In-ear Headphones of the Year

HEADPHONES

This is the second product from Nura, following the over-ear ‘Nuraphone’ in 2017, and we greeted it with similar praise. Nura is one of several companies offering hearing-adaptive features — a hearing test is used to adjust the headphones to deliver what you didn’t know you were missing. Most of these have seemed to us to be little more than glorified EQ. Nura’s system appears an exception, with more useful results. It’s not, like most rivals, simply a “can you hear this?” test of multiple tones. The NuraLoop instead listens to you, aiming to detect ‘otoacoustic emissions’ — tiny signals originating in the cochlea in response to a sound. When these then vibrate your ear drum (at around one ten-thousandth of the level of the sound which went in) Nura claims to use an extremely sensitive microphone to detect this returning sound-wave, then analysing it to identify anomalies in your cochlear’s response, and adjusting the sound of your NuraLoop accordingly. Creating a profile takes a minute or two, and it’s completely automatic.

Besides this, the earphones themselves are very successful. The ear hooks are malleable but somewhat rigid, so you can bend them to better secure their fit over your ears, while the cable runs behind your neck. Their housings are definitely on the large and heavy side compared with much of the competition, even some true wireless buds which lack the cable, but we didn’t find this uncomfortable. The cables allow you to connect to a USB port for topping up the impressive 16-hour battery, or a 3.5mm headphone port if you’d like to use your NuraLoop plugged in, rather than the usual Bluetooth (with aptX and AAC) wireless playback. The NuraLoop is also rated at IPX3, so is a good companion when sweating up, and there’s active noise-cancelling built in.

We gave the original Nuraphone a good review for its sonic performance, and as an earbud design, we reckon the NuraLoop scores still higher for its delivered sound.

Those who find the units comfortable are greeted with beautiful tailored sound in a compact package that boasts solid battery life, useful noise-cancelling, weatherproofing and highly enjoyable music, all for a very reasonable price which often drops far below the $349 RRP. More info: www.nuraphone.com