Nuheara IQbuds hands-on preview: These smart Bluetooth ear buds are about more than music
I also met with Nuheara's founders and learned that the company is listed on the Australian stock exchange. The IQBuds fit in your ear, but I found them to be quite comfortable. You put them in, twist them back, and they sit securely. Turning them on is a simple matter of holding your fingers to the outer shell for five seconds. The shipping model will have user-editable presets, but the prototype offered three demo modes: one for normal listening, a second that simply amplified (or blocked) everything (like a hearing aid), and speech enhancement.
The speech enhancement was impressive. While there were slight Doppler/phase artifacts, the overall enhancement of dialog and reduction of background noise was quite good. I was grinning during the experience. Only driving really fast on a track normally does that.
I didn’t listen to any music (my bad) but there was decent top end in the overall sound, which is usually a good sign. Nuheara promises that sonority will be top-notch in the shipping product. At $299 retail, it had better be.
Android and iOS apps will ship alongside the IQbuds; these will allow you to adjust the balance of background noise and voice, fine-tune affected frequencies, and then save your settings as those aforementioned presets: restaurant, bus stop, construction site, concert, etc. Run time is expected to be around 4 hours, and a portable USB-charging case with its own internal battery providing another 12 hours of juice will be included.
I’ve never been much for anything other than over-ear headphones, and those only for not disturbing the neighbors or reducing bleed into microphones. But I’m anxiously awaiting the release version of the finished IQBuds and doing a full review. Hearing enhancement/protection/listening buds. Products that solve problems. Good stuff. Shipments are currently scheduled to commence in December 2016.