Neckloop primer needed

(another mammoth post, my apologies)

It’s been a while since I’ve written, though I kept up with the thread and I’m so grateful for everyone’s help. I’ll give my QuattroPro review, but first…

Thank you to imyentsen (greetings, Finland!). Your experience with the Contacta and earhooks helped me understand my own questions better.

I apologize if my first post conveyed that I wanted stereo. I was just trying to understand differences in how neck loops are labeled. I’m fine with mono.

Those with the Roger pen and Phonak, your experience with that helped me understand another brand of proprietary system better, so thank you.

Pathurley, your experience of using headphones to activate t-coils is brilliant.

OK, the Quattro Pro. First, I had to wander down to the audiologist’s office where she activated 2 extra programs on my HA’s. Both include sounds from the t-coil and HA mics simultaneously, they just differ in which input is favored. Can’t wait to try that in a theater, etc.

Connecting on the Quattro is easy, thankfully, though a little fussy the first time you pair something. (This is getting into Bluetooth language which I’m also just learning.)

While the sound quality isn’t stellar, having the sound from a call (or watching a YouTube video from a BT connected phone) is surreal and awesome. The trick here is expectations. It won’t sound as good as having the phone next to your ear, and nowhere near as good as headphones. But if you want to be able to hear a call without struggling, this is great.

There are 2 “gotchas.” The first is that the sound isn’t nearly loud enough for outside the home. I’m working on that one. Even with the phone/Quattro (the volume control is paired) volume at full blast, it’s not easy to hear the call in a crowded restaurant. So I’ve been playing with Android apps that boost the phone’s volume. There are really sketchy apps out there, but in case anyone else goes down this past, the best apps I’ve found so far are Equalizer FX and Slider. If anyone has other suggestions for boosting the volume of a phone beyond its intended limit, I’ve be grateful to hear about it.

I’ve tried turning my HA’s up louder, but at a certain point, things sound distorted, as if I’m listening from within a human sized tin can.

The other gotcha is that - if you’re connected to a call through the Quattro - it necessarily uses the mic embedded in its unit, and it’s not great. People tell me they can hear me fine, it just sounds tinny. I’m not convinced I’ve tried all my options on that to see if I can indeed use the phone’s mic, not the Quattro’s.

I haven’t tried the Quattro with the boosted phone volume in a crowded setting, but will report back on that and trying to control which mic is used.

There’s been one dream that I’m disappointed with. The Quattro Pro (not the other Quattros, I think) comes with a detachable mic, the idea being that you could set it in the middle of the dinner table and not struggle hearing. The impossible dream. The mic works as advertised, but it picks up every extraneous noise imaginable, even at its lowest sensitivity setting, whether that’s a fork hitting a plate or a glass being put down on the table. It also picks up your voice at equal volume to everyone else’s. I haven’t decided whether that’s better yet. It’s less of a struggle understanding speech, but it’s as if someone is standing next to you, speaking perfectly clearly, as they tap a fork against a dish they’re holding. It’s a different kind of struggle that way, the struggle to ignore the stuff you don’t want to hear, rather than struggling to understand the words themselves.

I’m trying to find a homemade version of that mic concept, but no luck so far. I plugged a wireless 3.5m mic into a BT transmitter, but of course the mic itself had no power, nor was there any means of “broadcasting” what the mic was picking up in order to transmit the sound via BT. I posted a question about this a week ago on Reddit, but nobody nibbled. If there’s anyone with suggestions out there, I’d be grateful for them!

Would I recommend the Quattro Pro? It’s a little too soon to say since I haven’t worked out the kinks, and like hearing aids themselves, I suspect there’s an adjustment to get through. Plus, I’ve been lazy at remembering to put the loop in every morning. If you can get it discounted (I got mine heavily discounted on ebay) I’d highly recommend it just on the basis of what it can do for making calls easier in the quiet setting at home, and the potential regarding boosting the volume and connecting a Bluetooth, dinner-table mic (i.e., the impossible dream).

I will report back on all this. In tangential news, I’m not nearly deaf enough yet but I just got a video phone. The ease of having conversations ASL (American Sign Language, for our friends in Finland) has made the contrast between that and the struggle during regular conversations even starker.