[Elecraft] Headphones

[Lew Phelps K6LMP]

I recently began wearing hearing aids myself, so I know what you're going through. You have to remove hearing aids to use conventional headphones, or else you get audio feedback screeching. When you remove hearing aids, if you're like most people, you lose ability to hear higher frequencies, which is the range in which consonants reside, and from which we discern the meaning of speech. (vowels are about 300-600 Hz, but we don't extract much meaning from vowel sounds.)  

As a first step, adjust the audio receive profile to give a some boost to frequencies up to 1kHz and a lot of boost to higher frequencies.. This will offset the increased hearing loss at higher frequencies that most people with hearing loss experience, and restore ability to discern consonants.  Unfortunately, this also can increase background noise levels.   

IF that doesn't do the job, other possible solutions include:

1. Hearing aid compatible headphones such as the Geemarc CLA3 Hearing Aid Compatible Headset (haven't tried)
2. Bluetooth adapter. Many modern hearing aids have Bluetooth connectivity, so you can use them as headphones with a Bluetooth headset dongle. Google on "bluetooth audio dongle 3.5" and you'll come up with quite a few, ranging in price from about #$20 to $40, that will plug into the headset jack and convert the audio output to a Bluetooth signal, which you can hear directly through any Bluetooth enabled hearing aid.  I haven't tried this, but I plan to do obtain one very soon.
3. Have you tried speakers and hearing aids combined? If that doesn't work, your hearing aids probably need adjustment or replacement.
4.  If you want to use conventional headphones without your hearing aids, put a small stereo amplifier inline between line out  output of your rig and your headphones. Preferably, use an amp with equalizer controls, and boost the higher frequencies commensurate with your hearing loss profile. 

Hope this helps.

Lew K6LMP

On Jul 9, 2011, at 2:17 PM, Bill Ross wrote:

> Because of a hearing loss, (I wear hearing aids) I find that wearing headphones with the K3 (and another radios) works better for me. However, I have noticed that I get more volume out of the built-in speaker than the various headsets I have.  With the headsets on, I find I am running the volume control just about at max most of the time, with RF gain also at max.  One of the headsets I use, is an old RS “HI-FI” pair that cost $40. way back when, and yet, are less sensitive than my Sony ear buds.  Also, for some reason, the RS headset must have a low freq. cutoff near the 600 Hz side tone, as I get more of a “thump” than a sine wave tone out of them. The Sony ear buds, work better, (more volume than the RS ones, even without my aids in) , and the side tone sounds better,  than the RS “HI-FI” headset, but, still less than the built-in speaker. 
> 
> Does anyone have any experience with the “communications type headphones sold by AES and other ham radio dealers, or that advertise in QST, CQ, etc.? 
> 
> Would appreciate any guidance or advice from someone who’s “been there”.  
> 
> Tnx and 73
> 
> Bill, k6mgo
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html