These strange $400 headphones with a hybrid design have ruined normal headphones for me

nuraphone

There's a huge variety of headphones out there, so any company coming into this saturated market should really have something "different" if they want to stand out.

Indeed, nascent audio company Nura did something different with its Nuraphone headphones. It came out with a pair that are both headphones and earphones. They sure look strange, and they feel even weirder when you first try them on.

But they sound phenomenal. Their supreme sound is also thanks to Nura's personalized audio tuning, where the headphones tune themselves to the way you hear sound. If it sounds hokey, that's because you haven't tried them out yet.

Check out the Nuraphone headphones:

Let's address the first thing you're all wondering about.

Yep, those are earbuds inside the headphone cups.

So what's going on with that unusual design?

Unlike most headphones, the Nuraphone headphones deliver sound via the main headphone cup and the in-ear earbud.

The main headphone cup houses a large bass speaker – or "driver" as they're often called. That's where ultra-low bass frequencies will come from.

Meanwhile, the inner earbud delivers some additional bass, mid, and high audio frequencies. And it makes a lot of sense. It's like having a full sound system in your ears that includes the subwoofer, mid-range speakers, and high-frequency tweeters.

Normal headphones and earphones can deliver all these frequencies with so-called "full range" drivers that deliver bass, mids, and highs. But full-range drivers don't specialize in any one frequency like those in the Nuraphone do. The thinking behind the Nuraphone's hybrid design is that huge amount of bass can be delivered without drowning out the mid and high frequencies.

I'll get to how they sound in a moment, but there's one more thing you should know about.

The unique design is only part of the Nuraphone experience, and it's not even the most important aspect.

Before you start listening to music for the first time with the Nuraphone, you need to get them tuned specifically for your hearing using the Nura mobile app.

The Nura app gets you set up to make the most of the Nuraphone. If you don't use the app, you're basically wasting your money, as you don't take advantage of the Nuraphone's defining feature: Personalized sound.

First, it makes sure you get a good seal with the earbuds and your inner ear. Then, it'll play a variety of sounds while it figures out how to best tune audio based on how your ears hear. It'll measure how sensitive your ears are to audio frequencies and tones and create a hearing profile based on the results. The whole process takes a couple of minutes.

The Nuraphone headphones then use your hearing profile to adjust the audio that they deliver.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider