Nura was a

consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic (analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually r ...

company based in Melbourne, Australia. Nura designed and manufactured headphones with personalized sound technology. Nura's proprietary technology automatically measures the user's hearing sensitivities to different

frequencies Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...

by monitoring sounds generated from the inner ear. This process takes 1–2 minutes. The headphones then adapt the frequency response to the user's sensitivities, allowing them to hear more detail when listening to music. In October 2017, Nura launched their debut product, the Nuraphone. In July 2018, Nura added

active noise cancellation Active noise control (ANC), also known as noise cancellation (NC), or active noise reduction (ANR), is a method for reducing unwanted sound by the addition of a second sound specifically designed to cancel the first. The concept was first develop ...

to their headphones via a software update. In April 2023, Nura was acquired by

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, a part of the Masimo Corporation, to integrate their personalized audio technology into Denon earbuds and headphones. Denon discontinued the sale of Nura-branded products shortly after.

History

Nura was founded in 2015 by Dr. Luke Campbell, Dr. Dragan Petrović, and Kyle Slater.

Funding

Nura was able to develop their debut product, the Nuraphone, with funding from the Melbourne Accelerator Program, HAX (a hardware accelerator program based out of

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venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

, and the use of a crowdfunding campaign on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

. In 2015, the Melbourne Accelerator Program granted Nura an Entrepreneurial Fellowship, which provided monetary funding as well as office space and mentoring. In 2016, Nura joined HAX, and in the same year, they ran a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign on

to raise funds to begin mass production of the Nuraphone. The Kickstarter campaign ultimately raised $1.8 million (USD) from 7,730 backers to become the largest Kickstarter campaign in Australian history. In May 2017, Nura raised a $6 million (AUD) seed-funding round, which was led by Blackbird Ventures, with additional investment from SOSV, Qualgro, Sean Parker, Craig Barratt, the

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and partners of Perkins Coie. The seed-funding round was followed by a $21 million (AUD) series A round also led by Blackbird Ventures.

Launch

Nura officially began operations on October 3, 2017, giving the general public access to the Nuraphone.

Products

Nuraphone

The Nuraphone is a

headphone Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an au ...

that personalizes sound by measuring how the human ear responds to different sound frequencies and is patent-protected as the only consumer electronics headphone to do so.

Nuraphone /G2

Nura released a free firmware update for the Nuraphone in July 2018 that enabled additional features such as

, audio pass-through, and enhancements to voice calls and button presses.

NuraLoop

In 2020, Nura released the NuraLoop wireless earbuds which repackaged the Nuraphone experience into a portable design intended to bring optimal sound performance to performers. The NuraLoop can be used both wired and wirelessly (16-hour battery life) allowing greater flexibility on the go. The NuraLoop was named an Innovation Award Honoree at CES in 2019.

NuraTrue

In 2021, Nura launched their latest product, NuraTrue, which are wireless headphones with the company's signature personalized sound technology. NuraTrue was listed in TIME's 100 Best Inventions of 2021 and awarded "Best Earbuds for Personalized Sound" in Rolling Stone Audio Awards 2022.

NuraBuds

Alongside NuraTrue, Nura launched NuraBuds exclusively on their subscription platform NuraNow in 2021. Unlike NuraTrue, NuraBuds cannot perform a hearing calibration, however a hearing profile created with any other Nura product can be imported onto the device.

Design and technology

The Nuraphone's personalization works by monitoring the user's otoacoustic emissions and then adjusting sound based on the measurements, allowing the user to hear more detail when listening to music. The Nuraphone has a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

ed design (Inova) that includes both in-ear monitors and over-ear cups, and also features

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s that circulate air through the ear cups to keep the user's ears cool during use.

Awards

Nura won the Best of Innovation at the CES Innovation Awards 2018 for the Nuraphone. The product also won the

Red Dot The Red Dot Design Award is a German international design prize awarded by Red Dot GmbH & Co. KG. There are prize categories for product design, brands and communication design, and design concept. Since 1955, designers and producers can apply ...

Award 2018 Best of the Best in the consumer electronics category, the 2018 Good Design Australia Award for best product design in consumer electronics, and the Gold at IDSA IDEA 2018 awards in the consumer technology category. In 2021, the NuraTrue was listed in TIME's 100 Best Inventions of 2021 in the Custom Listening category, and in 2022, it was awarded Best Earbuds for Personalized Sound in Rolling Stone's Audio Awards.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:nura 2015 establishments in Australia