Apologies for the long post 1988scarfo, but one thing led to...

Apologies for the long post 1988scarfo, but one thing led to another lol.


One important thing is obviously missing from the Elehear devices - a hearing test performed by the app, probably because Nuheara has a well written patent covering it.

For example, when using the Nuheara app with new buds, it firstly has you go through a hearing test (both ears, at several frequencies) before it lets you go any further. It then programs your hearing thresholds into the buds and sets up the volume compression to work with them. This methodology is critical for getting the best intelligibility with speech. The fact that other apps don't go through a similar process at the beginning tells us that they don't have anything like it. Without this, other brands are basically sound amplifiers using a variety of graphic equalisers to try and compensate.

I have hearing loss which I guess is somewhere just into the moderate range on both ears and the hearing test works like magic. I've tried messing around with graphic equalisers on the TV and my PC and although it helps a little bit depending on a particular voice nothing comes close to the NUH buds.

I could go into a lot more detail of what various uncompensated voices sound like to me. Not all voices behave the same way, especially on the TV where there's a variety of voice pitches, overall bandwidths, types of microphones, volume compression settings, etc. I find it rather fascinating but I'll leave it at that. Suffice to say that the NUH buds boost the intelligibility of all of them.

As for buds vs behind the ear ("receiver in canal") types, I tend to agree that a lot of buyers will avoid the buds for a variety of reasons. But the fact is the Nuheara buds (ie: the Max) produce high fidelity which would be appreciated with most Bluetooth streaming. I expect reviews by significant influencers will help get the word out.

Some advice for Nuheara. Although these devices could be classified as "do it yourself", setting up is somewhat technical, at least for some people, and there's plenty of opportunity to stuff up the fitting and setting up process. Nuheara needs to subtly warn potential buyers about who should or should not buy them and what to expect. This will avoid a lot of returns and poor reviews. If the info is there in black and white, the reviewers will notice it and will enjoy pointing it out but they will be educating their viewers.
Those who pass the "test", will buy them and successfully set them up will also help get the word out.