Hearing loss and soundbar.

Luxor

Luxor

Luxor

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22 Jul 2007
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Location
Cheshire
Hi all,

Not an av expert so looking for a steer with this. My dad suffers with hearing loss and has the TV way too loud, which as you can imagine annoys my mum.

I'm wondering if there is a way of connecting wireless headphones to a soundbar, that he could wear headphones but also keep the sound coming out of the soundbar?

It's probably straightforward and at the moment they have a smart TV with not the best speakers.

Help very much appreciated! Ideas on soundbar also welcome.
 
@Luxor , although the soundbar is where the sound comes from, you're not really looking to connect to it to drive some headphones. It's really the TV you need to connect to. That's the source of the audio signal that needs to be tapped.

How you connect depends on the model of TV and maybe also how it is connected to the soundbar right now. There are three options for this:

1) a headphone socket on the TV going to the sound bar

2) a optical cable socket on the TV going to the sound bar

3) a HDMI cable going between the HDMI ARC sockets from the TV to the sound bar.

This is important now...... We need to know the make and model number of your TV in order to help you any further. Also, which of the methods above you're currently using between the TV and sound bar. It would also be useful to know the make and model of sound bar.

Once the above is established, then it's time to think about the headphones. Budget will be a factor in how they connect. Lower cost headphones will use the TV headphone socket. Better quality/higher cost 'phones may well use a line input or an optical connection.


Once we establish how things could possibly connect, then it will be possible to do the straightforward thing of suggesting some 'phones and how they might connect. QUESTION: Do you have some headphones already that you are trying to connect up?
 
Just come in and thanks for the replies from everyone. It is appreciated.

In a nutshell.

OK, the TV is a Samsung ue40d5520 TV.

They don't have a soundbar yet so it's just the TV sound.

He doesn't have any headphones yet but as I mentioned looking at a wireless option (if practical) so he can listen on the headphones and my mum can still listen to the sound as normal.

Cheers
 
Has he got a hearing aid? If not try and convince him to get assessed and fitted for one it will make a difference not only to his TV watching!
 
Try the simple stuff first, does the TV have a headphone socket or RCA connectors (White, Red). Either of those might output sound while keeping the TV audio active.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Has he got a hearing aid? If not try and convince him to get assessed and fitted for one it will make a difference not only to his TV watching!
Click to expand...

Very valid,
He does but still has it on too loud. I'm not convinced they're working right though.☺️.

I would imagine it does have a headphone socket or rca connectors. I don't live with them though and would have to check. Wouldn't that turn the sound off?
 
Hearing aids have improved, but even with Cafe Mode (if enabled in his program) which gives the aid a more directional pickup response, they still amplify too much of the incidental noise in the room to give the same sort of sound and intelligibility of speech that those of us with normal hearing take for granted.

If a Loop system is installed at some point, then the T setting can help, but the options there are either full loop or half-loop-and-half-ambient mixed.

Full loop would give just the TV audio, but then the aid wearer misses out on conversation in the room. 50/50 might not give enough of the TV to help with getting what's being said on screen.
 
Last edited:
I'm hard of hearing.

I use wireless headphones with a base and S/PDIF IN.

The normal TV speakers still work.
 
On the rear of your TV, the sockets for getting sound out are a headphone jack socket and an Optical digital audio socket.

The way the headphone socket seems to work is that plugging something in to it mutes the TV speakers. This would rule it out as a way to connect headphones and still have the sound of the TV speakers for the rest of the family.

Optical will work at the same time as allowing TV speakers or the headphone jack to work. Also, the volume of the optical connection is fixed while TV/headphone jack volume can be altered with the remote. This is perfect if feeding your father's headphones: he can change his volume via controls.on the headband without being affected by a volume change on the TV itself.

All in all then, you should be looking for some headphones that take either optical directly, or we can use a converter to make the signal stereo RCA.
 
I also looked in to Bluetooth as a way to get.sound from the TV, but this Samsung doesn't have the feature.

Look for.headphone with a charging basestation and wireless link. The 'phone to basestation link can be Bluetooth or RF. But RF is prone to dropouts.
 
OK thanks for the replies and especially @lucid with the suggestions. Cheers. I've gone for a soundbar connected with an optical cable and hopefully that will improve matters for now. The TV speakers aren't that great anyway so this might be clearer.

One things for sure, he needs to remember to put his hearing aids in!

If it doesn't work out I'll have to sort some headphones down the line.
 
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