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Phonak TV Connector - Toslink vs. 3.5mm Cable: What's Your Experience?

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Hi everyone,

I recently started using the Phonak TV Connector, and I’ve been experimenting with connecting it to my TV via Toslink (through TV’s spdif optical socket) and 3.5mm (through audio connection) audio cables. To my surprise, I’ve found that the 3.5mm cable provides a much better experience for me in a few ways:

  1. Power/Streaming Behavior:
  • With the 3.5mm cable, the connector seems to “know” when the TV is actually on and when sound is playing, so it only streams audio when there’s something to stream.
  • In contrast, with Toslink, the connector appears to stream audio constantly, even when the TV is off or silent, which I found a bit inconvenient.
  1. Audio Quality:
  • Using Toslink, I noticed that speech sounds much quieter and even muffled compared to the 3.5mm cable.
  • With the 3.5mm connection, speech clarity seems significantly better and more natural in comparison.

Has anyone else noticed similar differences or have any insights into why this might be the case? I’d love to hear about your experiences with these two connection methods, as well as any tips or suggestions you might have.

Thanks in advance!

12 people in this conversation6 min readJump to latest

I think it depends on your TV - every implementation can be different on the TV itself. You might have settings on your TV that affect this - or you might not.

I have an 8 year old Samsung TV (fairly high end at the time). I use Toslink and it works perfectly - exactly how you describe your 3.5mm jack works. It only streams when the TV audio is on and the audio quality is excellent - speech is the clearest for sure.

Thanks for your interesting replay,
My tv is smart tv TCL 55T7A, I didn’t check with another TV for reference. Have you ever tried 3.5mm cable for comparison?

Edited

Optical would use any dolby digital that the source and the tv are using. 3.5mm would be straight analog. Not that surround would be heard but the “mix” could be different.
That would be my initial take. Now you made me want to experiment and compare. :slight_smile:
Edit: with the V2. Iirc, the other versions don’t support dolby.

Yep, modern TV’s seem to have a mind of their own when it comes to how they deal with audio.

I have two different types of Set-Top-Boxes from the same cable TV provider. But the HDMI audio levels are way different.

Edited

My experience is pretty much the opposite. I found that the internal conversion from digital signal to analog that occurs within my Sony flat screen (Phonak converter plugged into the headphone jack on the TV) is poor, when compared to the TOSLINK connection run through a cheap Digital/Analog converter that I bought from Amazon. Yes, the 3.5mm connector is still used from the DAC to the Phonak converter, but the sound is much richer and fuller. And the DAC gives me a separate volume control. I split the TOSLINK output of my TV to a sound bar and to the DAC that feeds the Phonak converter. And it goes on and off with the TV.

@zoomba1600 said:

I’ve found that the 3.5mm cable provides a much better experience for me in a few ways:

Hi, I use 3.5mm connection, mainly because it allows me to set the volume independently from the speakers so my wife has her volume listening to the speakers and I have mine via the TV link, I set volumes so that even if there is a VERY small delay in sound I don’t notice it, my Sony also only turns o the Link when sound is output. If I go digital I don’t get the option of sound output volume.

Good to know.

I have a hand-me-down Sharp tv. No manual.
A friend put it on my wall
I finally installed the optical cable. The sound is amazing compared to my Paradise P90r’s. I really like it.

In reply to @kgmgpm

That’s the same with my setup. Separate volume controls for my wife and I. The default is that my hearing aids kick in when the TV is powered up, but there is no other sound in the room unless the sound bar is powered up from it’s remote. I can sit and watch TV when I wake up at 3 am and not disturb anyone else.

My 4 year old low end LG 4K TV has no 3.5mm output, nor does it have RCA output, so it’s TOSLINK or nothing.

There’s also a way of streaming sound from the TV through a Roku device to . I’ve forgotten how to set it up, but I found instructions on the web. It doesn’t work for CBS, because I watch CBS via an OTA antenna, but it would if I subscribed to Paramount+. I think the voice-controlled remote is necessary for that to work.

Using the Roku frees a user from the TV’s audio limits - the TV can be set to send audio to any output, and all of it goes to the ROKU unfiltered. The Most expensive Roku is less expensive than the lowest-cost pre- TV streamer.

Edited

I use the TOSLINK cable to connect the TV Connector to my Panasonic TH-40FS500 TV and get a highly satisfactory quality of sound for both speech and music. I can use both the volume controls on the TV Connector itself and the TV Connector setting in the app to adjust the volume in my , while the TV speakers are independently controlled by the TV volume control and can be set to a suitable level for any non-hearing-impaired viewer. Because there’s minimal lag on the TV Connector (unlike non-Phonak connectors), I’m untroubled if the TV speakers are unmuted. (And unlike the OP’s experience, the TV Connector audio is only output when my TV is on.)
On the other hand, I have a second TV Connector taking the output from my venerable Yamaha audio system via a 3.5mm jack (because the optical output stage has ceased to function) and I’m highly pleased with the quality of sound from that setup.

@KiwiJohn said:

I can use both the volume controls on the TV Connector itself and the TV Connector setting in the app to adjust the volume in my HAs

And during streaming you can control/change the ambient balance with the buttons on the hearing aids. Frontal button increase TV sound and reduces microphone input. Rear button decrease TV sound and increase microphone input.

Hi @zoomba1600
From a pure technology side, the optical cable on average gives you the better sound quality. However - as stated by other contributors - it depends on your TV.
A few points I wanted to add
. Automatic switch off with Toslink happens if the TV switches off the Toslink signal. If not, TV Connector will continue. When using analog, transmission stops after 2 minutes of silence
. Remote volume control via TV fully depends on TV. Some TVs even allow Toslink output to be controlled, others do not allow any change even not for analog. “Try and error” is needed I’m afraid

I have a digital optical audio cable from the TV to my Toslink switch splitter. I have my PS5 or desktop computer audio from my monitor 3.5 mm audio cable to a adapter that converts 3.5 mm audio to Toslink connected to my Toslink switch splitter. The Toslink output from the splitter goes to a active Toslink splitter (that has no loss of digital audio optical sound) to my Phonak TV Connector. I used to pair my hearing aids to my desktop computer Bluetooth and found that it was draining the hearing aid batteries too quickly. That’s why l had to get adapter and splitters to use with the TV Connector. To use either TV or the PC/PS5, l just select which Toslink input with the manual switch.

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