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[RoderickGI]

Don't adjust your sound system to your hearing. Let your headphones do that automatically for you!

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/headphones-that-tune-to-your-ears/news-story/6df444961f14fc8d8b21a94babe929a6

Could be helpful for those people with hearing loss.

Direct link to the Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nura/nura-headphones-that-learn-and-adapt-to-your-uniqu

[blgentry]

I'm not sure I agree with the premise.  First, those probes inside the cups look potentially uncomfortable.  I like headphones that go over the ears.  I don't want something sticking into my ear canal.  But that aside...

The big problem with this is that, if you have relatively normal hearing, your brain knows what the world sounds like.  You hear through your own filter.  So how can compensation possibly give you a true sound?  Your brain has already compensated for how your ears hear.  You can prove this to yourself by listening to a pair of headphones with the bass jacked way up for a few minutes.  It will sound strange briefly, then you'll get used to it.  Then take away the equalization and *poof*, your brain will scream that something is wrong.  Your brain is constantly adapting to your ear's input. Not in real time, but integrated over time.

Maybe there is science behind this that I'm not familiar with.  There are lots of things I don't know.  But this sounds like it's not based on good acoustic/ear/brain science.

Brian.

[RoderickGI]

All good points Brian. I thought the ear plugs would be a bit strange as well, but I liked the idea of sound isolation.

Your brain does adapt, but if your ears just cant hear a particular frequency very well, then the brain has little to work with. If that frequency gets boosted to match your ear's capability, you are going to hear more of the music.

My better half had a hearing test recently, and one of the tests used seem to use the same technology these headphones do; bouncing sound off the ear drum to see what the response is. So I think the method they are using is valid. Whether the headphones will work or not, I think I would have to try them to know.

Anyway, as per the title, I thought they were interesting. There has been more than one thread on adjusting MC to compensate for hearing loss, which would mean that others hear something strange. If these headphones do the compensation then MC wouldn't need to be adjusted.