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How to stream car radio to hearing aids

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Hi all,

I’ve looked back through the archives and online and haven’t found a good answer to this question.

If a car doesn’t have a headphone jack or audio out, is it possible to stream the car radio to Oticon Real 1 hearing aids? I have two USB ports and an aux port (input) in my car but no headphone jack.

I read one solution which said to have a pair of RCA jacks spliced into the stereo unit audio-out wiring and then attach a bluetooth dongle to the RCA jacks. But I don’t really understand how this would work since I’d want the bluetooth dongle to be accessible (so I can turn it off) and I’m not sure how the dongle would connect to either my iPHone or my Oticon clip.

I’m hoping there’s an obvious solution I’m missing. Any advice from people who have crossed this bridge would be much appreciated.

I am aware I can use live listen, put the phone clip close to the car speakers, use smartphone radio, etc. I’m looking for a cleaner solution where I can stream car radio talk program direct to my Real 1s and optionally turn off the streaming and just listen to music through the car speakers.

Thanks!

12 people in this conversation8 min readJump to latest

It does have Bluetooth capability but mainly along the lines of –

a) Taking and making phone calls through the car stereo
b) Playing music from smartphones that come out the car speakers

In the absence of a headphone jack, I don’t think any of the car stereo systems (except perhaps Apple Car Play which can transmit to EarPods) can natively push out car radio output to the Oticon Phone Clip. But I’d be very happy to be proven wrong!

I know you mentioned it, but my suggestion would be to use a phone radio app to play it on your aids.

If you want easy switching between the two you can get a little Bluetooth adapter that plugs into the aux and a usb for power. This connects to your phone, and you can select on your phone if you want to play on car speakers or to your hearing aids.

Unfortunately car radios aren’t well-suited to give you what you’re hoping for.

In reply to @Raudrive

In one of the old posts I read, the hearing aid user talked about using an RCA to 3.5mm adapter to “steal” the RCA audio out intended for the rear car speakers and run a 3.5mm cable from the adapter into his neckloop. When he wanted direct connection from the stereo to his hearing aids, he put the stereo fader on rear speakers. When he wanted normal speaker activity, he put the fader on front speakers.

If the Oticon EduMic has a 3.5mm input, perhaps this strategy could be updated and the 3.5mm cable could go into the EduMic which in turn is connected wirelessly to the Oticon Reals. The fader would still be used to switch back and forth between direct streaming to and use of regular car speakers.

There would just need to be room to push a single 3.5mm output through the front cover of the stereo unit or one could drill a small exit hole. Thinking about this a little, all we’re really doing here is creating a headphone jack.

Does this make sense?

2016 Mazda CX5. I’ve posted on a Mazda forum asking for advice but no replies yet.

I think I can partially test out a strategy of hijacking one of the car stereo audio outs (for direct connect to hearing aids) by trying out on my TV. I’ll get an RCA to 3.5mm adapter, attach to TV, and then run a 3.5mm cable from the RCA/3.5 adapter to the EduMic or Connect Clip (which would need a micro-USB to 3.5mm) adapter. If the TV sound makes it into the hearing aids, it should work on the car stereo.

Hopefully, someone who knows this wheelhouse better than I do can weigh in whether all this makes sense or I’m missing something obvious.

Thanks!

The problem is that most, if not all, stock stereos in cars have no audio line out. That’s what you’d need for a connect clip or similar device. The speaker output, even if you could tap into it, would not be the right signal without some interesting modifications. Most car systems have many ways to input to play in car speakers, but no output options. If you had an aftermarket stereo then absolutely.

I just stream everything from my phone into my cars radio by . I dont require that my radio be directly streamed into my aids. And that even legal? Probably not if streaming into both aids while driving. Most every radio station can be streamed or using an app like iheartradio basically offers you radio wherever you go, as long as you have a data connection. But i would add, if you require streaming to hear your own radio in your car, it may be that your aids are not matched to your loss? Best wishes

When I am in the car driving my phone is Bluetooth connected to my Jeep’s entertainment system and that is the way I hearing phone calls even. It is completely hands free. But most of the time if I am driving alone I have my phone set to do not disturb as I don’t want to be distracted by a call. The incoming call with be announced to me by way of the entertainment system and if the call is important I will find a place to safely stop and call the number back.

In reply to @janofh

Yes, after watching a bunch of Youtube videos I’ve arrived at the same conclusion. There’s no easy way to tap into a OEM stereo output and re-route into a path ending with my hearing aids. Inputs, of course, are a different story since most people want to push music and phone calls INTO the car stereo system.

An aftermarket stereo could be purchased presumably with an aux out which I could tap into.

Thanks very much.

In reply to @cvkemp

Right, totally understand. My use case was more about having car radio programs piped directly into my hearing aids since I sometimes have difficulty following very fast action comedy on the radio. Alas, it doesn’t look like there’s any easy solution to the problem. Thanks.

I have NO experience with this - it is only an exercise in searching so far. I do have Oticon More 1 aids, a ConnectClip, and a TV adapter 3. I have wondered about your question before although our car has Apple CarPlay. I never know whether my iPhone will connect to the car or just to my aids - I have gotten phone calls both ways in the car at times.

Apparently some companies make something called a line output converter for car systems that take a speaker level signal and reduce it to line level. I found an example by searching (PAC LPA-2.2 LocPro Advanced listed at Crutchfield) - it has optional (extra cost) vehicle-specific T-harnesses that might make it easier to install. Then you run the output of that to something like the TV Adapter 3 (or EduClip as it has line-input rather than Bluetooth in the ConnectClip) to stream to your aids. The TV Adapter might make more sense as it doesn’t have a battery or buttons to push for source selection and could be powered by a USB line. You then should be able to use the Oticon ON app (or MFI control if you use an iPhone) to select streaming from the Adapter to get a streamed signal to the aids. I would not try Bluetooth to a ConnectClip as that has added latency due to Bluetooth so the streamed signal would be late compared to the car audio. The TV adapter has a specified latency that is not too bad (depends on the input signal and line level input is the lowest).

Have fun with your possible project :wink:

Right, I understand. The LOC is really meant so people can add their own amplifiers to car stereos (which require a line level input), but could be repurposed here to provide a line level input to an EduClip or similar. The output side of the LOC looks like it uses RCA ports so running to an Educlip should be fine. The input side looks much more complicated with the T-harnesses lessening the burden.

Thanks for the helpful idea. I’ll run it by the local stereo guys and see what they say. Appreciate it!

At its simplest, Bluetooth () media devices act as transmitters, receivers or both.

Your BT hearing aids and your car audio have on-board receivers. Your mobile phone has a transmitter. So, your mobile phone can transmit to both car audio and , while neither the car audio nor HAs can transmit to each other using BT.

To get Car Audio into your HAs, you’d need to intercept the audio out and transmit it using BT to the HAs.

One would need that smartphone, then pay for a plan that has data, then consume that data to stream from the internet.
Interestingly, I tried to use the radio in my phone but it wouldn’t run the sound out bluetooth to the aids. It was either headphones (needed antenna) or phone speaker.

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