Hearing aids add clarity, connection and depth to daily life — and that includes when watching TV. While a quick conversation with your neighbor or the sound of the birds chirping outside may come naturally with hearing aids, interacting with technology might take a few extra steps. Get the tips you need to make your TV watching experience more enjoyable with clearer, more natural sound quality.
If you feel frustrated that you can’t hear TV with hearing aids or struggle to find the right volume, you’re in good company. For many people with hearing loss, watching TV can be frustrating. Background noise and sound distortion often make it difficult to hear words clearly, and turning up the volume doesn’t always help. However, with the technology that’s built into your hearing aids, plus a few adjustments or accessories, your TV-watching experience can be much more enjoyable. Below, we’ll cover how to hear TV better with hearing aids.
Hearing the TV with hearing aids might take some getting used to. Advanced features like directional microphones are designed to improve the listening experience, but can have a bit of a learning curve at first. Here’s what to know:
1. Face the TV
Directional microphones are designed to pick up sound from in front of you and reduce background noise from other directions. Facing the TV directly helps your hearing aids capture its sound. However, if you’re not facing the TV directly, the directionality feature may actually reduce the sound.
2. Notice your distance from the speakers
TV speakers are sometimes fairly far from where you sit, and hearing aids are optimized to pick up speech within about a six- foot range. The farther you are from the speakers, the more difficult it might be to catch all the words, especially if your TV has older or weak speakers.
3. Check the size of the room
The size of the room where you’re watching TV also plays an important role. Big rooms with high ceilings may cause sounds to blend together or come across as fuzzy, even with directional microphones.
If hearing aids for watching TV are a priority for you, talk to your hearing care professional. They can show you options like Bluetooth hearing aids or accessories that stream TV audio directly into your hearing aids for the best clarity. Subtitles and a soundbar will also help.
While some hearing aids have built-in Bluetooth capabilities, there are other devices designed to optimize hearing TV with hearing aids. They offer a range of different ways to connect your hearing aids to your TV, so you can find a solution that works for your home entertainment setup and your specific hearing aids.
Let’s explore more options for hearing TV clearly with hearing aids below:
Hearing aids with Bluetooth allow you to stream audio instantly, once paired with another Bluetooth-enabled device such as a TV, phone or smart speaker. These hearing aids are advanced and adaptable, creating a seamless listening experience without the need for headphones.
If you have a smart TV, you can pair hearing aids directly to your TV. The Miracle-Ear SPARK™ RIC R hearing aid takes this even further – delivering steaming with an extended range of up to 600 feet*, which is about the length of two football fields!
Miracle-Ear’s Bluetooth® Audio Clip is an external accessory that can help you hear the TV, as well as music and phone calls. Small and hands-free, it streams sound from the source straight to your hearing aids.
If you’re looking for hearing aids with a TV adapter, Miracle-Ear offers a range of styles that can connect with the Audio Clip.
If you’re looking for hearing aids with TV adapters, a device called a hearing aid TV streamer might be exactly what you’re looking for. This plug-and-play accessory connects to the TV and sends high-quality Dolby Digital® stereo to your hearing aids — no headphones or hand-held devices needed. By streaming sound directly to your hearing aids ears, you can listen at a volume that’s just right for you.
Bonus: that means no more disputes about volume levels with others who are watching with you. Even if you don’t have special hearing aids for television watching, this steamer is an accessory that you can add to your toolkit.
Being able to sit comfortably is a big part of enjoying your TV-watching experience. Wireless TV hearing devices like these make it easy for you to settle in and watch your favorite shows from your favorite spot.
A telecoil (also called a t-coil) is a hearing aid feature made of a tiny wire, and works in tandem with devices that create electromagnetic signals, often in large public spaces. Telecoil hearing aids pick up the magnetic signal and facilitate clear sound, which is especially useful in places like theaters or airports.
A hearing aid loop system for TV also works with telecoils. Induction loops transmit signal to the hearing aids’ telecoils, creating a link between the sound source and the hearing aids. These electromagnetic transmitters can be used in a small space or a large room by turning on your hearing aids’ telecoil feature.
An FM system is a common wireless TV hearing device, with a similar technology design to broadcast radio. This device has its own frequency for the hearing aid-wearer, with a transmitter, microphone and receivers. The microphone picks up sound and sends it to the receiver, which can attach to hearing aids or be worn separately.
FM systems are handy for removing excess noise in the surrounding space and focusing on the source, whether that’s a TV, lecture speaker or classroom.
If you’re wondering how to connect hearing aids to the TV streamer or how to connect hearing aids to the TV via Bluetooth, the process may be simpler than you think.
While pairing hearing aids with the TV via Bluetooth will slightly depend on your TV model, the steps are generally as follows:
To connect your hearing aids to your TV streamer, follow these steps:
Hearing aids pick up sounds from your surroundings via their microphones and send them to the amplifier. The sound is then transmitted to the speaker, which sends it into the ear.
With TV audio, it works the same way. The sounds travel from the TV speakers or a separate soundbar through the room, and the hearing aid picks it up. If you’re using Bluetooth technology, the difference is that the sound goes directly to your hearing aids from the source instead of through the ambient audio in the room. This can make sound clearer and deliver a more comfortable listening experience.
Today, smart TVs have Bluetooth capability. A TV compatible with hearing aids will display the name of your hearing aids in the list of available devices for pairing. A TV with Bluetooth for hearing aids is certainly helpful, but if you don’t already have a smart TV and don’t want to buy one, a TV streamer can do the trick (as long as you have Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids).
If you’re wondering, “are wireless TV headphones compatible with hearing aids?” The answer is yes, they can be! However, with Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids, headphones aren’t necessary for watching TV.
To get the best sound quality and minimal background noise, there are a few things you need to consider. For example, if you’ve adjusted your hearing aids settings but you’re watching something that has a lot of background noise (like live sports), you may need to turn on closed captions. Use the guide below for tips to set up the best TV watching experience.
TVs can be set up to display closed captions. These show text that matches the audio on television in real time, and make a big difference for people with hearing loss. Even though certain hearing aids and accessories stream clear sound that eases the viewing experience, captions are always a helpful back-up for clarity.
Don’t be afraid to request these when you’re watching TV away from home — it’s likely others will appreciate them, too.
