Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Cheaper alternatives to Roger?

63 replies7.7k viewsLast reply

Jump
Link to this topic
Reply

I tested out a borrowed Roger On In and liked it, but it is not in my budget right now. Are there cheaper alternatives?

I liked being able to hear a person well without having to stay 2 feet away from them.

I liked how easy it made it to stream sound into my hearing aids from other devices. (Computers, receivers at public venues, MP3 player (Ancient tech, I know))

I liked being able to point at a distant speaker and selectively amplify them.

The table mode never worked well for me.

I do not have in my Phonak Audéo L-90 RL hearing aids.

I-phone’s live listen does not appear to be compatible with my hearing aids. Is there a different app that would do the same thing to let my old i-phone be a remote mic?

Has anyone used a generic bluetooth transmitter meant to connect with bluetooth headphones to connect with their hearing aids, and had a satisfactory experience?

Has anyone tried to pair a generic bluetooth microphone to their hearing aids through their phone and had it work ok?

Would any of the older Phonak Roger devices on ebay connect to my very new hearing aids that do not (yet) have Roger receivers?

Thank you in advance for any advice!

23 people in this conversation27 min readJump to latest
@SlowNSteady said:

I liked how easy it made it to stream sound into my hearing aids from other devices. (Computers, FM receivers at public venues, MP3 player (Ancient tech, I know))

You can use the TV Connector for this.

@SlowNSteady said:

I-phone’s live listen does not appear to be compatible with my hearing aids. Is there a different app that would do the same thing to let my old i-phone be a remote mic?

As far as I know there is no app to do this.

@SlowNSteady said:

Would any of the older Phonak Roger devices on ebay connect to my very new hearing aids that do not (yet) have Roger receivers?

Some of the older Roger devices may connect but not until you activate the receivers in your ’s with a Phonak licence.

Nothing as good as Roger stuff but lots of Bluetooth stuff that works, even Phonak has a Bluetooth remote mic. But, they all have a noticeable lag that can be annoying.

@SlowNSteady said:

I-phone’s live listen does not appear to be compatible with my hearing aids. Is there a different app that would do the same thing to let my old i-phone be a remote mic?

From what I understand, live listen will only work with (“Made for iPhone”) , which Phonaks are not. The least expensive way to use live listen is probabably by purchasing AirPods.

@SlowNSteady said:

Would any of the older Phonak Roger devices on ebay connect to my very new hearing aids that do not (yet) have Roger receivers?

They would work, but only if you purchase licenses for your HAs. Occasionally the eBay Roger devices may be sold with them included (the “IN” devices, especially).

@SlowNSteady said:

I liked being able to hear a person well without having to stay 2 feet away from them.

Have you tried the Phonak PartnerMic98? I understand that it’s not comparable to Roger On, but it’s the “basic” device for this functionality and is much less expensive. I have one and find it useful, although relatively limited.

Edited

How about Roger Pen?
You can find it pretty cheaply on eBay…

But I haven’t really understood if it’s an add on to Roger On or if it works as a standalone.

And… How good is it?

And, last question, does it need an extra receiver or would it connect to my Lumity straight away?

Roger Pen is the predecessor to Roger On (well, really Roger On combines the functionality of Roger Pen and Roger Select into a single device).

From all accounts I’ve seen, Roger Pen is inferior to Roger On. But if anyone has used both and can confirm first-hand…

In reply to @DamonHill

@DamonHill said:

And I haven’t understood if I can use it with my Lumity without any receiver

Yes, any Roger device will work with your without an additional hardware receiver. No little dongle or box around your neck is required. But you need to pay for a license (which Phonak confusingly refers to as a receiver) for each HA in order to enable this. Roger devices branded “IN” include such licenses and therefore cost more.

So, if you buy a cheap Roger Pen on eBay it will be compatible with your HAs but it will probably not actually work without an additional investment.

Edited

The licence and the device are usually one and the same. I am not sure in the cases where you have to purchase a licence separately - for example a transfer maybe. @Zebras is the best person to ask.

Normally you purchase the device and you get the licence. However, devices with a licence are only compatible with Phonak hearing aids - probably from the Bolero onwards - if we are talking about the iN Roger devices - the pen or Roger On iN etc.

If you have hearing aids other than Phonak then you will need either a hardware receiver boot attachment, or use . Edit: when using a telecoil you would require a neckloop called MyLink which is a Type 03 receiver that costs about $150.

@glucas said:

I am not sure in the cases where you have to purchase a licence separately - for example a transfer maybe.

The very cheap Roger devices on eBay are typically used and unless specified you cannot assume they are being sold with receivers included.

@DamonHill said:

And do you know how much the license costs?

This varies by region. Evidently the price difference between the Roger On and Roger On iN is the cost of two receiver licenses, so if you find a local audiologist that lists these prices then you can figure it out.

Edited

Yes. @greg.smith is correct.

The Roger On devices - if sold without a boot, don’t have licences and will only work via a specific hardware boot for that device. It gets complicated because there are specific boots that can be installed against a particular model i.e. Phonak Paradise, or a universal boot (called Roger X) that can be installed on any compatible BTE. The alternative is using the Roger On with your using the MyLink neckloop Type 03 device which works against any aid providing it has telecoil. As Greg says the boot is then a separate purchase if you go down that road. They can cost upwards of £300.

As Greg points out that there is a big difference in price between Roger On and Roger iN On. In the UK the price of the Roger On was about £500 whereas the Roger iN On (the one with licences that require no extra hardware) cost me £1250.

Sorry Greg - just wanted to add some supplementary information as I have bought the Pen, Roger On and Roger iN On (as a replacement for the Roger On) in the last few years!

Thanks to everybody for the detailed explanation but I’m still a bit confused: I have the Phonak Lumity, so apparently I don’t need receivers.
But I do need the license, right? And… the license can be used to link the Roger pen to just a pair of , so buying a used pen would require a new license? Is that correct?

If the iN device (Pen, select, on…) were used then most likely the license, or as Phonak calls it, the receiver, is still “installed” in the hearing aids. There is a procedure to transfer the receivers back to the iN device so that they can then be installed in new aids. It’s easy to see if the iN device has the license(s) in it.

In reply to @DamonHill

@DamonHill said:

And do you know how much the license costs?

Looking into this for myself, here is what I found…
Phonak direct through my audiologist wanted to charge over $800 per “receiver” license with no hardware. I saw listings on ebay that might have worked to provide them for $100-200 each, which then could have been transferred to my hearing aids by someone (presumably my audiologist, though it looks like for about $300 additional and many hours of reading/research I could set myself up as my own someone) who had the correct hardware, software, and training.

I also saw some listings for used Roger devices that specified licenses were included on Ebay. Roger Selects seemed to dominate the “used with licenses included” market for $600-plus dollars.

In reply to @Psych1

@Psych1 said:

Nothing as good as Roger stuff but lots of Bluetooth stuff that works, even Phonak has a Bluetooth remote mic. But, they all have a noticeable lag that can be annoying.

I am finding these statements true. I plan to comment further in a separate post.

Related discussions