Quote:
Originally Posted by clavus
Holy heck. What's a t-Coil option?
|
I didn't think I'd have anything to add to this thread. You, sir, just proved me wrong.
A T-coil is an inductive coil built into some (most?) hearing aids. I won't bother to explain the technical whys and wherefores now, though I'd be happy to if you're actually interested in knowing them; suffice to say that the end result is that sounds may be transmitted directly to the hearing aid electromagnetically. The primary application for this is in telephones -- the small driver in the earpiece is usually sufficient to activate the T-coil, which (as I understand it) vastly improves audio quality.
It's also possible to get a variety of accessories that function with the T-Coil, and I understand that some public venues also offer an 'inductive loop' service, allowing hearing impaired to use the T-Coil with the public address or speaker system. My reading has lead me to believe that such things are uncommon in North America, although someone with direct experience (ie, amonkie) can probably be more specific in regards to that.
A possible question to ask, and to which I have no answer -- is frequency response a concern with these things? It stands to reason that adjusting the loop length would impact the response curve, but I don't know whether that's something that comes up in real-world applications.