[lear-hk]

  correct me if i'm wrong, the blowup picture kinda suggest that the NSS speaker unit, via the curved acoustic path, delivers a slightly late information (maybe from the other channel) in addition to the main speaker thus emulating the way our ear listening a speaker: right ear listening direct sound wave from the right speaker plus a slightly late sound wave from the left speaker?

You are correct!

 

[lear-hk]

Interesting development. Will the NSS technology be applied on the LHF series as well?

 
Everything will be possible if we can meet our target !
http://nss.lear-audio.hk
Please back us if you can!

 

[lear-hk]

We did an interesting experiment about NSS sound experience before.
Here is our conclusion which you may feel interested in.
 
The report and conclusion of the listening experiment !

The “To Present by Sound Sharing” concept demo has been carried out satisfactorily with thanks to the support from Hong Kong and all over the world for participating. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks, for the thousand and counting clicks to the test would not be achieved within the short period of time without each of your support! Now, we proudly announce that the “To Present by Sound Sharing” concept demo as a success for both of the demos in the experiment was produced by LEAR recording and NSS earphones.

These clicks represent our new product and project being able to reach out to the public for over a thousand consumers before the release. Every audience of the recording is able to get a sense of our new product, thus to comment on it before the production of the product. These comments are extremely valuable for us to improve and optimise our products before its mass production, which results in a better tuning for the consumer’s preference!

Ain’t such audio test, sharing and information exchange is far more effective than conveying our ideal sound through text and images? Through the experiment, every participant has experienced the effect of the LEAR Recording solution and LEAR NSS-U1 prototype! This has correlate with our recent idea - Sound Introduction, Sound Share. Everyone could access to our audio test, anywhere and everywhere provided with Internet access.
 

The steps we obtained the audio file in demo1(https://soundcloud.com/tat-ma/demo-test) and demo2(https://soundcloud.com/tat-ma/test-demo-2) are listed below:
1. We pick a piece from a published CD and convert it into a 44kHz/16 bit wav file
2. Demo1 is exported into a iPod Classic while Demo2 is exported into an iBasso DX90
3. The LEAR NSS-U1 earphones prototype are plugged to the player’s output
4. The earphones are then plugged into the LEAR Binaural recording device, which is connected to a Behringer XENYX UFX1204 mixer with a USB connection to a MacBookPro recording the sound of the earphones with Apple’s Logic Pro X in a 96kHz/24bit sampling.
5. While recording Demo-1, NSS is enabled with part 2, while Part 1 of Demo-2 has the NSS enabled.
6. Using the LEAR LHF-AE1D, LCM-5, LUF-BD4.2, Philips L2, Shure SRH840, and JVC HA-MAX10…etc during the recording and mixing process in monitoring the tonality of the music.
7. The master volume of Demo-2’s Part 1 is tuned down 3.3dB to test another issue, which will be further explained below.
 

 ​

8. With appropriate signal processing, the file is then output to a 44.1kHz/16bit WAV file.
9. The file is then uploaded to SoundCloud, officially distributed to participants all over the world.

Despite the effort we made, but the quality of the playback on SoundCloud appears to be a 128kbps mp3 quality. However, we are more than grateful that you all did not criticise on the quality of the playback and supported our experiment. We must once again emphasise our appreciation to your support!

The public experiment consists of solely Demo 1 & 2, but in fact we have conducted similar tests internally with around 30 colleagues and partners of ours in which over 90% of them (included the Singer and Producer of the original songs) has a preference towards the NSS enabled sound . Consequently, we decided to operate a public test in order to result in an in-depth and broader opinion.

Focusing back on the experiment, you are experiencing a recording file from the LEAR recording solution recording a pair of LEAR NSS-U1 prototype earphone no matter you listened to demo 1 or 2, preferred part 1 or part 2.

The difference between demo 1 & 2 reasons to Demo-1-Part-2 & Demo-2-Part-1 has been enabled with the NSS technology while the alternatives were pure audio from the earphones. The master volume of Demo-2-Part-1 was lowered by 3.3dB in order to investigate another factor, which will be further explained below.

Excluding the internal experiments, we have received over 70 comments in which part of them did not indicate a preference between part 1 or 2. These results will be excluded from the statistic graphs below. The vote for demo 1 and demo 2 is 43 and 25 respectively.
72% voted for demo-1-part-1 and demo-2-part-2, while demo-1-part-2 and demo-2-part-1 received 28% of the votes.
 

Following, we will look into the objectives of the experiment and ideas we would like to share. Not to mention, the results of the experiment!

1. The objective of the experiment is through our own recording technology, establish our “Sound Introduction, Sound Share” ideal, which consumers can get a sense of our new product through their players and earphones.
LEAR developed its own Acoustic Simulation technology - NSS(Natural Stereo Sound), which is hardly describable through text or images. Yet, participants have gained understanding towards the NSS technology through this demo. The NSS is the rich and natural audio image placed in front of you instead of the usual centred-top audio image.

The NSS is not an EQ or tuning, which different earphones employed with different participants further proved the NSS effect in every earphones/headphones/ear-monitors through the experiment. Or else, we would not result in the difference between part 1 and 2. Conversely speaking, the music without the NSS technique displays the product of traditional recording methods.

2. We seek to understand consumer’s response to the NSS technology so that in the following Mass-Pre-Order project we can optimise the earphones to the public expectation. For that as a consumer-oriented company, we are more than willing to communicate with every potential customers of ours. Regarding acoustical physics, audio with NSS is naturally louder than without. Therefore, this resulted in the drastic change in demo 2 which 72% prefer the sound without NSS. We can therefore result in a hasty generalisation that the natural louder sound is preferred than the -3.3dB one. In conclusion, our concerns regarding the NSS volume difference are cleared now!

3. Due to physical constraints, the NSS enabled sound will be louder, richer and warmer than the original. Therefore, the unexpected comments from Demo2 is reflected which 72% of participants preferred the one without NSS sound. A conclusion that the louder NSS is preferred by the public. We were concerned about whether we should fix the loudness issue for the NSS, which now the experiment results with the NSS resolves the issue. For those who are interested in the Demo2 without volume adjust, you are invited to the following link: https://soundcloud.com/tat-ma/demo2-original-volume

Some insights concluded from the experiment:
1. Introducing sound through sound is concluded a better way for those promoters who have to promote earphones or loudspeakers to their customers than with text and images. Thus, to save the cost.

2. For producers and musicians who are concerned about “high-definition” formats such as PCM/Flac, 96kHz/24bit, 192 kHz/24bit or DSD, etc… The fact that the mass mostly uses mobile devices and earphone for music streaming is undeniable. The popularity of music applications such as KKBox, Spotify, MOOV, etc has highly limited the development of High-Definition formats. Given most of the public is satisfied with the streaming quality, why spend more mobile data and money to purchase the High-Definition that only seems to be better? To offer a better sound quality for the audience with current formats seem to be a better solution for the audience. in which LEAR’s NSS technology would resolve the above issue. If music production units can make use of the NSS technology to produce a NSS mixed version and distribute it through the same sources, would it be more effective?

3. A remarkable reflection from the experiment is that the monitors used during the mixing process is different from the earphones the mass listen to the product. Therefore, with ten audiences, it might result in ten listening experience. This reflects the issue when a music production unit produces a music with loudspeaker mixing, is it possible for audience listen to the music in a studio environment with a loudspeaker? Therefore, there is a need of the NSS technology for audience to listen to a sound closer to the original mix.

Concluding the experiment, we hope to share the effect of the NSS technology before we launch the LEAR Mass Pre-Order NSS Earphone Project page in order to gain more support! Besides the NSS-U1 earphone, every 160USD(included international shipping) from each of you will be very supportive for us to extend the NSS technology and the music platform project!

We sincerely wish that you could support us to launch our project in Hong Kong!
For those who are interested in receiving more information, please subscribe through the following link in order to gain first hand information for the LEAR Mass Pre-Order project!
http://nss.lear-audio.hk/

*Special thanks must be given to Portugese singer Nanook o vagabundo（facebook: nanook.ovagabundo) for the music in Demo1- Corrente subterranea de emocoes, and Hong Kong Frenzimusic for Michael Lai’s Cope With Life in Demo 2.
 

 ​

 

[Jobbing]

Everything will be possible if we can meet our target !
http://nss.lear-audio.hk
Please back us if you can!

Thanks. Subscribed http://nss.lear-audio.hk

Have you decided on the price tag and cost/tax effective fulfillment for international backers?

 

[lear-hk]

Thanks. Subscribed http://nss.lear-audio.hk

Have you decided on the price tag and cost/tax effective fulfillment for international backers?

We are currently working on the international payment part(via PayPal) on our page http://nss.lear-audio.hk .
 
The price for international backers will be USD$160/pair with Air+registered mail shipping.

 

[miceblue]

Excluding the internal experiments, we have received over 70 comments in which part of them did not indicate a preference between part 1 or 2. These results will be excluded from the statistic graphs below. The vote for demo 1 and demo 2 is 43 and 25 respectively.

72% voted for demo-1-part-1 and demo-2-part-2, while demo-1-part-2 and demo-2-part-1 received 28% of the votes.

​

Sorry, this part was a little confusing to me.

43 people were involved for the voting of Demo 1, of which, 31 of them (31/43 = 72%) preferred part 2 (NSS enabled) of that track.
25 people were involved for the voting of Demo 2, of which, 18 of them (18/25 = 72%) preferred part 1 (NSS enabled) of that track.

So from these two findings, it looks like the people who participated in this survey preferred the sound recording with NSS enabled, is this correct?


Other than that, this is a fascinating study! I'm impressed that you got the public to be involved in this project, not just audiophiles from Head-Fi. : )

 

[lear-hk]

Sorry, this part was a little confusing to me.

43 people were involved for the voting of Demo 1, of which, 31 of them (31/43 = 72%) preferred part 2 (NSS enabled) of that track.
25 people were involved for the voting of Demo 2, of which, 18 of them (18/25 = 72%) preferred part 1 (NSS enabled) of that track.

So from these two findings, it looks like the people who participated in this survey preferred the sound recording with NSS enabled, is this correct?


Other than that, this is a fascinating study! I'm impressed that you got the public to be involved in this project, not just audiophiles from Head-Fi. : )

 
Sorry to make your confused and glad that you like our report!
 
In Demo1 , we can say 72% participants prefer the NSS enabled mix (Part2) instead of the original mix.
 
In Demo 2, the master volume of Demo-2’s Part 1 is tuned down 3.3dB to test another issue , so ,the conclusions are:
 
1.We seek to understand consumer’s response to the NSS technology so that in the following Mass-Pre-Order project we can optimise the earphones to the public expectation. For that as a consumer-oriented company, we are more than willing to communicate with every potential customers of ours. Regarding acoustical physics, audio with NSS is naturally louder than without. Therefore, this resulted in the drastic change in demo 2 which 72% prefer the sound without NSS. We can therefore result in a hasty generalisation that the natural louder sound is preferred than the -3.3dB one. In conclusion, our concerns regarding the NSS volume difference are cleared now!

2. Due to physical constraints, the NSS enabled sound will be louder, richer and warmer than the original. Therefore, the unexpected comments from Demo2 is reflected which 72% of participants preferred the one without NSS sound. A conclusion that the louder NSS is preferred by the public. We were concerned about whether we should fix the loudness issue for the NSS, which now the experiment results with the NSS resolves the issue. For those who are interested in the Demo2 without volume adjust, you are invited to the following link: https://soundcloud.com/tat-ma/demo2-original-volume
 

 

[Jobbing]

LEAR “Mass Pre-Order” project (similar to the concept of crowdfunding) ,was scheduled to be launched in late January or early February. Have you set a date for the actual launch/pre-order?

 

[lear-hk]

LEAR “Mass Pre-Order” project (similar to the concept of crowdfunding) ,was scheduled to be launched in late January or early February. Have you set a date for the actual launch/pre-order?

 
 
It's already running in HongKong and soon(within this week) will be available for international backers.
This is the link of our Mass Pre-Order page: http://nss.lear-audio.hk

 

[ClieOS]

   
I agree that it's a good idea and I'm curious as well, though I've yet to see the advantage over DSP which strikes me as cheaper and more versatile.

 
Some of the interesting points for me will be on (1) whether the minute difference in speed for different frequency to travel through air and (2) whether the difference rate of energy dissipation / decay in different frequency makes soundstage more noticeable and/or more natural sounding than DSP or crossfeed. To date, none of the crossfeed I have tried (mainly Meier Audio, Leckerton Audio, HeadRoom and iFi Audio) is able to impress me. The only one I like is the 3D Holographic Sound from iFi, which is a much more complex implementation than crossfeed. Of course, a complex DSP based device (such as a DAP or PC) can probably do a good job as well, though such effect on DAP often is overtuned and can be a big hit or miss. However, I think the real advantage for NSS is that, unlike crossfeed circuit or DSP, you don't have to rely on one particular source for the effect, since it is built into the IEM itself.

 

[mochill]

$160 sounds great

 

[darinf]

Very interesting technology. 
 
I am anxious to hear how NSS sounds compared to my setup which uses a totally different approach.

 

[james444]

   
Some of the interesting points for me will be on (1) whether the minute difference in speed for different frequency to travel through air and (2) whether the difference rate of energy dissipation / decay in different frequency makes soundstage more noticeable and/or more natural sounding than DSP or crossfeed. To date, none of the crossfeed I have tried (mainly Meier Audio, Leckerton Audio, HeadRoom and iFi Audio) is able to impress me. The only one I like is the 3D Holographic Sound from iFi, which is a much more complex implementation than crossfeed. Of course, a complex DSP based device (such as a DAP or PC) can probably do a good job as well, though such effect on DAP often is overtuned and can be a big hit or miss. However, I think the real advantage for NSS is that, unlike crossfeed circuit or DSP, you don't have to rely on one particular source for the effect, since it is built into the IEM itself.

 
Your interesting points are equally interesting to me and I'm ready to support LEAR's effort for the sake of their inventive spirit alone.
 
However, being a realist, I wouldn't get my hopes up high that this solution can rival complex DSP based implementations. Contrary to your experience, the ones I've tried (Rockbox, Neutron Player DSP, V4A) can be fine-tuned by the user, so it's ultimately your own responsibility whether the result will be hit or miss. And I think particularly V4A is extremely versatile and powerful and will run rings around every analog solution.
 
So, from my pov, it pretty much boils down to the question whether NSS will sound more "natural" than DSP... and that's the main thing I'm curious about.
 
As for your last point, that's a bit like the proverbial glass of water one can see as half empty or half full. NSS being built into the IEM itself means that you don't have to rely on one particular source. But is also means that (unlike DSP) you can't use NSS with your other IEMs. Hence it's an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on how one chooses to see the glass.

 

[Scorpion667]

What benefit is there for me, as a consumer, to invest in your campaign as opposed to waiting until the headphone is released and many reviews are out? 
Is there any financial incentive, such as cheaper price for preorders? 

 

[vnmslsrbms]

You may draw the conclusion that you should make the nss effect louder, but that just tells me people like louder music playback. If assuming the demo 2 has both parts at the same loud ess (actual or perceived) the in fact nss is not preferable at the same volume. If you adjusted the loudness for the nss too much so that the loudness is less than the normal playback, then still that proves that people like music that is played back louder. This phenomenon is common amongst listeners for audio products and you are only addressing it partially.