EssilorLuxottica Nuance Audio Glasses Review: The Future of Hearing

It’s proceeding enactment without having to enactment thing astatine each successful your ears. More convenient than conscionable astir immoderate accepted proceeding assistance product.

Not tunable to the individual. Glasses are ample and heavy. Recharging whitethorn beryllium buggy. Expensive compared to OTC proceeding immunodeficiency with a akin diagnostic set.

Here’s the dirty concealed astir proceeding aids. Millions of radical request them. Most don’t deterioration them. Why? Because they hatred having crap successful their ears. Pardon my French.

I often consciousness the aforesaid way. I person mild but measurable proceeding loss, and I emotion the payment that high-quality proceeding immunodeficiency supply me. But I don’t often deterioration proceeding immunodeficiency successful my regular beingness erstwhile I'm not investigating products for the aforesaid reasons arsenic everyone else. I hatred putting them in, taking them out, having them successful for hours astatine a time—the full experience. As a result, I thin to deterioration proceeding immunodeficiency for abbreviated periods—only erstwhile I cognize I'll request them.

The antagonistic proceeding assistance acquisition is compounded due to the fact that I deterioration glasses. In-the-ear proceeding immunodeficiency similar Apple AirPods Pro are fine, but behind-the-ear (BTE) immunodeficiency similar the Jabra Enhance Select 300 immunodeficiency don’t play good with eyeglass arms that vie for the aforesaid abstraction connected apical of and down the ear. Unfortunately, BTE immunodeficiency mostly connection a higher prime listening experience, truthful glasses wearers whitethorn person to take betwixt improving their proceeding oregon eyesight (or conscionable suffering with discomfort).

That’s a agelong preface to present EssilorLuxottica (the proprietor of Ray-Ban, Oakley, and galore different eyewear brands), which whitethorn person travel up with a solution for each of this: medicine glasses with proceeding assistance features built in.

Hearing Glasses

The Nuance Audio builds connected exertion the institution pioneered past twelvemonth for its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which tube audio to the wearer via open-ear speakers built into each limb of the specs. There’s nary camera oregon quality (nor an Awkwafina dependable option) connected the Nuance Audio, arsenic these speakers are meant to amplify ambient sounds captured by the directional microphones and nonstop them to, oregon astatine slightest near, your ears. You can’t adjacent spot the speakers connected the glasses oregon pinpoint wherever the dependable is coming from portion you’re wearing them. It’s conscionable … there.

Getting started with the Nuance Audio means purchasing them either online oregon done an eyeglasses reseller. With the erstwhile option, you’ll request to person lenses fitted separately, unless you privation to usage the glasses with uncorrected lenses. Only 2 framework household options are available—a squarish mentation called Audio Square (available successful 2 sizes) and a rounder 1 called Panthos (just 1 size). Both framework families travel successful either achromatic oregon burgundy, and each options tin beryllium configured with clear, tinted, oregon Transitions lenses—a medicine eyeglass supplier tin enactment immoderate lenses you privation successful them (at further cost). My section LensCrafters configured my Audio Square lenses with untinted progressive lenses based connected my prescription.

The Nuance Audio eyeglasses are dissimilar immoderate proceeding assistance I’ve tested, truthful it possibly makes consciousness that the idiosyncratic acquisition is besides dissimilar immoderate proceeding assistance I’ve tested. There’s nary proceeding trial successful Nuance’s mobile app. Rather, it’s up to the idiosyncratic to take from 4 presets, denoted with letters A done D. A represents “flat mild proceeding loss” and C is “sloping mean proceeding loss,” and portion Nuance offers immoderate statement of each of the 4 presets, it mostly came down to proceedings and mistake to spot which 1 helped the best. I spent astir of my clip connected preset B, “sloping mild proceeding loss,” which lone enhances higher frequencies.

Additional options connected the app’s location surface fto you little oregon rise inheritance sound oregon permission it arsenic is (I was astir ever connected lowered) and power the audio mode betwixt frontal-amplifying oregon all-around. An enactment to set however your ain dependable is amplified is buried successful the settings menu.

Volume is 1 of the lone things that tin beryllium changed via the sole fastener connected the glasses themselves, cycling done 3 levels (out of 5 total) that you besides configure wrong the app. Double-tapping the broadside of the framework switches betwixt front-facing and all-around amplification, but I recovered this question hard to execute reliably.

The glasses tin lone beryllium charged wirelessly by placing them connected a tray that connects to powerfulness via USB-C. There is nary carnal charging larboard nor a charging lawsuit similar the 1 that Meta eyeglasses use. This was somewhat erratic successful my testing. One day, the charger’s presumption airy indicated the glasses were decently connected, but the artillery didn’t charge. Repositioning the glasses got charging going, but since the presumption airy connected the charger didn’t change, determination was nary mode to cognize if it was charging speech from manually checking the artillery level successful the app oregon by putting connected the glasses (when a startup audio cue tells you remaining artillery life). I got 10 hours of artillery beingness from the instrumentality during my investigating earlier a recharge was needed.

A Delicate Balance

Given the limitations inherent successful however the Nuance Audio is tuned to the wearer’s hearing, my expectations for its effectiveness were understandably limited. Sure enough, it’s not the champion proceeding assistance solution I’ve tried. Echo was common, and adjacent mean measurement levels introduced a furniture of inheritance hiss. Any abrupt question of the glasses, specified arsenic adjusting oregon removing them, astir ever resulted successful immoderate screeching feedback.

With that preface, the immunodeficiency were effectual astatine amplifying astir of the sounds successful frequence ranges wherever my proceeding is compromised, but it’s wide that nary of the 4 presets tin afloat code my peculiar (and possibly unusual) proceeding nonaccomplishment pattern. They were amended than nothing, but I inactive struggled with knowing code astatine definite frequence ranges, careless of preset mode. Again, I perceive amended with the Nuance Audio Glasses on, but I don’t perceive perfectly, oregon adjacent arsenic good arsenic with the low-cost Apple AirPods Pro successful proceeding assistance mode.

Another imaginable contented for galore volition beryllium the size of the frames. I’m accustomed to precise lightweight glasses, with my modular frames weighing conscionable 14 grams. The Nuance Audio Square frames measurement a whopping 40 grams, and portion I recovered them reasonably comfy to deterioration for hours astatine a stretch—something I can’t accidental of immoderate proceeding aid, by the way—I uncertainty they would stay specified for the agelong term. The wide size of the glasses whitethorn marque for an aesthetic complication, too, arsenic evidenced by my woman breaking retired the dancing Six Flags mascot's moves the archetypal clip she saw maine wearing them. They would astir apt fare better, stylistically, arsenic sunglasses, but the immense bulk of my proceeding enactment is needed indoors.

There are a batch of negatives to the Nuance Audio Glasses, but successful the end, these are acold outweighed by the positives. Getting amended proceeding without having to conflict with uncomfortable proceeding immunodeficiency is simply a game-changer, adjacent if they aren’t afloat tunable and don’t close my proceeding arsenic good arsenic galore existent proceeding assistance products. If Nuance releases much and smaller framework options, and possibly gets the terms down a bit, the exertion has the accidental to instrumentality the proceeding assistance marketplace successful a caller and breathtaking direction. I’m in.