We've made no bones about our opinion of the remarkable Nura headphones, calling them "the best headphones any of us have every heard." Now, the company is offering them on a monthly subscription deal with some interesting bonuses.
US$399 is a lot for a set of headphones – particularly ones that don't have Dr. Dre's name on them or a 50-year old company behind them. And however much the tech press raves about the experience of using these extraordinary cans, with their personalized hearing-adaptive audio magic and colossal skin-conduction bass boosting, it's hard to convince folk to lay down that kind of cash without having had the transformative experience of using them when properly calibrated in a quiet room.
So the company has launched a program it calls NuraNow, in which customers can make a much less onerous monthly payment. Yes, it's a subscription service for headphones.
There are deals in UK and Australian currencies, but we'll go with US pricing. You can go for a US$15 a month deal with no up-front fee, put in $30 up front and pay $12 per month, or put in $100 up front and add $9 per month.
Drop the deal in the first 30 days and under most circumstances you'll get your money back. Drop it at any stage after that, and you lose whatever you've spent so far, the cans get de-activated over the air and you've got 30 days to send them back.
When you hit 24 months, you'll get a new device sent out on top of what you've already got – in the first case, probably a set of Nuraloop hearing-adaptive earphones.
Nura will also basically insure them for you as part of the deal. If they fail or break, or get lost or stolen or run over by a truck within that 24 month period, you'll get a new set – only once if it's not Nura's fault, but still, Dr. Dre isn't sending you a new set of Beats if you drop them down a manhole. There's a couple of other things thrown in: 3-for-1 gig tickets at GiggedIn, free analog cables and some prize draws.
They work with phones, computers and other devices, on high quality Bluetooth or corded connections. They've got built-in noise cancelling with Social mode so you can hear your surroundings despite their excellent isolation. They've got microphones so you can have nice, clear hands-free phone calls. And most importantly, they give you a mini hearing test during setup so they can tune themselves to your ears. Nura's headphones are indeed a remarkable piece of technology and a great musical experience, and it's cool to see this Australian company innovating with pricing models as well.
Source: Nura
