The following is a portion of a recent article from The Australian on IQbuds2 MAX, published on January 21st, 2020. Click here to read the full article
Nuheara IQbuds2 MAX earbuds tailor-made for your hearing
Perth-based Nuheara has upped the ante in personalised hearing products, a range in which Australia excels. The market is flooded with headphones and earbuds, but not many offerings give you a hearing test and adjust the audio to deliver the optimal sound at different frequencies.
The sound is boosted at frequencies where your hearing is weakest and softened where hearing is strongest. Nuheara (Perth), Audeara (Brisbane) and Nura do this in various ways.
Over the past week I have been trialling Nuheara’s new IQbuds2MAX earbuds, which the company announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas a fortnight ago.
The buds come to market in March.
We’ve seen the basics of Nuheara’s earbuds before, but there’s interesting new technology in this model that adds to the value of this product.
The Nuheara IQbuds2 MAX personalised hearing buds..
Set-up is similar to the previous version. You take the earbuds out of their charger case, attach a pair of ear tips that match the size of your ear canal, and pair the buds with your smartphone using the IQbuds app available for iOS and Android. I found pairing through the app to be fast and uncomplicated.
The app’s in-built hearing test establishes what Nuheara calls your Ear ID. The test takes about 10 minutes and involves listening to sounds at different frequencies and volumes for each ear. You press a button on the screen whenever you hear one.
“I was impressed with the sound quality, the ability of the buds to compensate for poor hearing in my right ear, and the flexibility available when configuring sound environments (eg planes) and bud control functions.”
For me there seemed to be long stretches of silence when the app played sound to my right ear. That’s because I can’t hear some higher frequencies in that ear. My left ear is OK. I’m aware of this issue from using mobile phones and Nuheara picked up the problem correctly.
The app produces a map of your hearing capabilities that is used to adjust the music volume at various frequencies. When I listen to music with a set of Nuheara buds, I pick up higher frequency sounds in my right ear that previously had been soft or missing.
The app also performs a quick test to ensure the earbuds are properly sealed within your left and right ear canals. The app recommends you use larger ear tips if you can’t hear the special sound. There are four sizes of tips to select from. You get a pack of 10.
The app has other noteworthy functions. The top section of the earbuds have a pressure-sensitive sensor. You use short taps, long taps and double taps to control music and sound. The app lets you choose which functions are assigned to these taps.
The functions are volume up/down, next/previous track, play/pause, summon Siri on an iPhone, and remove or restore ambient sound with World off/on. The choice of what functions you assign to these taps is yours.
Much of this was available with the previous version. It’s what is next that is different…
…(Visit TheAustralian.com to read the rest of this article)
