Don’t worry about the earplugs: this company says it’s found the solution for your ear canals
- The new Audio Immerse are not earbuds or plugs; they are ear formers
- Some music professionals say they are great
- We… want to believe
Imagine a technology so amazing that it changes the way you listen to the world. A technology so widely compatible that it upgrades not only headphones, but also hi-fi speakers and concert sound systems. A technology that is so smart that the whole world sounds better.
Imagine it costs about sixty dollars.
That’s what Flare Audio promises with its new Immerse product. Immerse looks like nice earphones or earplugs, but the product is neither. It’s “ear technology” that, according to the company, changes the way your ears work.
Immerse comes with impressive recommendations. U2, Killers and NiN producer Flood says he’s “finally heard the true sound of music,” and he doesn’t mean the movie.
Kiss and Eagles of Death Metal tour manager Steve Toth says the difference is “as subtle as a flying hammer.” And Manic Street Preachers producer Dave Eringa says your jaw “hits the floor”.
The sound of science?
What’s new?
The Immerse from Flare Audio look like earbuds, but contain no electronics. Instead, they apparently use “high-precision acoustic reflectors” to change the geometry of your ear canal and improve sound quality. But we still have to try them out to see if they live up to these claims.
What does Immerse actually do? According to the makers, the enemy of sound quality is your ear. Because the insides of our ears are quite shell-shaped, Flare says they distort sound by at least 20 percent. That’s because of something called HRTF, short for Head Related Transfer Function.
HRTF is real and varies from person to person: it describes how multiple factors in your head – not just the shape of your ears, but also the size and shape of your sinuses, the density of your head, and the shape of your ear cavity – affects the sound you hear. It’s astonishingly complex, but Flare says it has a one-size-fits-all solution for that almost infinite variety.
According to the company:
“The patented technology uses high-precision acoustic reflectors that ensure sound waves do not distort as they enter our ears. Using Flare’s high-precision Mirror Image Sound™ technology, the result is the most detailed and immersive sound imaginable images, from whatever source.”
I want to believe. Really and truly. But Flare has a nice track record with big audio claims. Like the Earjobs blogging wrote in 2021 about its high-frequency canceling Calmer earbuds: “Flare Calmer is the most hyped personal hearing product ever. In the months leading up to its release, there were rumors that it would cure tinnitus, solve noise sensitivity and improve your ears a few thousand years before evolution… Much has been made online about its potential as a medicine. for tinnitus, a solution for sensory processing or hypersensitivity, as well as a device to reduce stress.”
Flare is very careful not to claim on its website that Calmer helps tinnitus. But the marketing I and others saw on social media included testimonials saying just that: as Ben Thompson of Hearing Health Matters wrote, “In a sponsored Facebook ad from Flare Audio, the company that makes this product, they say that Calmer an “in-ear tech device to help some people reduce tinnitus and noise sensitivities.” They describe Calmer as a ‘soft silicone in-ear waveguide that removes resonance from the inside of our ears.'” Soundly.com And Hearing health is important concluded that Calmer may worsen tinnitus symptoms in some people.
I have no doubt that Immerse will change the way music and other audio sounds; The same company’s Calmer product does that too. And I have no doubt that some people will like the results. But I take the marketing with a very large grain of salt, and you might want to see what people are up to Forum of Audio Science Review say about it.