Earbuds are going wireless in their droves, and the latest to arrive on the scene – via CES 2018 – are the IQBuds Boost and the LiveIQ buds from audio specialists Nuheara. Not only do they crank out your tunes, they can be tweaked for a more personalized experience, and can even help fix issues with hearing.
That's not to say these buds can replace a hearing aid, but they can boost the sounds users want to hear while cutting out the noises they don't. The IQBuds Boost can be calibrated using a proprietary technology called Ear ID, controlling the balance between the speech you hear and the background noise.
Using the accompanying app with the Boost buds, it's possible to set listening thresholds for certain sounds, in a way that's different for every ear. The end result of this custom hearing profile should be clearer conversations in noisy environments.
Come on cancel the noise
Of course as well as hearing augmentation, the IQBuds Boost also do all the usual earbud jobs, like streaming your music from your smartphone. We're still waiting on a price, but they should be out by April, acting as a premium alternative to the IQBuds the company already sells.
Also new from Nuheara are the LiveIQ buds, with a focus on intelligent Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). These buds don't have the hearing aid-style tricks of the IQBuds Boost, but they do still give you a way to tweak the audio coming into your ears. In other words, they're more direct rivals to the Apple AirPods.
Expect to see the LiveIQ buds sometime in the summer for a price around $200 (about £150/AU$255), though that hasn't been fixed yet. If you're after some premium-level earbuds with added intelligence, your choice of options just got bigger.
