Starkey Halo 2 streaming quality, compared to other devices (particularly to Muse / SurfLink Media 2)

My audi said no BUT if you "hear" something different, please advise!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seems like a real missed opportunity to me!

she said no about streaming to TV.

Streaming quality on the Starkey Halo 2 i2400 is fantastic for voice. Phone calls, FaceTime, NPR, podcasts, that sort of thing—having the audio streamed to both ears is incredible. However, for music, it's a different story. There's just no bass. None. Even in my music program. Right now, I'm not sure it's possible to improve the quality without going to a significantly larger design. For example: audiophiles sometimes wear custom-molded headphones that resemble hearing aids. They're among the finest quality headphones you can buy. Yet they're huge! Enormous compared to the Halo's. And you're limited to a closed fit—the headphones block your ears.

I've had my Halo2 hearing aids for about a month now. I agree with Shawnsupport that the telephone call streaming from my iPhone is very good, and also that that listening to music isn't great because there is very little bass. I think it would be challenging for ANY HA to produce significant bass in music, because the HA speakers are so small (have a RIC model; I don't know if bass is better with the BTE model). I think some in-the-ear headphones, even Bluetooth models, do have better qualify sound, but they have much larger speakers (and use significantly more power). It's probably a tradeoff HA users will have to accept until (a) speaker technology improves and (b) HA-sized batteries can generate more power.

I tried the Surflink Media 2 earlier, and the sound quality is a little better, I'm guessing because the sound sent over a 900Mhz signal instead of via Bluetooth. But, of course, it isn't a mobile solution, and it can't stream from your iPhone to your HAs with it. I returned the Surflink because the interface didn't work for me, but that's a separate issue.

All of the recent bluetooth direct-to-iPhone hearing aids use the (relatively) new "low power" version of bluetooth. This has a maximum data rate of something like 100 Kb/s which means that the audio quality for streaming music via bluetooth from the iPhone is not great. If you have bluetooth headphones or earphones, they use the higher power version of bluetooth and the data rate is more than 10 times as great, so distortion is almost nonexistent. The problem is with the low power version bluetooth, which is required in order that your tiny hearing aid batteries do not die within the hour. (In fact, even at this low power level, if you stream music all day long your battery life will drop to half what it should be.) Most people probably can probably live with this quality level. In my case, I cannot. I listen to classical music which has momentary silences, for example, between the notes of a solo piano piece. When I hear piano music streamed through my Starkey Halo 2 aids, it drives me crazy, so I just don't use the streaming option. However, many people are happy with the quality of music while streaming. I find that streaming is just fine for voice -- getting driving directions from Google maps, for example! Most iPhone apps automatically stream their output to the hearing aids.

I sometimes think some of the information given is not useful to most readers. It is worthwhile pointing out the surflink media 2 must have been used with a different pair of starkey aids, the surflink is not compatible with the halo model itself.

I then note several users are experiencing poor music audio. I suspect they are having a problem setting up the TruLink app properly. I use halo hearing aids and have never experienced anything like it, it has beaten any audio I have ever listened to via hearing aids or headphones....and believe me in my line of work I know a thing or two about audio. When I switch the iPhone to its music app, the sound quality is so good it feels like my ears are not even involved in the process, just this giant concert somewhere in my skull! I get plenty of base when I use them. I also note, for the first time ever, I can actually hear the words being sung on a song. If you have difficulty hearing the words via the music setting, try listening in normal mode. It won't get quite as pure music but enhances the spoken word that little bit more.

As for other problems that may be causing issues, we all have different hearing loss so it is impossible to compare experiences, there are lots of different Bluetooth protocols, interference from other products, battery strength, the list goes on. My advice is therefore get a trial of the aids and play around with the settings on the app, don't be swayed by my opinion the halo is fantastic or someone else thinking there is no bass.

I am glad to see this question as I have gotten a pair of muse i2000 hearing aids a month ago. I got the surflink device free and although I am impressed with the overall listening improvement with respect to speech etc. I am not so with streaming music via the surflink. I have a music program and have been going to my audiologist weekly for adjustments. She increased the bass and mid's which have helped but it still feels like listening to a tiny speaker with little dynamic range. My audiologist recommended the muse because I care about music (listening to as well as playing) and I liked the streaming feature. I don't mind taking the aids out and putting on my high end headphones at the desk since there is no comparison.... I am getting some custom molded in the ear receivers to see how much that improves the audio quality.

Cant offer any comparison with other models but so far my experience with streaming music using the surflink is not good!

Streaming music with the i1600's is quite good...and it can be tweaked (by the audiologist). In general, you will get better sound quality with an "over the ear" type than "in the ear" (only). Some of it is acoustics (external mics), and some of it is the additional electronics it takes for signal processing and BT connectivity (like antenna).