Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Manufacturer brief

New Requirements for Hearing Loop Systems: Are You Meeting the Standard?

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/listen-2013-loop-requirements/ · record checked 9 October 2026

  • Listen Technologies

Manufacturer (Listen Technologies, which sold hearing loop drivers and field strength meters; the footer reads "2013 Ampetronic Listen Technologies Corporation", also naming the loop maker Ampetronic)

Summary

A loop seller's two-page brief on what IEC 60118-4 requires and what specifiers, installers and owners should do to meet it.

Key findings

  • Lists four requirements: field strength capable of 400 mA/m RMS with a 1 kHz sine, varying no more than ±3 dB over the volume of use; frequency response within ±3 dB from 100 Hz to 5 kHz, referenced to 1 kHz; A-weighted background noise more than 32 dB below 400 mA/m, ideally 47 dB; and a subjective test.
  • Calls frequency response "the most critical requirement for loop system and the most frequently failed", without data.
  • States that "in the US it is estimated that over 50% of Hearing Loop systems do not work when first installed", without saying who made the estimate or on what basis.
  • Says the subjective test should ideally be done by hearing aid users, and otherwise by someone from the service provider with suitable receiving equipment.
  • Advises that specifications require the installed loop to meet IEC 60118-4 and require the contractor to provide test results and a certificate of conformity.
  • Names poor maintenance or operation as the most common cause of failure, and asks system providers for regular checks: at minimum a loop listener and a basic field strength reading, preferably fuller tests.

Limits

A sales-oriented maker's brief that promotes its own meter. The 50% estimate and the statement about frequency response give no source or data. It says IEC 60118-4 was republished in 2007, whereas the second edition is dated 2006, and it predates the 2014 edition. The date is taken from the footer code 05222013.

Read the original

www.listentech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/listen_technologies_new_requirements_for_hearing_loop_systems.pdf

Link checked . We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

Cite this source

Listen Technologies. New Requirements for Hearing Loop Systems: Are You Meeting the Standard? 22 May 2013. https://www.listentech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/listen_technologies_new_requirements_for_hearing_loop_systems.pdf (accessed 9 October 2026).

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