My old hearing aids were awesome. They knew when I got a phone call, and switched over to phone mode automatically. If I wanted to initiate a call, I only had to tap one button to switch things over. The microphone unit was small and easy to clip on. Those days are no longer, of course, because I lost those hearing aids, and I still kick myself every day over it.

Meanwhile, I need a way to hook up my hearing aids to my phone. My phone – Samsung Vibrant – isn’t hearing aid compatible, bizarrely enough. That means that putting my aids on telecoil mode does nothing, because the phone won’t talk to them. Currently, if I want to use my phone, I have to take a hearing aid out and then try to listen the regular way; if I’m in the car, I can plug it into the stereo, which is very nice – but I don’t only make calls from the car.

The Starkey ELI seems to be out of production, I can’t find it anywhere. It was basically a standalone Direct Audio Input (DAI) shoe – you could just leave it attached to your hearing aid until you wanted to use it. Sure, it would be big and bulky, but it would be the closest approximation of the function of my old hearing aids.

Any other option will involve a cord, guaranteed. There has to be a way to connect the hearing aid to the phone, whether that’s through a DAI shoe, a silhouette hook, or a neckloop. Actually, the neckloop isn’t an annoying cord, it just goes around your neck, but it’s pretty unreliable – I felt it was never strong enough to reach both hearing aids at the same time unless I held my head perfectly still. A DAI shoe option is out because you can’t take off your hearing aid, open it up, put the shoe on, connect to the phone, and restart the hearing aid quickly. So I’m looking at getting a silhouette hook.

But here’s the two main questions: monaural, or binaural? Corded, or wireless? The simplest option is the Music Link which just plugs right into the phone, and then you speak into the phone’s microphone as usual. It’s $39 for monaural, $49 for binaural, and free shipping. I would want monaural for phone calls (old habits die hard, plus it’s faster to put on) and binaural for music (stereo!)…but like regular earphones, you can’t have both unless you buy both. A more complex option is a wireless one, like this, which has binaural hooks for $60 and free shipping (I have Amazon Prime). But it’s not easy to switch the phone over to bluetooth at a moment’s notice when you’re receiving a call.

So I think I want corded…I think. You just plug it in like any other headset, it’s the fastest way to proceed with a call. (As VRS users know, it’s a pain in the ass to have to wait for your dial tone.) You can’t hide it as easily, but there’s cords coming from your ears anyway (didn’t have that with my old aids), so who cares at that point. But monaural or binaural? Monaural or binaural? Aieeeee!

All of the above is just using my blog as a sounding board for my own ideas…carry on…