Bluetooth dongle with Auracast support - FlooGoo FMA120

Excellent, thank you for this detailed information. Clearly, an experiment with the FMA120 is warranted. My 9050’s arrive this coming Tuesday… not having to purchase the AudioClip makes me happy happy.

I’ll try the dongle on my Samsumg S20 FE 5G. If it works, great… only issue is to figure out how to attach a phone to my bike handlebars with a dongle and adapter attached. Otherwise, it’s S25 time but AT&T is willing to give me a “free” phone in exchange for a 3 year service commitment.

I did the ATT upgrade myself from my backup phone, a Note 8 to the S25 Ultra. I am really glad I did. It is a really nice phone. I am interested in the results with you S20 FE.

One huge pro is also price. When you consider this device can replace the need of audio clip and tv streamer devices (>$200 CAD accessories quoted from Costco). There is an extreme advantage in portable form factor, cross compatibility across different manufacturers, as well as value with the fma120.

This accessory is an absolute must have for hearing aid users

Is this documented to work with any TV or did you mean using it on a computer instead of a TV streamer connected to a computer?

The dongle will work if the TV supports USB DAC audio output, but this depends on the TV model. Older, non-smart TVs are unlikely to support it. Even among smart TVs, USB audio support is uncommon.

@mursewilli said:

The latter, it’s kinda silly how hearing aid companies block the ability for their devices to pair directly to PC’s to be used for bluetooth audio like they do for smartphones simply because they want to sell a $300 dollar accessory.

I guess I don’t see it that way at all. I truly believe hearing aid companies wanted LE audio and Auracast to work directly without helper devices. Otherwise, why did they push for LE Audio?

We will see more new TVs with Auracast capability by the end of year and into next year. The manufactures just needed a device to be able to use LE Audio/Auracast. Now with hearing aids having that capability, the flood gates are open.

There are laptops currently sold at Costco that have LE Audio capability. Just look the the Intel EVO label.

For us old geezers, we remember on NBC was the first to broadcast in color. But there still had to have color tvs to use it.

I’ve got an EVO 12th gen Intel Lenovo Yoga… no support. I read somewhere that this support only started appearing in computers manufactured from Nov 24 onwards.

If FMA 120 is cross compatibility with all the HA’s in the world then it would be wonderful world! Plug and Play will be an extreme advantage. BT 5.4 is getting very common in Asia soon. Hope this BT 5.4 gadget are compatible with HA’s.

As you mentioned, many TVs don’t have built-in USB audio support. The FMA120 has a specialized firmware8 that enables it to function as an A2DP-to-Auracast relay. This means that even TVs with classic Bluetooth—or those paired with an existing analog-to-Bluetooth adapter—can be used with the latest Auracast-compatible hearing aids.

Indeed, no LE audio setting… maybe I’m jumping the gun and the settings don’t show up unless I’m trying to PAIR with an LE device? I get my new HA’s this coming Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a few images for fun and clarification. It says it’s an EVO, purchased Feb 2023, direct from Lenovo. Great deal, FWIW.

If I take a look at the device drivers under Bluetooth, it does look like LE audio is supported… but I’ve been away from the tech game for so long I don’t know if that’s all that is required.

Finally, under the BT device settings for Win 11, I only see the settings as below.

But according to MS support, I ought to be looking at a toggle to switch on LE audio… there’s no toggle present.

So… maybe this is because I haven’t attempted to connect an LE device? Or, I’m missing something? I’ve gone through every last update from Lenovo and Intel… BT, wifi, graphics… both Intel and Lenovo think my BIOS, drivers, and related apps are up to date.

Likely software. For my jabra EP20 and Philips 9050, I cannot pair directly between phone and hearing aids directly through the phones Bluetooth setting. It’s only when you launch the respective app that the hearing aids will successfully pair with the phone.

That makes me think we would need jabra or Philips to release a windows app that acts as the middle man to allow pairing with windows. Likely there is some software built into their tv streamer accessories that acts as the middle man to connect the PC to the hearing aids

The floogoo devs seem to be furthest along in being able to make their software act as a middleman between a broad range of hearing aid manufacturers.

The reason your new laptop can’t pair directly with your hearing aids is likely the same reason I couldn’t pair with my aides on windows 11 after picking up a Bluetooth 5.4 usb dongle that lists Bluetooth LE being supporting on its specs.

Likely still need some sorta handshake app to allow a successful connection

As I understand it, Auracast allows for multiple transmissions to be available in any location, just as you can have multiple WiFi hotspots. These can be open or password protected to restrict access to certain users. You must have some way of picking which one you want to connect to, and also to enter a password if necessary.

This means that you must have a device that can see Auracast broadcasts paired with your listening devices (eg, hearing aids, headphones, etc.) and that can host software to select which Auracast broadcast to connect them with.

I generally have found that while many newer Windows PCs have excellent Bluetooth capabilities, Windows itself provides very little ability to manage Bluetooth, so I’d guess that you will need to have a phone paired with your aids to handle the selection process before the aids can connect with the PC through any broadcast device.

I have just started another topic (Samsung Galaxy S25 and Auracast) describing how my new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra phone supports Auracast. I already had a Homespot Auracast transmitter and headphone set on order, and after reading this thread, have also ordered a Floogoo FMA120 to play with. When I get them and have had some time to try them with the phone and my Jabra EP20 aids, I will share what I learn here.

Here’s a photo showing LE Audio streaming with three FMA120 units—one connected to Samsung Buds 2 Pro (48kHz streaming), another to Sony LinkBuds S (48kHz), and the third to Nexia 9 hearing aids (24kHz). Each works independently, as if the others weren’t even there.

Bluetooth operates within an 80MHz bandwidth and uses randomized frequency hopping to reduce interference. It also has an error retransmission mechanism to correct occasional signal collisions.

If you’re looking to connect a TV or sound system, you might want to check if it has a USB audio output. If not, the FMA120 has a specific firmware that enables an A2DP-to-Auracast relay function, which could be a good option for your Nexias.

@jwerner said:

As I understand it, Auracast allows for multiple transmissions to be available in any location, just as you can have multiple WiFi hotspots. These can be open or password protected to restrict access to certain users. You must have some way of picking which one you want to connect to, and also to enter a password if necessary.

Yes, you need an assistant. The assistant can either built in to a smart phone like what Samsung is doing, or the assistant can be built into an app like what Resound is doing.

Use Auracast to broadcast audio from your Galaxy phone7

Auracast allows you to create your own broadcast channel on your Galaxy device and share it with others!