

SoundFocus (YC S13) Launches With an App for ‘20/20 Hearing’ - varunsrin
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/14/yc-backed-soundfocus-launches-with-an-app-for-2020-hearing-with-mysterious-hardware-on-the-way/

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pg
This is an interesting case of a disadvantage becoming an advantage. The CEO
suffers from significant hearing loss, but that enabled him to see a huge
market that most 20-something founders overlook.

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allenpc
What's cool is that in addition to this being a tremendous product for an
overlooked market, the comments here seem to indicate that it has great value
even for non-hearing-impaired users. Excellent potential here.

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Osmium
Love the idea, but it does precisely nothing for me at the moment.

I have significant hearing loss in one ear. The app doesn't seem to
distinguish between ears(?) So when I try to calibrate it, I can hear
practically the lowest noises on all the screens, so it doesn't really seem to
do much whether I turn it on or off.

It's not uncommon for people to have one considerably worse ear; in fact, I
would guess it's a lot more common for someone to have one bad ear (due to an
infection or similar) than it is to have equal problems in both, though I may
well be wrong about this, but even if still think it's worth considering.
(Edit: I can't find specific figures comparing incidence of unilateral vs
bilateral deafness, but there are certainly plenty of people out there in a
similar position to me, e.g. see [0] and [1])

I'm actually in a privileged position of having the results of a
professionally-taken hearing test, so I know exactly which frequencies my
hearing is bad at too. But the app doesn't seem to show the results of the
test it does, so I can't verify its accuracy.

Still, I hope it improves, because I've always wanted an app like this (or,
more precisely, an app that would generate a custom corrective EQ curve for
each ear). I'll watch with interest... Certainly won't be deleting it yet
anyway, and it's nice to see the app itself being so polished.

Edit: I almost think the set-up screens are too simplified. If someone does
have significant hearing problems, they'll be more than prepared to spend a
few minutes setting it up if it results in a better correction (e.g. more
frequency samples and one for each ear).

[0] [http://www.hear-it.org/Single-sided-deafness](http://www.hear-
it.org/Single-sided-deafness) [1]
[http://www.singlesideddeafness.com/ssd_report.pdf](http://www.singlesideddeafness.com/ssd_report.pdf)

~~~
varunsrin
Co-founder here - thanks for the great feedback Osmium. You're quite right in
that the number of people who have unilateral hearing loss is pretty high
(it's close to 40% from some recent studies).

We're working on developing a test that works well for people with single ear
hearing loss for a future app update - would you be interested in trying out
our beta? Please drop me an email if you are: varun [at] soundfocus [dot] com.

~~~
whbk
I've had significant hearing loss in one ear since birth and finally got
around to getting a hearing aid after finishing school last year.

Right now I typically put the standard Apple earbuds over my hearing aid when
walking around, but strongly prefer my Bose QuietComforts when I'm coding and
want noise-canceling. This obviously isn't ideal because my hearing aid and
the QCs don't play nice together, so I end up just taking out my hearing aid
to use them. Really looking forward to seeing what's in store, and happy to
help however possible - I'll email as well re: beta testing.

~~~
varunsrin
Alex (my co-founder) had this exact problem except in both ears, and he uses
our app every day for the same reason - hearing aids just don't play well with
earbuds or headphones.

Thanks for signing up whbk, it's always great to get more beta testers to
validate the changes to the sound processing as we keep improving it.

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kevincennis
I was expecting to be pretty underwhelmed by this app, but I have to say, I'm
impressed.

My office has a pretty loud HVAC system, and it totally kills the low end when
I listen with a pair of cheap Apple earbuds.

I took the little SoundFocus hearing test, turned on their EQ, and the
difference was pretty pronounced. It killed a bit more high end than I would
have liked (seemed to roll off after about 12k), but the lows were definitely
spot-on.

I'll probably use this during my commute on the super loud city busses.

 _edit:_

I don't actually suffer from hearing loss. I'm just picky about audio quality
(former recording/mixing engineer) and have an unfortunate tendency to spend a
lot of time in noisy places.

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loceng
Adding noise can damage the ears, and adds more stress to the body.. just
saying..

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kevincennis
Not sure what you mean by "adding noise".

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loceng
I assume if external noise is drowning out the music / changing how it sounds,
then the music will be modified to let you hear certain sounds better via
making them louder.

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varunsrin
loceng, we try to avoid that - a simple equalizer will create an amplification
of frequency bands without gain control, so you get a sound of higher
amplitude/magnitude, which can have a negative impact as you pointed out.

We use some techniques to rebalance your music - by making sounds that are
softer in the mix louder, while keeping the very loud sounds at the same
level. We also try to change the relative volume of the frequency bands you do
not hear well, while preserving the overall volume.

Since psychoacoustics vary a bit from person to person, it may be perceived as
mildly louder or softer than the original, but overall it will be at a similar
volume level.

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6thSigma
My dad recently went to the doctor for his hearing and ended up getting a
hearing aid. We had joked for a few years that he needed one - but were kind
of surprised when it turns out he actually did.

He told all of his friends and family about how much his hearing and in turn
day-to-day life has improved since getting them. Two of my uncles and one of
his friends got their ears checked and ended up getting hearing aids as well.

I believe it when I read that 1 in 5 people need one. Goodluck to the
SoundFocus team!

~~~
rjgray
I think the article was saying that only 1 in 5 people who need a hearing aid
have one, rather than that every 5th person should have one.

~~~
6thSigma
I read it correctly but wrote the sentence incorrectly.

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ilyanep
I love the idea of prefacing a hardware release with an app that is both
useful to many people and could get some people interested in the hardware who
otherwise wouldn't be. I myself am pretty sure I have perfect hearing but am
interested in trying this out when I get home from work tonight.

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unicornporn
Excellent and long awaited initiative! I have a genetic hearing loss on both
ears. It's a bit different on both ears though. Now I use Poweramp for Android
with its excellent EQ to tune the audio as good as possible after my "cookie
cutter" audiogram. On my computers I use the system wide EQ "Hear" [
[http://www.prosofteng.com/products/hear.php](http://www.prosofteng.com/products/hear.php)
]. One inherent flaw with all solutions I've come across so far though (as
with yours?) is that EQ can't be tuned differently for each channel (left and
right).

Nice idea though. But I'll have to wait for a system wide Android EQ (there is
one, but it has too few bands
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartandro...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartandroidapps.equalizer)
). Preferably combined with your hearing test based EQ (can't say much about
it as I don't use an iOS device other than at work).

~~~
unicornporn
Slightly related:
[https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/audiof...](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/audiofx/Equalizer.html)

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muraiki
This is really cool. I have a friend who is a very talented multi-
instrumentalist but who also has hearing loss in the low frequency range. I
sent him this app and look forward to finding out how / if it helps him listen
to his own recorded music.

~~~
varunsrin
Thanks Muraiki - we'd love to hear what your friend thinks of the app.

~~~
muraiki
I asked him if it helped, and he unfortunately said: "Actually no :( All it
did was boost the bass up so much that it just got muddy." But I think he has
a pretty severe impairment in terms of hearing bass frequencies, so I don't
know if there's much that could feasibly be done.

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elektronaut
How are you processing the sound?

Enabling the algorithm significantly reduces sibliance, and alot of details in
the upper mids disappear. Drums and guitar attacks in particular. Not
especially pleasing. I tried playing with the equalizer presets, and they
didn't seem to exhibit the same artifacts.

Then again, I'm hardly your target audience, and I was demoing on very
revealing studio headphones. I'm gonna give it a shot on my commute tomorrow
with earbuds. I'm guessing it improves clarity on vocals quite a bit.

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keiferski
Question for the founders:

I'm completely deaf in one ear. But, I can't use normal headphones - the sound
coming in on my right (bad) ear causes some health issues. As a result, I
usually cut the right earbud wire entirely. This seems like a really dumb
solution.

Does SoundFocus let me make all the sound come into the left earbud?

~~~
varunsrin
keiferski, SoundFocus doesn't do this today. But stay tuned, we are working to
help people who have single ear hearing loss as well.

I'm actually interested in learning more about your particular use case, I'll
drop you a line on the email address in your HN profile.

~~~
keiferski
Thanks, and feel free to email me!

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revetkn
Dumb question: after completing the test, I didn't see "soundfocus autotuned"
(or whatever) as an EQ option. Not sure if it is automatically applied and
then you pick additional EQ settings to go on top of it, or what. Hope that
makes sense

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outericky
In the bottom left, there is an on/off toggle if that helps.

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revetkn
Thanks - I figured it out. There was a brief message on playback start that I
must have missed a few times which let me know soundfocus was unavailable due
to DRM. The bottom left icon says "\---- DRM" in that case so until I saw the
message I didn't know what I was missing

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txttran
Ignoring the sound-loss test, I love this app simply because it's the only
free equalizer for the iPhone that works with Spotify!

