Q: starkey halo

Bodolink,

it is possibly a reciever (speaker). My left ear Halo receiver had to be replaced because it died.

Golly, without hearing that, I have no idea at all.  I'm sure you know the sound of feedback, and would have SAID feedback if that was what you were hearing, so I'm assuming it is something else entirely.  I haven't had anything like that.  I hope you are on your "trial" period.

BTW: I went to a "Fab 4 concert" today, and didn't expect to like the results, but had a wonderful experience!  The concert sounded really good!

Go to starkeypro.com and look under Quick Tips.  Several pdf's are available.  One in particular deals with "troubleshooting pairing".  If pairing is not done "by the book", troubles result.  Unless you audiologist has done "Halo" training, they may be no better than a "novice".  Check it out!

I've had the Halos for a while now. If you want a good remote controller, i'd advise you to look elsewhere. I like the sound of the Halos and, when they work with the iPhone, they are great, but the BT connection needs a LOT of correcting. Sometimes rebooting the phone works, sometimes turning on/off airplane mode works, sometimes nothing works. There are times when one hearing aid is recognized and not the other. I believe this is Starkey's problem as the iPhone Hearing Aid Setting seems to recognize the BT. For the kind of money that we have to spend on these devises, it is disappointing that the Halos don't work as advertised.

Well, I've had mine almost three weeks now.  Every once in a while I'll need to reboot to get the Bluetooth to work correctly, but overall everything has been working quite well.  As I type this, I'm listening to a podcast, streaming to the aids.  I've been listening to podcasts all morning.

One thing I've found is that Bluetooth itself is really weak, and my body absorbs a lot of the signal.  I carry the iPhone in my shirt pocket, so it isn't far from the aids, but if I move my arm over the phone or press my hand so that the iPhone is both against my chest, and covered by my hand, the signal is almost completely absorbed by my body, and the audio  breaks up.  So you might want to visit the placement of your phone.  It works best when it is in "free space" and not against anything that will absorb the Bluetooth signal.

While sitting here, the iPhone is lying on my desk, and plugged into the charger.  I've been able to get up, walk around the room, and into the next room, with a solid signal, but if I put it in my pocket, against my chest, a lot of the signal is absorbed.

Sitting here with my HA's and being ****** off about the connectivity problems, I sent this to the Starkey tech who told me that there is nothing wrong with the app but that it is an Apple & bluetooth problem. Here is what I sent:

Good morning. After reading the Apple discussions re:Halo connection issues I realize that your comment needs testing.

So I went to my local Apple store and paired as many bluetooth items that I could find with my iPhone 5C. I moved out of the store and in some cases event went home and then came back. The iPhone paired within 4 seconds of being in range to the devise I was using.

So my conclusion is that the issue is with the HA/app and not the iPhone. I’m on day 30 of trials and I’m still having issues.

For example, a very typical day in the life of…, the iPhone has been in my pocket for over an hour, it was paired and the TruLink was up and showing full batteries and the mute and un-mute worked just fine.

When I took it out of my pocket the left HA, it usually is the left / both, was not linked to the app.

I went through the routine of shutting off the bluetooth, closing all apps, and starting over. Now when I start the app both HA's are not connected. No matter what I do they are not seen by the iPhone app.

However the iPhone's 3 quick home key clicks show that I am connected! I now assume it is the app that is the issue.

Then, and this is the only way to remedy the app not connecting, is to SHUT THE IPHONE DOWN, START IT BACK UP, MAKE SURE THE BLUETOOTH SEES THE HA’S AND THEN AND ONLY THEN BRING UP THE APP. This works 100% of the time.

We need this explained clearly and in layman’s terms ASAP.

I and others are suffering through this with no support from either Starkey / Apple. My next stop is a review of what is going on in the media.

Very frustrated, frank

Feel free to send your own comments/copy mine to: LeeAnn_Esse@starkey.com

You took the words right out of my mouth. I'm waiting for a replacement so I have loaners and the Aud told me that these will work just fine, BS. Again, your comments are balls on. Wednesday, in the AM, starting my walk, 4 miles, Pandora streamed all the way home, fantastic! Thursday, nothing I did, worked and I just shut off the stream. Friday, screeching and all sorts of strange sounds were coming through from Pandora: changed from HA to iPhone and the music was just fine coming from the speakers, put it back to the HA and the crap kept coming, shut them off. Today, Saturday, it was a mixed bag, 2 shut downs, one open the HA battery compartments, changed from HA to iPhone and then back. Finally, the streaming worked for the last 2 miles of my walk. Someone said that "Your Milage Might Vary" NS Sherlock.

Still ******, frank

I disagree with the tech.  I don't use the TruLink App much, preferring to use just the iOS (triple click) controls.  I had my audi set me up with Normal, Music and Car.  Normal is what I use for conversation, with accented highs.  Music is what I use for STREAMING, with a "fuller" sound, and Car turns the mic's down pretty far, but is essentially "normal" except at lower volume.  I'm happy with those settings.

Now, the reason I don't think that it is an Apple / Bluetooth problem is that the iOS Triple Click works fine when the TruLink App can't find my aids.  So I agree with you.  You have a TruLink App problem, not an Apple / Bluetooth problem.

Jim

I moved to Halo after a nearly two years with hearing aids 1/2 the price of the Halo pair.  After 10 days with the Halo pair, the premium is well worth it.  A case in point was a hour plus phone conversation with the Cox Comm. help desk.  Streaming to my Halo's via iPhone 5s was terrific.  Also, I love the ability to set levels for a particular place and have it change automatically when I move from one location to another geo tagged.  Two friends have always been very hard to hear as they speak in a rapid, low soft voice.  I set it for one (the coffee buddy) and it also worked for the other friend.

Nothing, except my wife, is perfect but my Halo's are close.

I know I'm a bit late to this thread, but I have been wearing Starkey Halo i110's for about 2 1/2 months (I didn't like the Linx as my first hearing aids) and have them paired with two iPhones (a 5C and a 5S). I have had to occasionally repair my hearing aids, but I am able to pretty seamlessly move from one phone to the other at the beginning and end of my day. I have talked with Starkey support and they acknowledge there are some Bluetooth difficulties between the iPhone and the Halos. Since the Halos pair differently than a 'standard' Bluetooth device, I am not surprised that they are a little wonky. Just my experience with technology.

For me, the key is to take a couple of standard steps each time I reconnect with one of my phones --

1. Turn off Bluetooth on the currently connected phone.
2. On the phone I will connect to next, turn airplane mode off and back on. (I don't know that this actually does anything, but it seems to help.)
3. Enter the Settings->General->Accessibility->Hearing Aids->(select your hearing aids) screen and wait for the Presets to populate with their names, rather than the default Preset 0, Preset 1, etc.
4. Open the TruLink app and wait for the hearing aids to reconnect with the app. I have found a couple of things with the app when reconnecting --
   • If I open the app too soon, I might have to restart my phone to get the app to recognize the hearing aids.
   • I usually let the app discover the hearing aids while I am doing something else. Sometimes it reconnects immediately, sometimes it takes a few moments.

If the above doesn't work, I will go through the re-pairing process. I have only had to re-pair my hearing aids with only one of my phones (the 5C) and only once since I started wearing the Halos. I'm OK with that kind of track record so far. If it turns out that I have to start re-pairing more often, that could be an issue. However, given the fact that my hearing is significantly improved with the Halos, I am willing to overlook a bit of technical wonkiness.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for your post. I've had nothing but trouble with the bluetooth with my Halos. I agree that I hear better and that is the only reason that I'm sticking with the Halos. I sure do miss telecoils. I can no longer listen to anything on my macbook. Starkey says that they can't use BT on the Halos to connect to the computer. I do admit that when the iPhone remote works, it is fantastic, but it doesn't work without repairing for me.

What I wonder is why any of these companies can't seem to make a BT connection work. BT isn't a new tech any longer. I also wonder why we users always have to give up some feature in our hearing aids. I really miss being able to use a tele coil to connect and listen to tutorials on my macbook without disturbing anyone. I've gone up and down the isles of Fry's Electronics, and Best Buy trying to find a Headphone that would be compatible with the Halos without giving feedback or putting so much pressure on my ears that they are pained. So far, there is nothing that I've found. Do any of you have workarounds for this issue?

Thanks.

I believe the Bluetooth connection issue belongs with both Starkey and Apple. However, hearing aids are not a "regular" Bluetooth device and so cannot connect to anything other than iPhones. iPhones are designed with Accessibility in mind. Other electronic devices are not (at least, not that I have seen so far). That prevents using hearing airds as a set of headphones with an iPad, laptop, etc. My technical experience (I've been in IT since 1979) is the Bluetooth is a bit troublesome with a variety of devices. Wired devices have very few of the problems I have experienced with Bluetooth devices.

Which iPhone model do you use? I am having very good luck with my 5C and 5S (both are 32Gb models).

Thanks. I am going to be upgrading to the iPhone 6 Plus. Hoping that this will help in maintaining a good BT connection. At this time, I'm using a 4s. I do development as a hobby, but haven't really worked much with BT. I just do basic stuff for fun. Neat that you are so knowledgeable. Glad to see you as part of this discussion.

I think upgrading will be a big help. I had already upgraded past the 4S by the time I received my hearing aids.

I now have my forever HA’s, at least the money, 7 grand, is out of my pocket, and will now put my 2 cents into what I’ve discovered over the last 5 months.

First, I see that ReSound  has released more models with increased battery capacity but no mention of BT connectivity fixes. Thanks ReSound but I’ll keep my Halo’s.

As I’ve said before in this blog my hearing is superior with the Halo’s. My hearing loss is at the higher frequency so now I can have conversations and understand most everyone. The hearing of clocks, high pitches on my piano, creaks in the flooring and my pooch’s nails on the tile floor when she walks is just amazing, thank you Starkey!

BUT, and this is a big one, I would have never started this if it were not for the hype in the beginning of the year with the ReSound Linx announcement about their pairing with the iPhone. I was just not ready for HA’s, my wife was, but not me. That would have been a mistake now that I hear almost every sound. But as someone said before, “your mileage may vary” or “we were sold a faulty bill of goods”.

The connectivity issues are the down side and the upside of the pricing.

There are mornings, I walk 4 to 5 miles per day, and listen to Pandora for the whole walk and I’m in heaven. Then there are morning walks where I want to throw these HA’s in the lake. Frustrating to say the least.

My startup routine is the same so why do these HA’s act different on different days? No need to answer since even Starkey doesn’t know.

What I do know is that I can always shut the iPhone down and start over and then most times the connection is fine. Most, but not always. Like this morning after the music died, I shut down, powered up and hit Pandora and the screeching in the HA’s was the pits. I swiped up and sent the music to the iPhone speakers for a few seconds then back to the HA’s. Then they worked fine. Now why do you suppose this happens? I was out on the Apple Halo discussion boards today and saw this comment: 

“What I wonder is why any of these companies can't seem to make a BT connection work. BT isn't a new tech any longer. I also wonder why we users always have to give up some feature in our hearing aids.” I guess you get my point about connectivity: The big BUT.

I’ll have to live with the issues to get the great hearing. I just hope Starkey evolves their HA’s with improved connectivity.

Frank