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Phoneclip+ and Windows PC

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Hi,

I have been using the Bluetooth devices in Enzo 3D-98 and iPhone 6 quite effectively for phone conversations and listening to music. I want to listen to music from my PCs (running Windows 7) with my hearing aids but need a Bluetooth dongle or adapter for the PCs and a Phoneclip+. I am looking for a good dongle/adapter and would love to hear from anyone who might have used this combination.

Thanks.

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If your PC is a laptop with Bluetooth, the Phone Clip + can work quite well for streaming. I use one with my KS6 (Linx) & a Windows 10 laptop.

When I had a Surface Pro 3, the Bluetooth did not work as well, for some reason. I would expect any Bluetooth headset adapter that fits your PC should work with the Phone Clip +

I found the microphone quality on the Phone Clip + unsuitable for phone calls, though.

Edited

I agree with prodigyplace. The PC+ works pretty well with streaming audio from one’s PC except when you click PLAY on a YouTube video, there can be up to a 7 second delay before the audio streaming to your ’s actually starts while the video is running silently all the time. So I’m always skipping back a bit on the video streaming progress control to get back before what I missed. Could be the USB adapter I’m using on my computer (I don’t have built-in BT). But with PC+, there is the double BT connection, computer to PC+, PC+ to HA’s. I got the ReSound Multi-Mic and that will take hard-wired input from a device that has line-out audio. Have yet to try it with my PC but it would be PC line-out to Multi-Mic line-input, Multi-Mic BT direct to HA’s. Works great for streaming from phone to HA’s through Multi-Mic and I should imagine that I’ll find the same for PC streaming. Will update post at least as far as any time delay for Multi-Mic when I find out.

Assuming the PC does not have Bluetooth, two dongles that work really well are the Sennheiser BTD 500 and the Plantronics SSP2714-01. Any Bluetooth transmitter will work but these also allow you to use soft phone software like Skype for Business or Cisco Jabber.

Edited

Don’t get the phone clip - it lags and has lousy fidelity - the low end is steeply rolled off and the audio is over compressed to work at a near constant volume level. . Get the Resound TV Streamer.

https://www.resound.com/en-us/hearing-aids/accessories/tv-hearing-aidhttps://www.resound.com/en-us/hearing-aids/accessories/tv-hearing-aid42

It is marketed as a device to listen to TV audio through, but it is simply a stereo line level in device so it will work with about anything that has an audio out, including headphones out. IF you buy it new, it comes with a male stereo miniphone to male stereo miniphone cable and that is what is needed to connect to your computer. I have been doing this for a few years and it works great. Cool thing is the reach of the device- I can play music on the computer and hear it through my hearing aids all through the house.

Resound aids are , which is slightly different from normal bluetooth - it works off s different band. If you have an iPhone, the aids do not need an interface to hear sound from the iPhone - it is direct streaming into the aids. SO standard bluetooth adapters won’t work unless they specifically say they will support mfi

The iPhone built in hearing aid control app will let you switch channels, but the Resound Smart app gives a little more control. THIS IS IMPORTANT: make sure your aids have the 3.10 Aventa firmware update. Your audiologist can confirm this by hardwiring your aids to their Aventa software and doing the update, if needed. This should be a free visit. The update improves MFi communication.

As a PS- the Resound TV streamer runs off the same voltage as a phone charger, but with a micro USB connector. So you can run it off a cell phone external battery, if needed

Thank you all.

Unfortunately I already bought a Phoneclip+ some months back to use with my other devices like Samsung Galaxy S8 and tablets so I would avoid buying a TV streamer as well if I could manage with a dongle attachment to my Windows PC. I need to use this combination only occasionally like when watching YouTubes videos not for full movies.

Maybe, I will try the ones mentioned by Don first and see if this does provide an adequate result.

Edited

In reply to @azureblue

@azureblue said:

it lags and has lousy fidelity - the low end is steeply rolled off and the audio is over compressed to work at a near constant volume level.

I’ve only been an wearer and a Phone Clip+ user about a month but in my limited experience, the PC+ is only one part of the whole streaming equation and not the weakest link in the chain, at least for me. (The OP’s original question, too, was what dongle/USB adapter to get for his/her computer since it doesn’t have built in BT). I find environmental NOISE is the biggest factor in limiting my audio appreciation of anything, whether I am streaming with the PC+ or my ReSound Multi-Mic (another line input solution). I have ReSound Quattro 9 61’s and open domes. The places that I like to stream are pretty noisy: Gold’s gym with people punching/kicking bags, clanking weights, or people running on noisy treadmills, stair-steppers, etc. Outdoors with cars, dogs barking, medical helicopters, commercial and military planes in the sky, etc. Without destroying my hearing from turning up the volume too much, to have decent audio quality, I find the best result by wearing a set of gun muffs, probably in the range of 20 to 30 reduction, but unfortunately, I didn’t keep a record and kinda criminal that the degree of noise reduction is not on the product itself.

Not sure what you mean about “overcompressed” - there is high-quality BT audio that’s extremely compressed. Also, BT devices can stream in more than one format. How do you know that the ReSound accessories stream according to the same audio codec used for the iPhone? Knowing Apple, I would think that Apple would not let a protocol it developed for itself be reused for Android (the “walled garden” phenomenon). I also do not have any trouble adjusting the media streaming volume with PC+ streaming from too soft to hear to too loud to bear, so I’m not sure what you mean by “constant volume”). I’m a bit tone deaf, I think, so I have not noticed a terrible difference in audio talk show podcast including music with the PC+ but phone calls using the PC+ (a different BT protocol? - since phone audio is listed separately from media streaming for the PC+ in the BT settings on my Samsung Oreo 8.0 phone) do not sound as good as my remembrance of using a Plantronics Calisto Pro headset. But I think from what I’ve read on this forum that if one wants the best audio quality for music, one might want to stream to a set of BT headphones where you wouldn’t have as much problem with the lack of bass that other people on this forum has remarked is also characteristic of HA’s themselves, especially if you have () with open domes. I’ve ordered a set of high quality BT headphones and I’ll have to see if it gives me a better music experience than direct to Quattro streaming. Thanks for any links to ReSound info or previous posts that actually document the protocols and sound characteristics for the various ReSound accessories. I’d love to have hard info on that. From my newbie perspective, the problem with the HA manufacturers is that they make claims about the quality of their sound but don’t give you any hard info on protocols, sound characteristics, etc., to actually back it up. Instead, you’ll see a poll in a white paper that 70% of users polled preferred the ReSound sound to something else, etc., labeled A, B, C. Hocus-pocus.

In reply to @azureblue

@azureblue said:

Don’t get the phone clip - it lags and has lousy fidelity - the low end is steeply rolled off and the audio is over compressed to work at a near constant volume level. . Get the Resound TV Stream

I partially agree. The tv transmitter works better/easier than a generic Bluetooth transmitter and transmits directly to the hearing aids, so for streaming I would prefer the tv transmitter. But, the Phone Clip+ works fine for streaming from Bluetooth devices and for phone use. It has stereo and the sound is good.

In reply to @akaybee

Resound aids will not work with just any dongle - they are keyed to Resound products. The TV streamer will be the “Dongle” for you. Just a large one. My set up is computer to (firewire) mixer to TV Streamer to hearing aids. and I have been working like this for years. I am a musician with a computer based music production studio, and some 40 years as a recording and performing musician and composer, with several published articles on this subject, the latest in Oct. Hearing Review. I have tried the phone clip and the TV streamer and I have wrung them both out, so I am speaking from first had experience here. I see why you bought the phone clip, because Android devices do not have Mfi, (Made For iPhone, duh :slight_smile: ))so you have to have one to hear incoming calls. But you don’t need it with an iPhone or Apple tablets. So you are kind if in a corner -convert to the Apple world and sell the phone clip, or keep the clip for your Android devices and get the TV Streamer for sound coming from your computer The sound difference between the clip and the TV streamer is night and day.

In my case, I use the phone clip+ periodically on my laptop at work where high fidelity is not crucial. My home TV has the streamer.

Edited

In reply to @azureblue

@azureblue said:

The sound difference between the clip and the TV streamer is night and day.

What works best will undoubtedly depend on one’s hearing loss, brand/model of ’s, type of domes/molds, etc. But I have the ReSound Quattro 9 61’s. I just got a set of wireless/wired noise-canceling headphones (happens to be Microsoft Surface Headphones). The quality and quietness of the sound delivered by the headphones to my ears and HA’s is far better than the sound delivered directly to my HA’s by streaming with either the ReSound Phone Clip+ or the Multi-Mic. I should imagine that the Multi-Mic has sound as good as the TV streamer since besides being a it can serve to deliver sound from , line-in, or . Also, since ReSound accessories are expensive relative to premium noise-canceling headphones (1/2 to 2/3 the cost), going for the better sound from premium headphones is almost a no-brainer (now that I’ve just tried it) compared to the cost of the ReSound accessories, which still have their uses. I should imagine from the reviews that I’ve read that premium regular wireless/wired headphones would be even better if you didn’t need the noise-cancellation features as I do.

Another good aspect of the premium noise-canceling headphones is that you get a lot more battery life out of the headphones than a ReSound accessory. My Phone Clip+ and Multi-Mic each are only supposed to get about 6 hours of streaming time. My Surface Headphones get 15 hours because Cortana is on all the time as a voice-assistant. Bose QC35 II’s get 20 hours and Sony 1000 MX3’s get 30 hours. They all get even longer battery life used as wired headsets. I would say the main advantage of a ReSound accessory is its discreteness. You don’t have to traipse around with a big ol’ set of cans on your head.

But from now on, now that I’ve perceived the remarkable difference, my Phone Clip+ and Multi-Mic will be collecting dust except for those special situations where they work best or I don’t really care for the much better sound quality obtainable for me by over-the-ear headphones, which work great with my ReSound Quattro’s, my open domes, and my age/noise-related ski slope high-frequency hearing loss.

BTW, I’ve read a number of online reviews. I had reasons to get the Microsoft variant but almost all the reviews that I’ve read say that the Sony 1000 MX3’s, coming out in September, 2018, are the current noise-canceling headphone champs, both in sound quality and noise-cancelation. One relative disadvantage, a reviewer claimed, is that Sony can only be paired with one broadcasting device at a time whereas the Microsoft and Bose headphones can be paired with multiple devices (and in the Microsoft Android Cortana app, you can turn on or off the connection of all the specific individual paired devices through the software interface).

Noise-Canceling, Fully Enclosing Headphones and IP58 Dust/Water Rating? Trouble Down the Road?
Just to update my inquiry, I just received my Microsoft’s Surface Headphones today. I got them in part because I’m an Office 365 subscriber both for Calendar, Contacts, e-Mail, To-Do cloud services and for Microsoft Office software: Word, Excel, Outlook, MS Access database and these headphones will specifically work with Cortana to access my e-mail, contacts, calendar, To-Do’s, in the Microsoft cloud. So the Surface Headphones work fine with my ReSound LiNX Quattro 9 61’s. There’s plenty of r…

In reply to @azureblue

Thanks.

It looks I may have to buy a Resound TV Streamer 2 if I wish to view YouTube videos or movies on my PC or listen to music - I would then have direct streaming to my aids like I get from my iPhone 6 for music and phone calls quite satisfactorily. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I don’t understand the details of the quality of sound having lived with deficient hearing for very many years. So long there is no distortion in the sound and the speech is sufficiently clear and comprehensible I am satisfied.

My Phone Clip+ will be of no use, except for streaming items which are exclusively saved/available on my Samsung S8 phone or 12.2 in Tablet.

The TV Streamer is meant for TVs. Will it work equally well with PCs? Will the connection be similar to what Resound shows in their videos?

In reply to @akaybee

The tv transmitter will work with a laptop. I move my Phonak TV transmitter around to different devices. But for a laptop without Bluetooth you could also buy a cheap Bluetooth transmitter. It would work fine with the Phone Clip+ and would be much cheaper than the Resound transmitter. Also, as mentioned, the Sennheiser or the SSP2714-01 (catchy name, huh) would be Bluetooth transmitters that may also give you other capabilities.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but can I not connect a non-MFI transmitter to my TV and use a good BT enabled headphone without the Phone Clip?

If the headphone has good amplification then I can either use my as well but at low amplification or no HA at all. As far as audio from the TV is concerned it does not make a difference whether or not I am using the HA, assuming I am not expecting any telephone calls (via my iPhone) or listening to conversation.

For my KS6 (Resound Lynx) you need the Phoneclip+ to connect to a standard Bluetooth (non-MFI) device.
The MFI Bluetooth LE only works with Apple devices.
The will work wirelessly with the TV Receiver but that is not using Bluetooth.

I was thinking of the possibility of not using the at all for listening to audio from a TV or an audio device (including PCs) by using a adapter at the source for transmitting and a ‘good’ BT-enabled headphone for receiving. MFI situation is not involved.

I think that would work pretty well. I just use “TV ears” without hearing aids and others have just used good headphones. Your relatively flat loss would help. (You don’t have any frequencies that are way worse than others)

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