What is the best stethoscope for hearing impaired? Stemoscope PRO, as the best stethoscope for hard of hearing or the best stethoscope for hearing impaired, is friendly to both medical professionals with mild hearing impairment who just need an amplified stethoscope and those with severe hearing loss who wear hearing aids. In this page, you will learn solutions for both groups. For hearing aids wearers, you can get better idea of the capability and compatibility of your hearing aids and then explore various options to use your hearing aids with Stemoscope PRO. A mini “hearing test” is included at the bottom of this page for you to test the capability of your earphones and hearing aids. You will find out Stemoscope PRO digital stethoscope is the best stethoscope for hard of hearing.

Solutions for Hearing Impaired Not Using Hearing Aids

Medical professionals with mild hearing loss might not need to wear hearing aids. Amplification of the auscultation sounds is the major feature of stethoscope for hearing impaired. Stemoscope PRO is an amplified stethoscope. Stemoscope PRO can stream the sounds directly to Bluetooth earphones – phone or app is not must. Though this amplified stethoscope provides more than X100 digital amplification, to hear loud auscultation sounds, you need to choose earphones with high output power. Bluetooth headphones are generally much louder than Bluetooth earbuds. If you prefer portability, Bluetooth earbuds with silicone tips can be a good choice. For instance, the Apple AirPods Pro performs very well for some users. Please don’t choose earbuds that don’t have silicone tips, because they generally can’t output sufficient low-frequency sounds that make most part of the auscultation sounds. Do choose both earphones and stethoscope for hearing impaired, other than simply focus on stethoscope only. 

To test whether your earbuds can output sufficient loud auscultation sounds, you may use your earbuds to listen to these two sample heartbeat recordings recorded with normal volume boost and high volume boost respectively. Please increase your phone volume if you feel it is difficult for you to hear until the phone volume reaches the maximum. If you feel these recordings are loud enough, Stemoscope PRO and your earbuds can provide you loud enough auscultation experience. The sample recordings are included in the “mini hearing test” at the bottom of this page.

Solutions for Hearing Aids Wearers

The earpieces of a stethoscope conflicts with the hearing aids as you have found, so there is no traditional stethoscope for hearing aids. Nowadays, more and more people are using hearing aids with Bluetooth functions. A stethoscope with Bluetooth functions can be a suitable stethoscope for hearing aids, but a Bluetooth stethoscope designed with traditional earpiece eliminated can be best stethoscope for hard of hearing. Hearing aids wearers often ask: Does Stemoscope PRO support (work with) Bluetooth hearing aids? Are my hearing aids compatible with Stemoscope PRO? There is no simple answer. It depends on two major factors of the hearing aids: auscultation sound reproducing capability (Audio Capability) and Bluetooth capability (Connectivity Capability). Both capabilities can be easily overlooked by hearing aids wearers. The audio capability concern can even be easily ignored when hearing aids wearers ask the compatibility question. They can use their hearing aids to hear people talking, TV program or even some music clearly. However auscultation sounds have a much lower pitches or tones than those sounds and require different audio capability.

Auscultation sound reproducing capability

Most hearing aids wearers did hearing test, which is required to tune the programs of the hearing aids. After the hearing aids are programmed and calibrated, the wearers can hear human voice and maybe some music very well. However, auscultation sounds are very different from our voice and music sounds in terms of sound frequency components. Auscultation sounds are made of very low frequency components in the range of 20 Hz – 100 Hz, which sometimes are not included in the hearing test. Some hearing aids wearers told us that their hearing aids can only output sounds with frequencies higher than 150 Hz. When this happens, the hearing aids can’t be used to hear the auscultation sound loudly, regardless of stethoscopes. Some wearers are surprised by this fact. They spend thousand dollars on their “high quality” hearing aids, but it turns out that their hearing aids has "low quality" in reproducing auscultation sounds. This can be easily checked by listening to the sample recordings in the mini "hearing test" at the bottom of this page. If your hearing aids do not perform, you may just hear something something “static”, “metallic”, “a loose spring in a piece of machinery”, or “sleigh bells” even at the maximum volume.

Bluetooth capability

Another factor people may easily overlook is on Bluetooth capability. Though all Bluetooth hearing aids claim Bluetooth support, the supported Bluetooth protocols can be different. The Bluetooth protocols used by Bluetooth hearing aids generally fall in one of these two categories: Bluetooth Classic and Bluetooth LE audio. Bluetooth Classic has a longer history, and is widely used in Bluetooth headset, car audios and most phones. Bluetooth LE audio is new. It was firstly adopted by Apple in iPhone. Now some Android phones might also support Bluetooth LE audio, but Apple and Android use different proprietary protocols. That is why some Bluetooth hearing aids that support iPhone might not support Android phone.

Based on the above two factors, we developed the process flow to evaluate the capability, compatibility and various options. The first general step is to check whether your hearing aids can reproduce auscultation sounds sufficiently.

If you can’t hear the sample recordings well, there is no stethoscope in the world will be “compatible” with those hearing aids because those hearing aids simply don’t perform. Even though Stemoscope PRO is the bluetooth stethoscope for hearing aids, the full stethoscope system consisting of both the Stemoscope PRO and your hearing aids can not work. You will need to talk with your audiologist to see if they can adjust the program/settings to enable that. Otherwise, there is no options to use your hearing aids with any stethoscope. You might stop looking for stethoscope for hearing aids, but look for suitable hearing aids for stethoscope first. When you talk with your audiologist, you can present this page and the mini “hearing test” to the audiologist. You may also request your audiologist to include 20 Hz – 100 Hz into the hearing test, because that is required for auscultation.

If you can hear the sample recordings well, congratulations and you can now proceed to explore various options! As the best bluetooth stethoscope for hearing aids, it provides four options!

Option 1. Directly stream Stemoscope PRO sounds to hearing aids

If your Bluetooth hearing aids support Bluetooth Classic, your Bluetooth hearing aids works very similar to Bluetooth headset. A Bluetooth headset can not only directly stream from smartphones (either iPhone or Android), but also from computers and some TV sets that support Bluetooth Classic. Stemoscope PRO also supports Bluetooth Classic, so if your Bluetooth hearing aids also supports Bluetooth Classic, you can pair Stemoscope PRO and your hearing aids directly and stream the sounds from Stemoscope PRO to the hearing aids. Some known Bluetooth hearing aids that support Bluetooth Classic are mainly from Sonova (manufacturers of Phonak, Unitron, Audio Nova, Costco KS9, and KS10, among others). Models include Kirkland Signature KS10, Phonak Audeo Lumity, Phonak Audeo P, Phonak Naida P, Phonak Brio 4 (Costco) and Unitron Moxi Blu, to list some.

Option 2. Stream Stemoscope PRO sounds to hearing aids via your smartphone

If your Bluetooth hearing aids only support Bluetooth LE audio such as Apple MFi, the made-for-iPhone protocol, or the ASHA protocol from Google Android, Stemoscope PRO can not pair with your Bluetooth hearing aids or livestream the sounds directly to them. However, since your Bluetooth hearing aids can connect to your smartphone, your smartphone can bridge the Stemoscope PRO and your hearing aids. The Stemoscope PRO transmits sounds to your smartphone that is running the DrStemo app. The DrStemo app will automatically play the sounds to the hearing aids that connect to the phone. Therefore you can still stream the Stemoscope sounds to your hearing aids. 

Option 3. Stream Stemoscope PRO sounds to hearing aids via a streamer

If your Bluetooth hearing aids don’t support Bluetooth Classic or you don't like Option 2, you may consider Option 3. Actually, you are not alone and the hearing aids manufacturers are also aware of this problem. They designed streamers to bridge a device (such as a laptop) that supports Bluetooth Classic and their Bluetooth hearing aids that support Bluetooth LE audio. Here is a list of some streamers from manufacturers of hearing aids.

• Oticon ConnectClip https://www.oticon.com/solutions/opn-wireless-connectivity
• ReSound Phone Clip+ https://www.resound.com/en-us/hearing-aids/accessories/phone-hearing-aid
• Widex COM-DEX https://www.widex.com/en/hearing-aids/accessories/com-dex/
• Rexton Smart Mic https://www.rexton.com/en/hearing-aids/accessories/audio-streaming-remote-control/
• Starkey Remote Microphone + https://www.starkey.com/hearing-aids/accessories/wireless-accessories/remote-microphone-plus
• Phillips AudioClip https://www.hearingsolutions.philips.com/support/connectivity/compatibility
• Signia SteamLine Mic https://www.signia.net/en-us/chargers-and-accessories/streamline-mic/

With such a streamer, you will not need to pull out your phone to bridge the Stemoscope PRO and your Bluetooth hearing aids. If you are not clearly about the Bluetooth type your hearing aids support, you may consult the hearing aids manufacturers.

Option 4. Use wireless over-ear headphones with your hearing aids

If your hearing aids do not support any Bluetooth function or you don't want to use a phone or a streamer, please do not worry. You can use wireless over-ear headphones with Stemoscope PRO. Over-ear headphones are larger than on-ear headphones as they cover your whole ear. When you want to do auscultation, wear the headphone. Normally, the over-ear headphones have high volume output, so you can hear very loud auscultation sounds. You may also choose over-ear headphones that have noise cancelling, providing you very quiet and immersive auscultation experience. Some of our customers use Stemoscope PRO this way.

Reviews From Happy Customers

Mini "Hearing Test"

If you are looking for stethoscope for hearing aids, please do not miss this part.  This audio file is a single tone with 50 Hz frequency. If your hearing aids can output low-frequency sounds, you can hear this tone loudly.

• Single tone with a 50 Hz frequency

This audio file is recorded heart sounds with default settings. It is loud enough when a person listen to it with good earphones at the maximum phone volume.

• Heartbeat sound recorded with Stemoscope PRO at normal volume level

This audio file is recorded heart sounds with volume boost. It is VERY VERY loud when a person listen to it with good earphones at the maximum phone volume.

• Heartbeat sound recorded with Stemoscope PRO at maximum volume boost level

 

If you can hear the above audio recording as expected and find at least an option to use Stemoscope PRO with your hearing aids, you can press the button to order the best bluetooth stethoscope for hearing aids

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Otherwise, please submit the form below if you have questions!