Bluetooth Neck Loop Tested, Artone

[Admin]

I just received and tested the new Artone Bluetooth Neckloop.

Pictures will be posted soon.

I have tested them so far with several hearing aids including the Phonak Micro Power, Phonak Savia BTE, Phonak Perseo BTE, Sonic Innovations Balance BTE, Sonic Innovations Innova ITC all with telecoils.

With all of the models, I used my new Blackberry Pearl w/ T-Mobile as the carrier. I also linked it easily with my Nextel Motorola I830, no problems. Linking the phone to the Artone was super easy.

As for the Artone casing...what they did, it appears, is they used an exsisting bluetooth earpiece and ran a telecoil loop through it and placed the microphone facing upward.

The receiving via the telecoil loop was incredible! I couldn't believe that there was no interference of the "tick tick tick" you often hear around speakers when you talk on a digital phone.

It received very well on all models of hearing aids listed above, although we did have to raise the gain a little more than prescribed in the software just in the T-coil mode.

I have no hearing loss, but have been using the Artone with a Perseo BTE confirgured with a slim tube and open fit and it works better than any bluetooth headset I have used so far.

Users on the other end could hear me ok, although my wife says my voice sounds slightly "far away" as with most other headsets.

I will post photos shortly and will also be ordering a supply to sell shortly.

[jchap2k]

Awesome, thanks for the feedback.

[Admin]

I have created a small site to feature bluetooth accessories for hearing aids and, hopefully in the future, feature full bluetooth hearing aids.

The site is: www.bluetoothhearingaids.net (http://www.bluetoothhearingaids.net)

We are also about to begin retailing the Artone brand bluetooth neckloop on our site at www.localbattery.com (http://www.localbattery.com)

I thank all of our users in advance for any feedback you can give me about the Artone's or any other bluetooth devices you may use or use in the future.

[zozo]

Admin, How many turns of the artone neckloop?
Can I hear the phone call thru both of my hearing aids?

[Admin]

Yes, with the Artone bluetooth neckloop, you can hear the converstion thru both hearing aids, provided they both have telecoil.

As for the "turns", please elaborate.

[kdogg]

Help???

I have a pair of Cielo 2 Actives, and I can't find any information if my HA have telecoil? Can anyone confirm this? Has anyone used any Siemens HA with an Artone Neckloop?

[marla]

I just received and tested the Artone Bluetooth Neckloop. I have a Blackberry Pearl and I don't know how to listen my music(mp3 and .wav) in my phone.
Do you think it's possible?

Thanks!

[Admin]

I will have to try that out to see if there is a way to stream the MP3 via the bluetooth instead of the headphone port.

I have a Pearl, so I will check to see if that is possible.

If anyone has already accomplished this, please post.

[Paddie]

If you have telecoils in your HAs, is the Artone performance capability for phone and mp3 comparable to the the Oticon Epoq with bluetooth interface?
What is the difference if any?

[xbulder]

If you have telecoils in your HAs, is the Artone performance capability for phone and mp3 comparable to the the Oticon Epoq with bluetooth interface?
What is the difference if any?

Yes this a very large difference, For starters in the epoq you dont need to use your aids in the T position- therefore there is no need to change it to a T or an MT position.. Another diference is that the epoq allows to hear the phone as well as the sourounding noise, you can even set how much microhone/ phone gain diference you want..

Streamer serves as a remote control- and therefore for ITC instrument it could allow you to use the Lifelearning feature.....

One thing that the Streamer needs to have is a voice dialing option,
It would be nice if you could say dial home and the comand is given
to the Cell phone..

[Paddie]

Yes this a very large difference, For starters in the epoq you dont need to use your aids in the T position- therefore there is no need to change it to a T or an MT position.. Another diference is that the epoq allows to hear the phone as well as the sourounding noise, you can even set how much microhone/ phone gain diference you want..

Streamer serves as a remote control- and therefore for ITC instrument it could allow you to use the Lifelearning feature.....

One thing that the Streamer needs to have is a voice dialing option,
It would be nice if you could say dial home and the comand is given
to the Cell phone..

Could you please define T or MT positions?
Is there a competitor to the Epoch?

[xbulder]

yes phonak is launching a new instrument eXELIA and it will have
a better looking (it has an LCD screen)

THIS WILL BE REAL EXPENSIVE

[Paddie]

Interesting: http://www.exelia.phonak.com/
Not much info but it says it will be available Dec 2007. Perhaps it is only available in Europe right now. I'll see if I can find more information. Eg. How much in Euros.

[kstc864]

just bought and tried the MAXit loopset http://www.tecear.com/MaxIT.htm

great sound but people complain they cannot understand me very well (talk about the shoe being on the other foot)

I am going to buy the arrtone and try it out to compare.

has anyone else tried both?

hate to go through the trouble , but i need the best for work.

[csb001]

How did your test of the MaxIT turn out?

[nize]

Yes this a very large difference, For starters in the epoq you dont need to use your aids in the T position- therefore there is no need to change it to a T or an MT position..
i thought the epoq streamer can only be used with epoq hearing aids, is this true? if so, the streamer is not a viable solution for everybody.

Another diference is that the epoq allows to hear the phone as well as the sourounding noise, you can even set how much microhone/ phone gain diference you want..
this is also available with other hearing aids that allow mic/t-coil adjustments. my bernafon icos 105 has this ability when used with t-coil.

Streamer serves as a remote control- and therefore for ITC instrument it could allow you to use the Lifelearning feature.....
not sure what this is, but it seems to be another epoq-only feature.

One thing that the Streamer needs to have is a voice dialing option,
It would be nice if you could say dial home and the comand is given
to the Cell phone..
the artone has this ability when paired with a phone that has voice dialing. using the artone with my razr, i can press a single button on the artone and say 'call home' or 'dial 555-1234', etc.

i've been looking at the epoq + streamer, and think it's a nice solution, but i think epoq could have gone one better and just integrated bluetooth directly into their hearing aids instead of offloading it into the streamer, and making the streamer only compatible with their brand devices. i think they could have at least made the streamer compatible with other hearing aids as well.

here's some spec comparisons between the epoq streamer and artone bluetooth;
epoq streamer = 88 x 35 x 12mm, 42g weight, 5hour talk time, 5hour recharge time
artone = 58 x 23 x 20mm, 12g weight, 8hour talk time, 2hour recharge time

[xbulder]

true it is an epoq only option.... Got to remember most HI do not have the same sound quality when you turn the HI in the T coil.
Remember you dont have to use the epoq in an MT..

I still think oticon still needs to put a voice dialing option...

[audiogal]

i think epoq could have gone one better and just integrated bluetooth directly into their hearing aids instead of offloading it into the streamer, and making the streamer only compatible with their brand devices.

Currently Bluetooth has much more battery drain than hearing aids, and I was told that you would get less than one day per battery if the bluetooth was integrated into the aids, not an optimal solution. Once they get the Bluetooth power consumption down, it would definitely be nice to have it integrated.

[CGraham]

I am not getting any sound into my aids after pairing my Artone up with my cell phone. People can hear me but nothing is coming into my hearing aids. Did you have to have a remote control to activate the "T-coils"?


I just received and tested the new Artone Bluetooth Neckloop.

Pictures will be posted soon.

I have tested them so far with several hearing aids including the Phonak Micro Power, Phonak Savia BTE, Phonak Perseo BTE, Sonic Innovations Balance BTE, Sonic Innovations Innova ITC all with telecoils.

With all of the models, I used my new Blackberry Pearl w/ T-Mobile as the carrier. I also linked it easily with my Nextel Motorola I830, no problems. Linking the phone to the Artone was super easy.

As for the Artone casing...what they did, it appears, is they used an exsisting bluetooth earpiece and ran a telecoil loop through it and placed the microphone facing upward.

The receiving via the telecoil loop was incredible! I couldn't believe that there was no interference of the "tick tick tick" you often hear around speakers when you talk on a digital phone.

It received very well on all models of hearing aids listed above, although we did have to raise the gain a little more than prescribed in the software just in the T-coil mode.

I have no hearing loss, but have been using the Artone with a Perseo BTE confirgured with a slim tube and open fit and it works better than any bluetooth headset I have used so far.

Users on the other end could hear me ok, although my wife says my voice sounds slightly "far away" as with most other headsets.

I will post photos shortly and will also be ordering a supply to sell shortly.

[adgraham]

I am not getting any sound into my aids after pairing my Artone up with my cell phone. People can hear me but nothing is coming into my hearing aids. Did you have to have a remote control to activate the "T-coils"?

It depends on the make and model of your hearing aid. Some hearing aids do not have T-Coils. Some are turned on by switch, button, and/or remote control.

I recommend the following:

1. Check your manual on how to activate your T-Coil.
2. Post the make and model of your HA on here so maybe someone can help.
3. Make sure you have the artone turned all of the way up. It beeps more then once when turned up.
4. If none of this works, check with your audi.

Finally... Nice last name.