Music

Nura's new subscription model gives you high-end headphones on a monthly fee, fully insured

Nura's new subscription model gives you high-end headphones on a monthly fee, fully insured
Nura's amazing hearing-adaptive headphones are now available as a monthly subscription service
Nura's amazing hearing-adaptive headphones are now available as a monthly subscription service
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The Nuraloop hearing-adaptive earphones, seen earlier this year at CES
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The Nuraloop hearing-adaptive earphones, seen earlier this year at CES
Nura's amazing hearing-adaptive headphones are now available as a monthly subscription service
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Nura's amazing hearing-adaptive headphones are now available as a monthly subscription service

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.

The Nuraloop hearing-adaptive earphones, seen earlier this year at CES
The Nuraloop hearing-adaptive earphones, seen earlier this year at CES

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

1 comment
1 comment
patient23
Great idea for getting people started/hooked. I have had a pair for about 4 months now and they do sound great. I was okay just buying them, but I've also dropped over $300 on Bose over-ears and Bose ear-bud style speakers so I'm clearly not very price-sensitive when it involves listening to music for hours. My Bose still sound great, I guess they naturally fit my hearing profile pretty close, but the Nura's blow them away in fitting my hearing perfectly. I can hear way more details in the music, including lyrics I could never make out before -- even when I'm listening to some of my old MPEGs. I'm sure I'll be tempted by their buds as well, since I will have to put my Nura cans away for summer in the next couple weeks. Even with the cooling features they have they are too hot on the ears on warm days, at least compared to earbuds.