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Hearing aids turning off when I put my headphones on

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I just bought a new pair of headphones, Sony WH 1000xm3, intending to use them with my Phonak Audeo B90 hearing aids. Annoyingly though, the hearing aids seem to turn themselves off when I put the headphones on. They turn back on again when I take the headphones off. Anyone ever heard of this kind of thing before, or know how to stop it happening?

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I know nothing about them but just a guess - are they rechargeables? Perhaps they detect the magnet in the headphones and think they’re in a recharging dock? If not, I can only assume they’re detecting the magnet perhaps for some other reason?

Just curious - why headphones over aids, why not a neckloop? (I can only think Stereo?)

Yes, you’re right, they are rechargable. Your answer makes sense. That’s going to be difficult to get around. They are noise cancelling and I got them mostly for using on planes (I travel quite a bit with work).
Sometimes when I put the headphones on the hearing aids don’t turn off, but it is frustrating to keep putting them on until they work. I may have to resort to using them with no hearing aids, bit then there will probably be no advantage over using my existing earbuds.

@Bugtao said:

That’s going to be difficult to get around.

Sadly, with those headphones, perhaps.
Unless you opt for some non-magnetic headphones such as crystal, condenser or electrostatic headphones. Not cheap though.
Or use a neckloop.

I don’t know much about neckloops. Would that be any use on a plane connecting to the entertainment system? Also, I presume it wouldn’t help with cancelling/reducing background noise.

If you can select a Loop-Only program on your aids, there would be no background noise since the Mic is not used at all. If you prefer to have the option of Mic then a Loop+Mic program would suffice. On my aids, I can have the Mic attenuated (currently set to -6db) which means they are quietened down, quieter than the loop pick-up coil.

I have two neckloops, a wired one which you can plug into any socket and has it’s own volume control and takes batteries.

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And a Bluetooth one which I can pair to my phone, tablet, computer, etc. This is rechargeable.

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This can also be wired, there’s a socket at the bottom

Obviously, the main drawback with neckloops is you won’t get stereo effect. For that you would need two separate loops, one for each ear. I’m not aware of any headphones manufactured like this so I make my own. Basically, all I did was remove the speakers from a normal pair of headphones and replace them with a coil of copper wire wound several times to the right impedance (or greater. The higher/more windings, the better the volume)

Hi Legsmaniac69, that sounds very impressive. If I understand right, you have converted a pair of headphones to a double loop system to get stereo in your hearing aids?
My hearing aids have open domes, so I always hear ambient noise. I therefore need noise cancelling headphones or earbuds to block out the plane noise.

I guess different ’s might work differently in detecting a magnet but with my ReSound Quattro’s, putting on my Surface Headphones would cause the Quattro’s to think that I was putting a landline receiver to my ear and the HA’s would switch to the Acoustic Phone (old-fashioned landline) program. Since I didn’t need the old-fashioned landline program, I removed it from my HA settings () and then I no longer had any problem - nothing funny happens - when putting on my over-the-ear headphones. Perhaps something similar happens with your HA’s and if a landline, magnetic phone program is active and you don’t need it, you might want to consider turning it off (or have a provider turn it off) and see if that cures your problem.

In the post referenced below, I mention that there are lots of other posts on the forum going back at least to 2011 about headphone/HA problems so there might be some very useful info in some previous forum posts:

Music and over the Ear Headphones
I must have missed this comment in first participating in this thread. I accidentally added the Acoustic Phone program to my Quattro’s and sure enough, every time I put on my Surface Headphones over my HA’s, I activated the phone program because of the headphone magnets. Usually when I went into the Smart 3D app on my smartphone, I could switch the program back to the program that I really wanted to use with my headphones but after awhile I decided that I really had no use for the Acoustic Ph…

When your aids cut out from putting on the headphones, how do they come back on? Is there a little tune or do they just start functioning again?
Are the headphones playing music when you put them? The speech in loud noise could be shutting them down.

Yes, they play a tune when they come back on, just like when they are turned on normally. They turn off even with the headphones off with nothing playing. It must be the magnets that are causing them to turn off.

If this is correct a simple turn them off in the software would fix it.
The OP did mention them starting up with the little jingle song.

I also wear the Audeo BR 90, and I frequently use over-the-ear headphones. I’ve never had this happen to me. But I’ve never tried the Sony headphones.

As far as neck loop goes, I use the Phonak Compilot 2, and it streams stereo just fine to my aids. I don’t have to worry about mono. However, this solution does not block out the ambient noise from the airplane. Maybe you could use some passive over-the-ear hearing protectors and they would not interfere with your BR 90s, and then you can stream music to those. I believe the Compilot has the ability to plug in to the sound on the airplane, but I’ve not tried it.

Thanks for all the replies. I have found that if I put them on carefully I can get them on without the turning off, especially now that I know what is happening. It may take a few attempts and makes me look like an idiot to any one watching, but I guess that’s just another cross I have to bear!

I have heard about the compilot, but haven’t felt the need for it up to now. How does the sound quality compare between listening to music through the compilot to using over the ear headphones with HAs in?

No, it’s not a stupid question. I don’t currently have the capability to stream direct. I would need to get the compilot 2. I am interested to hear others experience with this compared to using headphones with .

Although, because my primary need is to listen to the entertainment systems on planes, just streaming direct won’t work because I also need to cancel/reduce the background plane noise.

Something else that is confusing me is why my HAs turn back on automatically when I take the headphones off. When I fit the HAs in the charger, they turn off but do not turn on automatically when I take them out. They have to be turned on manually. This suggests to me that it is not simply a case that they are turning off because they think they are being put in the charger.

@Bugtao said:

When I fit the HAs in the charger, they turn off but do not turn on automatically when I take them out. They have to be turned on manually. This suggests to me that it is not simply a case that they are turning off because they think they are being put in the charger.

Could be something to do with the fact they don’t get/sense a charge with the headphones but of course, they do with the charger?
Again, just a guess.

Do you have an magnets to hand? Some strong fridge magnets or whiteboard magnets perhaps? You could try holding some to your aids, see what happens. This would at least confirm magnets are in play if they do turn off. Strong ones are quite cheap to buy from most stationers shops.

In reply to @fortnotes

@fortnotes said:

As far as neck loop goes, I use the Phonak Compilot 2, and it streams stereo just fine to my aids.

Since the Compilot only has one single loop that feeds both coils in the hearing aids simultaneously, there is no way you can get a true stereo effect.

@fortnotes said:

However, this solution does not block out the ambient noise from the airplane.

It would if the aids are switched to coil/loop only (no Mic option) thereby the aids cannot pick up any outside sounds, only the neckloop. Unless of course there is a Mic feeding the Compilot.

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