Do you use a hearing aid for one ear and a cochlear implant for the other? Great news: You can stream music and phone calls straight to both your ears with our bimodal streaming system. Read on to find out how it works with both Android and iOS phones.

Sylvia is a cochlear implant and hearing aid user. Having access to sound enables her to travel the world and connect with people, providing her with inspiration for her work: She designs and makes women’s clothing.

If you have severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss, a cochlear implant may be able to provide you with access to sound. But which audio processor—and cochlear implant—should you choose?

A comparison between cochlear implants and hearing aids comes down to one key difference: Conventional hearing aids (air conduction hearing aids) amplify sound, while cochlear implants bypass damaged parts of the inner ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve fibers. This matters because it affects who each option may help, whether surgery is needed, and how users experience hearing over time. A cochlear implant is not a hearing aid—and the right choice depends on your hearing loss, speech understanding, and a professional evaluation.

In 2024, there are more ways than ever to stream sound to your MED-EL audio processor. We’ve got AudioStream, the AudioStream Adapter, and AudioLink for our cochlear implant users, and SAMBA 2 GO for BONEBRIDGE and VIBRANT SOUNDBRIDGE recipients. But with so many choices, it can sometimes be tricky knowing which one to go for. With that in mind, we’ve put together a guide to the best streaming options for everything from hearing aids to phone calls.

Ever wondered how we make such reliable hearing implants? Or how bone conduction implants work? Or how hearings aids and cochlear implants can work together?