[NFB-DB] Bluetooth Headphones

Wed May 10 01:57:16 UTC 2023

I use my iphone, with voiceOver, and a bluetooth headset all day every day. I have hearing aids I use when I go out, but I live alone, and get all my entertainment through my phone, so the only thing I really can't hear at home is if someone knocks on my apartment door, and I've trained my guide dog  to alert me to that. 
 I can't comfortably hear my phone without a headset. At home I will switch between AfterShokz bone conduction bt headsets and sometimes  different over-the-ear headsets. I only use  the bone conduction headsets when I'm out.
I was unable to make the bluetooth connection with my hearing aids work, mainly because I use my phone so much, and that means listening to VoiceOver or something else verbal, on my phone, so the constant little delays when they switch from environmental noise to noise from my phone is just too distracting and sometimes, when I'm travelling it causes delays in retrieving information from my phone that are too long and really mess me up. I think this is also a problem because my short term memory sucks so I'm always needing to look up and reference notes and other things on my phone that Blind people with good memories can keep in their heads. So, maybe if you don't use a phone with screen reader as continually as I do, it wouldn't be as much of a problem.
I have the same problem pairing my phone with two devices at the same time. It works. You don't hear both simultaneously, but they can switch fairly quickly. Not quickly enough for me, though. If I'm referencing my phone and using a PC with screen reader at the same time, I generally use an old-fashioned over-the-head, wired headset for the PC which works pretty well if I'm using a bone conduction headset with my phone.
I love the Aftershokz headsets. I've gone through more than a half dozen models of them over many years and they continually get better, more comfortable and lightweight,  with better sound quality and longer battery life. However, as much as I use them inn a day, I usually need two bt headsets to get enough battery life to last all day, and occasionally a third. I'd be really interested in hearing more about the other bone conduction headsets. I've seen them on Amazon, but these headsets are such essential toools for me, when I need to replace one I always end up with the tried and true Aftershokz and then don't want to spend more money to try something else, even though the others are cheaper.  
So, an issue is volume when there is other background noise. I don't think this has a thing to do with the Aftershokz headsets lacking in some way, but just as the purpose of using them is partly to have your ears open to hearing the environment, that means whatever you hear on your phone will possibly be overwhelmed by that environmental noise. If I have noise in my apartment, like a neighbor having a party or construction outside, I use an over-the-ear noise cancelling headset. When I'm out, it can be a problem. I think the only way to hear clearly on a phone when in a noisy outside space is either to do that pairing with hearing aids, which is not an option for me, as I've explained, or to use something to block out environmental noise, which defeats the purpose of bone conduction headsets to free up your ears. Now that I have hearing aids, even without pairing them, it's a little better because the  headset isn't fully contained, so my hearing aids also pick up some of the sound going into the headset.   
My latest AfterShokz model is the Aeropecs (sp?) and there is a model they promote as being for business use, with a swing mic, geared specificly towards hearing voices, over the phone, as opposed to the others which are geared more towards good music quality. The latest version of that also has some noise cancelling properties, so if I were going to try something else, that would probably be my first choice.  I think the main noise cancellation is with the mic. So, if you're talking on the phone, even in a pnoisy place, the other party can hear you fine. I still think they may be the best option, but read the descriptions of the other latest models, in case anoother one is touted as having better volume.
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