Australia’s Nura has one of the more intriguing adaptive sound approaches out in the world, and it looks like it could be coming to gear from more brands.
The world of personalised audio could get a little more interesting this year as a big brand collaborates with a little one, and could result in some interesting efforts following it.
The big audio giant that is Denon has connected with Nura, one of the first companies to start dabbling in adaptive personalised audio that uses a special test to measure your hearing and deliver a sound tailored to your ears.
For those not in the know, Nura is one of Australia’s most intriguing exports of the past decade, using an otoacoustic hearing test to create a sound profile to match the specific hearing characteristics of your ears, and even how you might be hearing at the time. It’s distinct to the manual hearing tests other headphone makers employ which requires you to go through steps by listening to sounds at differently volumes and frequencies to create a profile, and instead creates a profile for you before applying it to one of its products.
In its most recent product, the NuraTrue Pro, Nura managed to bundle that automatic profile system with support for high-res audio and spatial on Android, essentially making it one of the most future-friendly pairs of wireless earphones out there. They didn’t offer head-tracking like the LG T90, but just about every other useful audio feature could be found.
And it appears to be something Denon is interested in, with Denon’s owner Masimo coming together with Nura to build something called Masimo Adaptive Acoustic Technology (AAT).
Neither Denon, Masimo, or Nura has announced exactly what product that is, but it will reportedly appear in a Denon product expected mid-2023, and may mean fewer Nura headphones down the line.
Nura has said that “existing Nura customers can feel confident that their Nura device will be supported through this transition”, which is worded in a way that it seems Nura as a company will be gradually becoming platform-only, rather than a headphone maker. The company has also said “NuraNow subscriptions will continue to be supported” with new devices every 24 months, but that new products on that subscription will be available at the same time: mid-2023.
That seems like we’ll hear more about Nura’s future in the next few months, and possibly if Nura will be making products under its own brand or whether it’ll all be Denon from here on in. Masimo has quite a few other brands under its name, including Marantz, Bowers & Wilkins, Polk Audio, Boston Acoustics, and Definitive Technology, so it’s entirely possible Nura’s approach to personalised sound could make its way into more gear from its other brands, too.
