they were like $9.95 years back.

One other thing: For the TV there is a cheap Chinese FM transmitter module wired to the TV and an old Walkman with earbuds

Have you ever tried the Williams Sound Pocket Talker? The most recent version contains a telecoil, which can connect you to many things. It can be used without hearing aids by using a standard pair of earbuds or headphones. Costs around $200, a bit more than the Whisper 2000, but it's well constructed and easy to use. Older models work well, but don't have the telecoil option.

I have a Williams sound pocket talker ultra. I don’t know if it has telecoil. I believe I brought it 2 years ago. I used it once when or of my hearing aids went on the blink.