Nura / Denon PerL Headphones Owners & Discussion Thread

[blybo]

I noticed a pop up store at Westfield Doncaster if anyone is interested.

[agisthos]

Any audiophile product that can do justice to heavy metal has me interested, even if I am not a fones guy.

[Guest]

@agisthos have a go mate

[Gruffnutz]

Glad they're doing it for you; they didn't for me.  THey're pretty unique and have different strengths, and weaknesses, to most other cans.  If the compromise works for you, they're certainly well designed and made.

 

Given how different they are and their Australian design, I think its incumbent on us not the pre-judge.

 

Vive la difference!  

[Cafad]

I love the idea behind them.  Is there anything anywhere that tells you what the little circular acoustic map that they generate actually means?

[Guest]

@Cafad actually it’s simply a frequency graph rolled into a ball. If you unrolled it, it would just look like a frequency response for a speaker for example. They are saying it’s your ears frequency response. 

[Cafad]

Is it unroll-able?  Or can it be read in its rolled form by anything other than the software that created it?

[Guest]

@Cafad app based only I’d expect. 

[murrmax]

I tried these at a sound booth they had promo in the QVB.. they had them running off an iPhone, so not sure how they scale with an amp.. 

 

They sounded decent, clean tight bass was the stand out -  The sound quality benefited from the dsp more than the drivers imho.. without the dsp profile they sounded pretty ordinary.  

 

I really didn't like the  iem feeling pressing in my earholes and headphones together and in hotter weather not sure how they would feel being silicon. It just felt weird having things sticking in your ears with headphones on . Perhaps you'd get used to it..

 

I think the dsp tech is impressive and worked for me -  if they could use a single driver in traditional headphone or IEM design i'd consider it, I'm sold on the DSP..

[Guest]

I got them, wear them 6 hours a day at work. Better then the Bose/Sony equivalents, and I’ve owned them all. 

[Cruncher]

I am a bit late to the thread, some comments as I read through it.
Bass : I enjoy the bass on the Nura phones and it is much better than my other ‘average’ headphones. I dialled up the haptic setting to full in the application and found to a little too much of a good thing (particularly at high volume).

Sound Quality : I notice when I first got my headset it had a setting if you tapped the left side it would disable all processing and they sounded dreadful. I wonder if that is what happened to someone earlier in the thread. While I primarily bought them for their noise cancelling capability, I still find the sound good quality. Calling them ‘Audiophile’ headphones is a hugh overreach and if you are serious about head-fi these are not for you.

DSP : I find the differences between the personalised correction and the default setting is easy to pick while after after creating profiles for my kids they did not notice such a big difference. No - I don’t think you can get access to the raw data for the frequency response graphic.

[Guest]

@Cruncher yup, for $499, they are a cracking good headphone. I think the haters have more expectations for them, fun is the best way to describe them. 

[memota]

21 minutes ago, Cruncher said:

DSP : I find the differences between the personalised correction and the default setting is easy to pick while after after creating profiles for my kids they did not notice such a big difference. No - I don’t think you can get access to the raw data for the frequency response graphic.

 

I'm guessing this is because the older you get the more frequencies degrade, whereas the kids wouldn't have any hearing loss (yet!)

 

I reckon I'd be shocked / depressed to hear the difference from 'flat'

[Guest]

I personally think the flat response setting is a setup, make you think it’s personalized. 

[memota]

4 minutes ago, Sime V2 said:

I personally think the flat response setting is a setup, make you think it’s personalized. 

Interesting you say that, I was literally just reading an Amazon review from a guy who says he's an audio engineer, who believed the same thing about the flat setting and the test song they use.

[Guest]

@memota i heard enough audio gear in my life to know when something sounds bad. Now, when these headphones have your own setting going, they sound like a good headphone, but turn it off and it’s vile, vile on purpose. 

 

Only explanation imo. 

[Guest Eggcup The Daft]

1 hour ago, Sime V2 said:

I personally think the flat response setting is a setup, make you think it’s personalized. 

if you could build a genuine flat response headphone, it would probably sound wrong. If you look at measured responses for closed headphones, you'll find that most have a bump in the upper bass followed by a dip in the midrange.

 

As it is, their algorithm could start from anywhere, so why not start from a point that people might think should be good but isn't? Using the idea of "flat" does that.

 

I guess that they would be found out fairly quickly if all they had were two positions, so it's nothing special that they can build something that varies things a bit more based on individual's response to them. In fact, I would expect that for people with good hearing the customisation should be so close to the same that it may not be audible between different listeners.

 

Measured after calibration, they'll probably measure a lot like the response curves used in most "normal" headphones. So?

[sir sanders zingmore]

2 hours ago, Sime V2 said:

@memota i heard enough audio gear in my life to know when something sounds bad. Now, when these headphones have your own setting going, they sound like a good headphone, but turn it off and it’s vile, vile on purpose. 

 

Only explanation imo. 

So presumably, the best way to test them is to bring your current headphones and compare them with the nuraphone personalised setting 

[Guest]

@Sir Sanders Zingmore basically the personalized setting sounds like any other pair of headphones that are favorable to yourself (saying that because everyone like things differently) but yes, the personalized setting is just what I call normal. 

 

But, when it comes to the profile they measure, there’s something in that. 

If you look below, my two profiles are identical, and my partners is different, and I’d bet that if I measured Fiona again, hers would most likely be the same. 

Listening to both profiles is hard to pick a difference. 

 

[Cruncher]

When I did the kids profiles they were symmetrical / circular where as mine was more like the "simon 2" graphic above, which I expected as I have a problem with one of my ears.

 

I had not thought that they may have goosed the no-profile / profile test.

 

I enjoy my nura phones, and the friends and family discount also helped. I have 6 left ( not sure if they expire) is someone is going to purchase a pair let me know.

 

[memota]

Oh I’m curious now. How good is the discount? 

[Guest]

Lol, my thread, my discount opportunity @memota10% off

Edited January 7, 2019 by Sime V2

[memota]

Sorry dude I need to go back to the start don’t I?!

[Mike13]

3 hours ago, Sir Sanders Zingmore said:

So presumably, the best way to test them is to bring your current headphones and compare them with the nuraphone personalised setting 

I tested them in Hong Kong and compared some average Shure 530 IEMs with me.

 

I thought the non personalised setting is a total gimmick and made to intentionally sound terrible - I remember thinking that the $25 Koss on ear headphones I have sound better. When personalised, the sound was improved, but any decent headphone I've heard sounds way better, and they lost credibility with me for trying to trick people. Super uncomfortable as well.

 

Have you seen the ads? They win the award for most annoying ads of 2018 and they plague my Facebook account. "Funky in the front row" is just bloated bass turned up way too, and I like a lot of heavy bass.

 

It reminds me of a Beats product, aimed at people that don't know what good sounds like (which is why I'm surprised you like these Sime, because you sure have a good ear with all the nuances you can hear. I'm happy you do thought because I love the concept of over ears on in ears.)

 

I'd rate my Sony 1000xm2 over these. Sennheiser HD6xx better than these. Shure SE215 better than these.

 

I wonder they fared on Headfi? I stopped reading over there. 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Mike13 said:

It reminds me of a Beats product, aimed at people that don't know what good sounds like (which is why I'm surprised you like these Sime,

I like these the same way I can eat a $50 rib eye steak and then go to macdonalds after. 

Nowhere in my review did I say they perform better than the headphones I previously owned, I simply like them better. 

Everyone has a sound they prefer, and these headphones play music in the tone that I like mostly. My system at home does the same, but at a higher level. 

But you seem to dislike them because you also don’t like their advertising, and to me that’s nonsensical, sure they might be misrepresenting their product, and sure, most people don’t know what good sound is, but to be honest, if those people who don’t know pick these headphones, they are at least off to a good start, more so than the Apple earphone brigade. 

Like I’ve said, I’ve owned Bose, Sony, Beyerdynamic and Audeze, and these are the only ones I’ve stuck with. 

And you have to remember, being that they fit differently to all other headphones, there’s a break in period with them, it took me over a month for them to sit on my head without annoying me, now they are fine. 

Play the right kind of music that suits their tone, and they are a lot of fun. Like the title of this thread reads, they for me, are Metal heaven. Is there better, sure, but I bet I can’t where those and wash 20 dogs at work at the same time

‘nd the noise canceling on these is superior to the Bose and the Sony’s, and my work is the best place to test that. I literally can’t hear anything else but the music with these, even a dog barking in my face (I don’t listen fairly loudly though)

 

The problem with us audiophiles is that is that we tend to hold everything to a standard, but you can’t with everything. 

These for $499 give me a fantastic time at work. If you can show me something better at that price or similar I’ll drop them in an instant. 

Their biggest competition is the Bose QC 35ii and I played them at work for 4 months before these, 6 hours a day, and after the Nura’s, the Bose had to be sold. There’s no Comparison for me, others maybe. 

 

Edited January 7, 2019 by Sime V2