Audeara A-01 Full-Fidelity Personalised Headphones

The tagline for Audeara's potentially game-changing new full-fidelity customisable headphones is "designed by doctors and engineers to deliver you perfect sound, always". So is the world ready for headphones designed by doctors? And is there such a thing as perfect sound?

Despite these new headphones being Audeara's first entry into the market, their name and brand have been floating around for a couple of years now. Invented initially by two Brisbane doctors who were building a medical device for hearing tests, they launched with a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign back in early-2017 where funding was reached in 15 hours and stretch goals quickly exceeded. Then six months later Audeara introduced themselves formally to the industry as a showcasing start-up at BIGSOUND's inaugural Music Tech Showcase last year, and people started to pay attention.

The premise that ostensibly sets the Audeara headphones apart from the pack is that they can be customised to suit your own individual hearing needs. Just by dint of the human condition we're all subject to some form of hearing loss as we age, with us music lovers who subject our ears to all manner of punishment both at concerts and in our daily lives no doubt hardest hit. These headphones purport to scientifically measure your hearing and then tailor the music delivery to your personal profile, boosting areas where your hearing is weak and vice versa, to give a more complete and rounded listening experience. If we all have different hearing it makes complete sense that we all have our own personalised headphones, but until now making that a reality had been easier said than done.

Now I'm pretty much the definition of a Luddite, but even I found it pretty basic to customise the headphones. It uses a software interface from a smartphone app to send Bluetooth signals to the headphones themselves, and the EQ app takes you through a perfunctory hearing test process using high, mid and low frequencies for each ear. You can have three levels of testing depending on how much time you want to spend - I just bit the bullet and went for the longest, most comprehensive test, which took about 15 minutes and was a fairly painless process (much akin to having an eye test at the optometrist). 

You end up with your own personalised profile that you can apply to the headphones and voila, the Audeara experience is yours. Before taking this jump I listened to a test group of songs just in "normal headphone" mode to try and make comparison easier, just a random grab bag of tracks I know pretty well: Imagining My Man by Aldous Harding, The Weekend by Dave Rawlings Machine, Center Of The Universe by Built To Spill, Star Witness by Neko Case and Calendar Days by Dick Diver. The headphones in default mode sound pretty good, they're clear but just a little dead-sounding, everything's a bit flat. Not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, just slightly lacklustre.

Before we get to the key selling point it should be noted that the headphones are comfortable enough, I have a big head and some brands feel a bit snug but these expand easily to offer plenty of room with quality padding, which feels nice on the ears. The buttons are on the small side but it's ultimately all very user-friendly, the functions both easily discernable and accessible. I'm not personally much into aesthetics when it comes to such things but these are quite nondescript and sleek, coloured black with no obvious branding of any kind. The headphones come in a great hard carry case that suits my messy travelling habits perfectly: I've ruined a lot of good headphones in my carry-on luggage over the years so this protection should guarantee a modicum of longevity. There's an active noise-cancelling function that works well and there's a headphone jack for tethered connection, so basically all of the functions that you'd expect from good high-end headphones. 

But down to brass tacks: when you apply your own Audeara profile and listen for the first time, the difference is staggering. There's a clarity and detail and separation that's quite remarkable, especially on tracks with more space such as Imagining My Man and The Weekend where audio detail is more pronounced. In striving to focus on audio clarity there's a sacrifice in volume - it's not super-loud even on top settings - but you can hear instruments and things in the margins that hadn't been discernible before, a whole new experience. None of my guide songs were particularly heavy but when Built To Spill hit their straps and the guitars interweave it sounds spectacular, so the experience works across all genres (albeit best suited to the quieter end of the spectrum). 

It seems to really pronounce the mid-frequencies, which gives a nice depth, but on some songs the bass and treble could be pushed higher, but that's most likely subjective. You're also given the choice of applying your profile at different customised percentiles, and interestingly after playing around with all of the various settings I find I enjoy the Audeara experience best at 75% customisation (they all have a noticeably different feel and this is just my preference).

By its very nature the Audeara experience is going to be different for everyone, but it's definitely a fascinating premise and a genuinely absorbing aural experience. It's also one that has the potential to protect your hearing over time as you create new profiles (protecting us music freaks from ourselves as much as anything), hardly a bad thing. They're kinda high-maintenance compared to off-the-shelf contemporaries just in terms of the whole hearing test aspect but it's actually quite an interesting process and the payoff is more than worth the slight inconvenience.

So is it perfect sound? I doubt that's a thing, but Audeara's first generation of full-fidelity customisable headphones without a doubt offer a wonderfully immersive soundscape that redefines the potential listening experience.

Head to audeara.com for more information.