earHD® 90
From £44.95
Upgrade your ears
After two successful crowdfunding campaigns, earHD 90 is now available on our website. Choose from two models that use patent pending technology to open your ears.
earHD 90 uses a precise acoustic lens that focuses sound uniformly into one central location. This focused sound is then accurately reflected straight into our ears, revealing higher definition sound from where you are facing.
Material
earHD 90 comes in a lightweight black acetal and a clear polycarbonate, polished for a high gloss finish.
Three sizes of silicone tips allows you to get the perfect fit and angle to focus your sound.
Our ears are wonderful things
As our ears are on the side of our head they are especially great at determining where sounds are coming from. The outside of our ear (the Pinna) has evolved to help us do this by distorting sound based on which direction the sound is coming from. This means that what we gain in placement of sound we lose in definition and sound quality. High frequencies in particular lose their sparkle, definition and sibilance when sound emanates from in front of us.
Our ears are very good at receiving high quality sound from the sides and from devices like headphones as this sound travels straight into our ears bypassing the Pinna.
However, when we put our ears into venues and different shaped acoustic spaces, suddenly we are hearing sound from in front of us. That plays havoc when trying to hear high definition sound because of the interfering reflections coming from all other angles.
Simply look and listen
We believe that what we’ve created with earHD 90 is a new exciting tool to open your ears and hear the world in HD. Rediscover sound and hear subtleties and nuances that you have been previously unaware of with your new upgraded ears.
Shop earHD 90Independent Testing
The Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) conducted independent testing on earHD 90 to see what affects it has on our ears.
The hashed area shows a large boost in energy which makes focusing on specific sounds in front of us difficult. earHD 90 has three benefits:
• Improved speech intelligibility (how well we hear human voice)
• Increased signal to noise ratio (reduced background noise)
• Enhanced frequency response (higher levels of detail)
You can download the full report here or see our testing page for more information.
Visit our testing pageThe Reveals
Without earHD 90
Distorted and reflected noise as well as sounds from the side (red and green) have an easier path to the ear canal which interferes with sound coming from the front (blue).
With earHD 90
We want to upgrade your ears to let them hear more detail and higher quality sound without just increasing the volume. With earHD 90 you can focus on sounds from the front and reduce distracting noises from the side.
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An Independent Report on earHD 90
The Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) at the University of Southampton has conducted completely independent tests on earHD 90 to verify our claims. ISVR are a renowned and recognised body that specialise in reducing noise and vibration in egineering as well as understanding how humans hear and process sounds.
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Test Results | Speech Transmission Index
Part 1: Speech Intelligibility
This measured earHD 90’s performance at how well it can receive the human voice (speech intelligibility) from one sound source emanating from the front. The natural human ear has an industry rating in the lower end of the 'fair' category at an average of 0.49 because of the Pinna distortion we mentioned earlier. Using earHD 90, we take these results right up to 0.64 when listening to a female voice and 0.62 when listening to a male voice (on average). This is an entire category jump from fair to good.
Part 2: Signal To Noise Ratio
'Signal' is the sound we want to hear and 'noise' is the sound we don’t want to hear. In this test, 'signal' is sound from the front and 'noise' is sound from the side. A dummy head with microphones in the ears was set up in an anechoic chamber and surrounded by speakers.
At 4kHz we saw an average increase of 9dB in signal to noise ratio. But what’s more impressive is that at 8kHz we saw an average increase of 19dB. 8kHz and up is classed as high frequencies i.e where we hear most detail in sound.
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Test Results | Frequency Response
The frequency graph below shows the natural human ear with and without earHD 90.
The human ear is naturally boosted between 1.5kHz and 6kHz. This is due to the resonance of our ear canals. From 6kHz and above high frequencies in the natural human ear start to roll off - this is particularly noticeable as we get older. Things like listening to the TV, birdsong and speech will be harder to hear as we age.
When earHD 90 is used, the 1.5kHz to 6kHz resonance is drastically reduced and high frequencies are boosted above 6kHz revealing hidden detail.
As we live with this distortion every day we are not normally aware of it. earHD 90’s frequency response has been specifically tuned using Flare’s JET technology to remove the ear canal resonation/distortion issue (this can be heard in our reveal videos below). At the same time the precise frequency response we created enables earHD 90 to become directional with high frequency sound, the entire purpose of earHD 90.
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Summary
• Improved speech intelligibility (how well we hear human voice)
• Increased signal to noise ratio (reduced background noise)
• Enhanced frequency response (higher levels of detail)
How?
earHD 90 uses a 60 - 90 degree reception from left to right to focus sound coming into our ears. Simply put: where we look is where we want to hear in high definition, sound coming from elsewhere is blurred out and reduced.
