The Backed Pack: Aumeo headphone adapter tweaks tunes just for your ears

Each week our friends at Backerjack provide an update on a hot crowdfunded tech gadget. This week we profile Aumeo, which has more than quadrupled its funding goal.

What makes for great audio? Readers of different headphone reviews may often find that experts disagree because what one person considers superior audio quality may differ from another. That is due in part because everyone’s ears are different, in fact, as unique as fingerprints, according to the team behind Aumeo. The gadget is a small slim square device that takes Bluetooth audio from any device and sends it to the wearer’s choice of wired headphones.

Six years in development, the Aumeo adapter works with an app to figure out the optimal hearing profile of each ear via a one-time-use app and then from there processes all subsequent sound to the user’s benefit.

A bit dubiously, Aumeo positions its product as helping to prevent hearing loss, as the listener won’t need to turn up the volume quite as loud to hear the parts of the audio they’re missing. The Hong Kong-based project seeks to raise $40,000 by July 20th in a flexible funding campaign. The adapter is being offered for $99 (or two for $169) and should arrive in November.

The Aumeo device is a higher-tech and much more sophisticated version of headphone amplifiers such as Boostaroo. Its claims to create a higher-quality listening experience are a bit more credible than the claims of great audio for other crowdfunding projects or, for that matter, any online headphones. One benefit is that it will work with virtually any headphones (and make them wireless, sort of) so it can be used both with some lightweight earbuds while jogging or something a bit more bass-rich and comfortable while commuting.

There’s no getting around the hassle of having another item to keep charged and present, but it could be worth the carry if Aumeo can indeed produce tailored audio quality beyond optimizing for the masses.

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