Customises noise to individual hearing.
Melbourne-based start-up, Nura developed headphones that calibrate to individual hearing profiles, and has now raised a $6 million seed-funding round led by Blackbird Ventures.
Nura raised an Australian record US$1.8 million on crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, in 2016 and will use the money for an initial production, now underway in Shenzhen, according to media reports.
Founded by Kyle Slater, Dragan Petrovic and Luke Campbell – with backgrounds in physio-acoustics, electrical engineering and hearing science respectively – Nura’s headphones (nuraphones) send bass frequencies through an over-ear cup and higher frequencies through an inner-ear bud. Each unit can save three different hearing profiles.
The headphones automatically measure and adapt to hearing in as little as 30 seconds. Double speaker drivers deliver the deepest bass and clearest tones, while two way isolation means there is no noise in and no sound out.
“We did a number of listening events during the Kickstarter campaign and we will be doubling down on that now, because it’s important to us we control how nuraphones are explained and first experienced by people,” Slater told local media. “We are not just another pair of headphones hanging on the demo rack at the shop.”