If no two people have the same ears (not even the left one is the same as the right one), why are the headphones? To what extent does this homogeneity of design and equalization affect the sound quality achieved with it? A lot for experts. To ensure the best possible listening experience, manufacturers have so far focused on offering different fits with ear tip sizes and materials: if the ear canal does not seal properly, ambient noise will continue to penetrate and you will no longer be able to distinguish the nuances of the music well. But lately they’ve gone one step further: now they can also tailor their sound to the shape of their ears or head. It’s customization at its finest.
The Apple Case: Spatial Audio
There are already many examples, each with different technologies and applications. For example, in the case of Apple, this feature was called Spatial Audio and is used to make the listening experience more immersive, allowing each user to perceive the sound based on the size and shape of their head and ears. Therefore, to use it, you must perform a previous scan with the iPhone camera of that area of the body.
What does it mean translated? Because when listening to music or watching movies and series on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV, the sound seems to come from everywhere and thanks to the gyroscope and accelerometer installed in each earphone, it detects how we move and the sound will too perceived it differently depending on the position of the head. Yes, it requires AirPods Pro headphones 1st or 2nd gen, AirPods Max, AirPods 3rd gen or Beats Fit Pro, and also the app from which you are listening to the sound (music, multimedia content…). want to be compatible with this feature, which only works on Apple phones and tablets with OS 15.1 or later and Mac computers with M1 processor or later.
Sony does the same. In this case, it applies its 360 Reality Audio technology to music and records live music videos: it places voices, instruments and even the sound of the audience in a spherical sound field and at a personalized distance and angle. This creates the feeling of being at the center of the music.
The difference with Apple is that this technology is integrated into several sound systems; not only from Sony, but also from Amazon, Denon, Marantz, Audio Technica or Sennheiser. And music with this surround sound is available on platforms like Amazon Music Unlimited or Tidal. Again, a key part of the success lies in the devices’ ability to tailor the sound to each person’s physical characteristics. For example, with Sony headphones, the Headphones Connect app (used to manage the device from the mobile phone) analyzes the shape of the ear and cheeks and adjusts the equalization accordingly.
Bose: Hearing scanner for every use
Finally, the Bose example is slightly different for three reasons: Instead of scanning the ears, it focuses on the ear canal. The headphones themselves repeat this analysis every time a user puts them on (no action required) and mainly uses the results to improve the performance of the active noise cancellation system. The aim is to achieve as much silence as possible during sound reproduction.
Bose has implemented this in its latest wireless headphones, the QuietComfort Earbuds II. To do this, the company’s engineers have been inspired by the AdaptiQ technology of its soundbars and home theater systems, which tune the size of the room, the shape, the furniture, the carpet and the material of the floor system speed. His approach: Just as the sound of a speaker is affected by the room and location, the sound of a headset is modified differently in each person’s ear canal. And those differences limit the effectiveness of noise-cancellation.
In practice, every time the headphones are put on, this hearing scanner starts to emit a sound that comes and goes: it bounces in the ear and is picked up by the integrated microphones. It only takes a second, but it’s enough to adjust the user’s ear, optimizing both noise cancellation and sound performance for each person.
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