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Bose Launches 'Hearphones' That Act Like Hearing Aids (theverge.com)
Bose has launched a new pair of earbuds called Hearphones that augment the sounds of the world around you, letting you select what kinds of outside noises you'd like to listen to. "Hearphones users can also pick which direction those outside noises come from, with what appears to be specific emphasis on helping people hear voices better in crowded places," reports The Verge: A "Bose Hear" app was recently added to the App Store, and offers a little more detail about what Hearphones are capable of. You can turn the "world volume" up or down, and change the direction you're hearing those sounds from. There are preset modes like "television," "focused conversation," "airplane," "doctor's office," or "gym," all of which presumably block out different sounds from different directions while letting in things like speech. A user manual was also recently submitted to the FCC. No pricing or availability can be found anywhere on Bose's website or in the app. Here's some more from that app's description: "Innovative technologies amplify softer sounds, let you turn down the distractions in noisy environments and focus on what you want to hear -- like a conversation across the table. You can also use them as controllable noise cancelling [sic] wireless headphones for your music or calls or just for quiet. Take control of the noise, and hear the world better."
Have you listened to a pair of 901s made in the 80s? Bose used to make quality gear. Somewhere in the late 90s things took a sharp turn for the worse.
Doesn't terribly surprise me. If true, that's a bit like Pyrex; once you discover you have by far the biggest name recognition (or in fact possibly the only company with significant brand name recognition amongst the general public), the most obvious course of action if you're looking to make a quick buck is to dilute the quality of your product and/or raise the price.
The situation with Pyrex was especially bad because it was basically (but not legally) a genericized trademark. No one wanted to walk around saying "borosilicate glass" once Pyrex switched to soda-lime, so Pyrex got to keep selling "heat-resistant" glass to the ignorant masses who were conditioned to think of Pyrex as being synonymous with heat resistance, even though their products were no longer any different from their cheaper competitors.
My active noise canceling shooting headphones work sort of like this. They get rid of fast attack sounds yet let in ambient sounds. I can adjust the ambient and it makes it so I can hear a pin drop but it screens out a shotgun sound. Really quite nice.
Physically they're a black torc that fits loosely about two thirds around the neck. Attached a bit back from the front opening are two tethered earbuds equipped with Bose's really good tips, which come in three sizes. On the right hand tether is a small remote. On the outside of the earbuds are subtle bronze colored microphones.
Aside from being slightly smaller then other torc-style headphones they're not immediately different. They have their control on a remote, and of course the microphones on the earbuds, but nothing screams out also-for-hearing.
Putting them on in 360 mode was like listening to a live mic through, well, very good headphones. However using the app (we were using iPods) it was easy to control the base and treble to focus on what we were listening for - voices.
It was when the Hearphones were switched into directly-in-front mode they got exciting. In a room full of simulated loud coffee shop noise, and a dozen other demo-ees having conversations with their Bose-partners, it all faded away except for whomever I was facing.
Face this way and I could follow this conversation, face that and the other table came in clearly. For years I've had to position myself strategically in bars, restaurants, clubs and conferences - watching folks to ensure I'm following what they're saying. Suddenly that wasn't a concern.
I don't need hearing aids, and while I've spent some amount of time in loud clubs I've not particularly abused my ears. However coming on 50 years my ears aren't particularly reliable in noisy environments and now, suddenly, everything extraneous was muffled.
Sometimes an advanced technology really is like magic (and a really good demo.)
There's also a everything-in-front-of-you mode (180 degrees vs 360 degrees and about 35 degrees for those keeping track.) That would be for sitting at a table of people facing multiple correspondents.
Of course there's an app; iOS and Android. They apologized several times no Windows Mobile version (nobody looked concerned.) However the remote is intuitively designed and did everything necessary so no needing to be rudely screen-peering in the middle of a conversation. Volume up/down, treble/base, and switching between customizable modes.
The other big demo topic was being able to filter a TV or movie theater. Focus on the center speaker, crank the treble, and suddenly dialog popped - no more scrubbing back for what-just-got-said?
That they're also conventional Bluetooth headphones, with the noise-cancelling Dr. Bose invented, was taken for granted.
So, did I buy them?
Not yet. Their price is reasonable for being top-of-the-line noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones + the Hearphone technology but, a bit rich for me. Right now. However after another chaotic holiday party, a conversation where I mishear something important, or a conference where I'm straining to make out the content - yeah, probably.
Oh and if you're condemned to an "open office" cattle pen oh hella yeah. Selective noise cancelling with a music alternative would almost make those hellholes bearable.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.