One of the things I realized after I hit my mid-30s was that I was a reckless fool during my late teens on through to my twenties. I was already rather tame to be honest -- I never partied hard nor drink much -- but looking back, I realize now that I drove way too fast, slept way too little, ate too much junk, and listened to music way too loud. The latter -- overly loud music -- is a real, increasing health threat. According to a report by the World Health Organisation two years ago, more than a billion teenagers and young adults are at risk of hearing loss from unsafe use of audio devices. Now I usually take these health reports -- "using mobile phones will give you cancer!" -- with a grain of salt, but the hearing damage I totally believe, because I lived through it (anyone who loves music probably did). I think back to the way I listened to music -- on max volume, with bass boost on -- and I shudder. How many eardrums did I pop?
And so when Brandon Low of Japanese/American consumer electronics company Nakamichi contacted me a few weeks ago to test out a demo unit of his new headphone that claims to have your ear's health in its best interest, I was keen to give it a try.
The Nakamichi Edge is an over-the-ear headphone with a built-in A.I. that will automatically dial down the volume to help protect your ears from damage.
Low, who co-created the headphones in Shenzhen, says the headphones don't just turn down the sound after a fixed number of minutes, instead it "examines and aggregates all the elements of a song, from pitch to dynamic range, and optimize from there."
In addition to volume, Low says the Edge's A.I. will analyze the audio's "clarity, depth and spaciousness." What that means is when you first put it on, the headphone behaves like a normal set of headphones. But as you play music, the A.I. is analyzing the sound to push out sound that it deems more suitable, and adjust volume to prevent ear damage (using data from WHO).
"The volume adjustment depends on the volume level the user is listening at," he adds. "If the person is listening to soft music at normal volume, it could take three to four hours before the headphone lowers the volume. If the person is not listening at an unsafe level, the Edge will leave the volume level as is."
But if you're listening to death metal on full blast? "It'll kick in after a couple of minutes to save your ears."
My testing confirmed this. When I listened to Jack Johnson (who makes chill Hawaiian acoustic rock) on 75% volume, I made it through almost the entire album Sleep Through the Static before the volume tuned down. But when I jumped over to Linkin Park's Meteora (RIP Chester!) on the same volume, the Edge dropped the volume before the album got to the third track.
But how does the Edge sound? Well, in perhaps an indictment of just how society has trained us to listen to music at unsafe levels, my first couple of hours I kept thinking the sound on the Edge wasn't loud enough. There was a spaciness to the audio that sounded like it was coming from further away (instead of right on my years). Overall, the sound lacks that immediate "oomph" that you get out of, say, a Beats headphone. But I later realized that's because the Edge is trying to keep my ears healthy instead of flooring me with that ear-popping bass. So it doesn't floor you on the first beat, but it'll win you over slow and steadily with evenly-tuned sound that won't give you a headache.
Low says the Edge's A.I., after it has turned down the volume dial on you, will re-assess the quality of the sound output and decide between two drivers to pump out the music for more clarity. That explain why I was able to hear the vocals and acoustics so well in Jack Johnson's All At Once even if overall volume was quite low. I asked my girlfriend to try the headphones with her preferred music of choice -- modern hip hop like Kendrick Lamar or Chance the Rapper -- and she said the the treble was surprisingly good, but the bass was lacking. Later, I switched over to something without bass -- jazz by John Coltrane -- and the clarity was excellent. I think having two sound drivers (most headphones only have one) really makes a difference in separating the frequencies. The four noise-canceling mics also do a good job of tuning out the noise around me.
The overall design of the hardware resembles the Beats -- they fold the same way -- but it feels a lot more sturdy and better built overall. The top cushion is thick and comfortable on my head, and the over the ear cups didn't press on my head too hard like on many over-the-ear headphones.
The Edge is meant to be used mostly via Bluetooth without any wires, but you can use an aux cable when it runs out of juice. Battery life is good though, the Edge gave me close to 13 hours on a full charge. Low says the Nakamichi Edge will retail for US$299 later, but the headphone can be had on Indiegogo right now for US$129. I'm told that 2,700 units have already been produced and are ready to ship.
