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Using Bone Conduction Headphones with Hearing Aids

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Hi. Does anyone use Bluetooth bone conduction headphones in addition to hearing aids for making phone calls? Does it work?

Reason for my query: I use Phonak Lumity Hearing Aids for bilateral moderate hearing loss. Also, I work in a corporate environment with lots of phone calls & meetings throughout the day. Unfortunately, I’ve had a hard time attending phone calls through my ’s bluetooth functionality. I understand this is because the Phonak Aids use the HA’s microphone during the phone call & this cannot be bypassed/muted in any manner. So, even though I can hear the call quite clearly inside my ears, the person on the other side can hardly hear me owing to the HAs’ mic picking up background noise. My audiologist tried to tweak the settings, but without much improvement. Presently, I have disabled the BT functionality & attend calls through the mobile phone’s loudspeaker, which is very inconvenient in an office setting. So, I was thinking about some kind of a workaround & came across bone conduction headphones, which got me thinking. As I understand it, these can be worn along with the HAs, and can be used to attend calls just like normal headsets, except they don’t need to be inside the ear. So, I was wondering if anyone on the forum has any similar experience.

TIA.

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Hi. Thank you for the reply. So I guess it’s workable. I assume they worked just like regular headphones using on the phone. Did you notice any issues while using both the shokz & ’s together? I wear a Phonak . Will the shokz sit properly over the ears in case of RIC HA’s? What was your experience?

Yes it fit for me.
It’s going to be on your ear with the aids.
You may are may not like it. You’ll have to try it to see.
I liked to wear it when I walked. From what I remember it worked fine
I don’t really wear them anymore.
I have Starkey Edge now with a Pixel 6a.
I really don’t stream.
Just occasionally.
Let me add, I’m aware of the background noise issue when talking on the phone with the aids.
I have to talk into my phone when I use the aids.
This seems to be a better way.
My wife never complains about noise.

Thanks; that’s great info. Much appreciated.
I guess I need to try it for myself now. Will look into getting a pair of shokz. If it works out, it’ll be a game changer for me. Thanks again. :smiley::+1:t3:

I tried some when my hearing was a lot better than it is now.

I just couldn’t hear well due to my hearing loss with headphones even at max volume.

With my loss I never had a problem hearing with them.
I still wear headphones sometimes at night while I’m watching TV.
I can hear with my Google Buds.
It’s just the distortion that can get in the way.

SHOKZ COMMUNICATOR !

Three years ago my wife asked me what my son could get me for Christmas, I decided this was a good time to try out the Shokz communicator. ( I had used other bone conduction headsets in past for headphones). I had looked at them for a while but I’m on the cheap side and wouldn’t spend rhe $130ish for a pair.

All I can say is WOW, these things are awesome!! The mic is true noise cancelling, has outward mic and inward mic. ( if you leave it rotated up when you make a call all they hear is garbled speech). The comfort level of this is awesome, the battery life is extra long. I can’t say enough great things about it. I absolutely refuse to talk on phone without it.

Over the years I have tried all sorts of different phone headsets, (I also needed them for talking while doing equipment commissioning on plant floor. ) I used to go to truck stops to find the best ones, but all of them seemed to loose their sound quality after 9 months or so. My Shokz are going on 2 years old and still no complaints on the sound quality of my voice.

If there is a negative, it’s the charging cable connection, it uses a proprietary magnetic connector. The good news is they are cheap for knockoffs on Amazon. I like it better than a USB connection as far as ease of use and no concern for wearing out, I bought spares and put one in glove box of each car.

I have been using the Shokz OpenComm for 2 years as well. Looks like I will still do so until PC connections get better (or I get a MacBook for work).

I’ve used Shokz bone conduction hearing aids (starting long before my hearing loss) for running (plodding), cycling (daily commute from the village to the station in the local town) then for Teams calls during lockdown.

They worked well with my glasses and now work with my hearing aids, I don’t use them as much now for a couple of reasons:

  • I work from home and use a Plaud PIN to transcribe calls, so use a Jabra speakerphone rather than a headset.
  • My hearing loss (other than years shooting, putting on concerts and running a nightclub) is due to recent nerve damage, so hearing aids pushing sound in my ear or bone conduction headphones, are limited.

All in all I think they are amazing but with some limitations due to one of their key features. They let sound get to your ears. Fine unless you are in a city, in a plane or on the tube where you need some of the outside sounds blocked.

Rather than with my Phonak Spheres () I tend to wear them with my Signia Active Pro IX (what a mouthful) as I wear them with my glasses.

So I would highly recommend them.

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