The audio market is full of headphones that strive to put out the most balanced, best sound signature possible, so listeners can hear every sonic detail in their favorite tunes precisely as "the artist intended." It’s a noble pursuit, but it assumes we’re all hearing the same things. In reality, much like eyesight, we all hear differently—and our ears continue to change as we age.
I enjoyed using the Nuraphones[1] when I reviewed them earlier this year. This space-age set of cans used a NASA-grade microphone to automatically map my hearing and create a custom profile. They looked odd, but made music come alive in a fresh way.
Even is a startup with a similar mission, but its own approach. Its latest, third-generation H3 wireless headphones give you a hearing test the old fashioned way.
Instead of mapping out your ear using high-tech means, Even’s H3 headphones play a tone that starts quiet and gets louder, and you must tap a button on the right earcup as soon as you can hear it. Rinse and repeat for eight different low to high frequencies for each ear, and bam! You’ve created your first EarPrint.
Style, Profile
On your phone, your custom EarPrint profile is visualized as a circle, with lines stretching inward at various frequencies, like an abstract map pointing to parts an iris in a textbook, or a robotic Pac-Man hooked up to electrodes. It shows which frequencies you can hear extra well, normally, or not well at all. Once you’ve gone through the process, you can switch your EarPrint on or off either with a button or the companion app.
Naturally, how different it sounds depends on your hearing. I didn’t notice a huge change, though it...