What do you think about this product?

[MadFloyd]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nura/nura-headphones-that-learn-and-adapt-to-your-uniqu

 

[Kal Rubinson]

It is interesting and provocative but they have not revealed enough about their technology.

 

[NorthStar]

That looks real promisingly cool.

 

[Fiddle Faddle]

I will hold off judging till I see (a lot) more information but at the outset it is hard to understand how they can possibly work. The fundamental problem is that although a person's hearing will almost never measure a perfect 0dB across both ears during an audiogram test, the brain will compensate. So that despite any measureable shortcomings in that person's hearing, it is what it is. In other words, their theoretically flawed hearing still sounds "normal" to them because of the way the brain compensates. This is why recordings that I have owned for the last 40 years sound exactly the same to me now as they did when I was a teenager. So if these headphones, for example, were to compensate their output so as to result in a theoretically "flat" response, they won't sound right - they will likely sound way too aggressive. Apart from that, most headphones don't sound remotely like a speaker in a room does anyway and for me, natural sound means what you get sitting in a properly treated room when the sound source is some distance away. The room effect and the distance will considerably effect the frequency response. So all of that being said, I have great difficultly understanding how these could sound remotely natural.

I can understand how a concept like this could work for people with significant hearing deficits (for example, they require hearing aids all the time), but not for a "normal" person even though that person will likely exhibit measureable deterioration (whilst being within the measured boundaries of "normal" for their age).

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I will hold off judging till I see (a lot) more information but at the outset it is hard to understand how they can possibly work. The fundamental problem is that although a person's hearing will almost never measure a perfect 0dB across both ears during an audiogram test, the brain will compensate. So that despite any measureable shortcomings in that person's hearing, it is what it is. In other words, their theoretically flawed hearing still sounds "normal" to them because of the way the brain compensates. This is why recordings that I have owned for the last 40 years sound exactly the same to me now as they did when I was a teenager. So if these headphones, for example, were to compensate their output so as to result in a theoretically "flat" response, they won't sound right - they will likely sound way too aggressive. Apart from that, most headphones don't sound remotely like a speaker in a room does anyway and for me, natural sound means what you get sitting in a properly treated room when the sound source is some distance away. The room effect and the distance will considerably effect the frequency response. So all of that being said, I have great difficultly understanding how these could sound remotely natural.

I can understand how a concept like this could work for people with significant hearing deficits (for example, they require hearing aids all the time), but not for a "normal" person even though that person will likely exhibit measureable deterioration (whilst being within the measured boundaries of "normal" for their age).

I agree but I am more concerned with the basis of their measurements which rely on transient evoked otoacoustic emission. How they use that info is not described. From a random source on the topic: "In the clinic, TOAEs commonly are used to screen infant hearing, to validate behavioral or electrophysiologic auditory thresholds, and to assess cochlear function relative to the site of the lesion. By definition, TOAEs are recorded only in response to very short or transient stimuli. Therefore, the stimulus has limited frequency specificity, and the TOAE emanates from a relatively broad cochlear region. However, current analysis techniques allow the response to be separated into various frequency bands for analysis."

 

[NorthStar]

Also, they must have a patent or few of them for this new headphone technology, in addition to not giving all the information (without describing how they use it) in order to protect themselves (financially) from copycats and other marauders.

* This is from Melbourne, AU - and they are doing great with their pledge.