5 ms·

SoundFocus (YC S13) Launches With an App for ‘20/20 Hearing’

87 points by varunsrin 13y ago

pg 13y ago
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.
- allenpc 13y ago
  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.
muraiki 13y ago
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 13y ago
  Thanks Muraiki - we'd love to hear what your friend thinks of the app.
  - muraiki 13y ago
    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.
6thSigma 13y ago
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!
- varunsrin 13y ago
  Co-founder here - thanks for the well wishes, 6thSigma. We've seen people significantly improve their quality of life once they find a solution for hearing loss, but most people are reluctant to go out and find one, because they're expensive, time consuming to get, and stigmatized. We're really hoping to solve these issues with our app and upcoming hardware product.
- rjgray 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    I read it correctly but wrote the sentence incorrectly.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
txttran 13y ago
Ignoring the sound-loss test, I love this app simply because it's the only free equalizer for the iPhone that works with Spotify!
ilyanep 13y ago
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.
kevincennis 13y ago
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.
- loceng 13y ago
  Adding noise can damage the ears, and adds more stress to the body.. just saying..
  - kevincennis 13y ago
    Not sure what you mean by "adding noise".
    - loceng 13y ago
      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.
      - varunsrin 13y ago
        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.
Osmium 13y ago
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
- adamfeldman 13y ago
  This was my experience with the app as well. I could easily ear the lowest noise at all 3 ranges the app presents (lows/mids/highs) (does the app even play anything when it's at the absolute lowest volume setting?). I have what a doctor called "bionic" hearing in one hear and some loss in the other (got too close to a speaker while filming a concert), so testing each ear separately is important to me.
- varunsrin 13y ago
  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.
elektronaut 13y ago
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.
keiferski 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    Thanks, and feel free to email me!
- jdietrich 13y ago
  iOS can do this natively. Under the accessibility settings, select "mono audio".
  - Osmium 13y ago
    No; that will make the sound the same through both earphones which isn't what the parent poster had in mind. iOS does solve the problem natively though (I believe): it has a left-right balance slider, so you can just push it all to one side, then sound will only come out of one earphone.
revetkn 13y ago
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
- outericky 13y ago
  In the bottom left, there is an on/off toggle if that helps.
  - revetkn 13y ago
    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
unicornporn 13y ago
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.smartandroidapps.equalizer https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartandro... ). 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 13y ago
  Slightly related: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/audiofx/Equalizer.html https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/audiof...

87 points by varunsrin 13y ago

pg 13y ago

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.

allenpc 13y ago
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.

muraiki 13y ago

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 13y ago
Thanks Muraiki - we'd love to hear what your friend thinks of the app.
- muraiki 13y ago
  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.

6thSigma 13y ago

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!

varunsrin 13y ago
Co-founder here - thanks for the well wishes, 6thSigma. We've seen people significantly improve their quality of life once they find a solution for hearing loss, but most people are reluctant to go out and find one, because they're expensive, time consuming to get, and stigmatized. We're really hoping to solve these issues with our app and upcoming hardware product.
rjgray 13y ago
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 13y ago
  I read it correctly but wrote the sentence incorrectly.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

txttran 13y ago

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

ilyanep 13y ago

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.

kevincennis 13y ago

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.

loceng 13y ago
Adding noise can damage the ears, and adds more stress to the body.. just saying..
- kevincennis 13y ago
  Not sure what you mean by "adding noise".
  - loceng 13y ago
    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.
    - varunsrin 13y ago
      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.

Osmium 13y ago

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

adamfeldman 13y ago
This was my experience with the app as well. I could easily ear the lowest noise at all 3 ranges the app presents (lows/mids/highs) (does the app even play anything when it's at the absolute lowest volume setting?). I have what a doctor called "bionic" hearing in one hear and some loss in the other (got too close to a speaker while filming a concert), so testing each ear separately is important to me.
varunsrin 13y ago
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.

elektronaut 13y ago

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.

keiferski 13y ago

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 13y ago
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 13y ago
  Thanks, and feel free to email me!
jdietrich 13y ago
iOS can do this natively. Under the accessibility settings, select "mono audio".
- Osmium 13y ago
  No; that will make the sound the same through both earphones which isn't what the parent poster had in mind. iOS does solve the problem natively though (I believe): it has a left-right balance slider, so you can just push it all to one side, then sound will only come out of one earphone.

revetkn 13y ago

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

outericky 13y ago
In the bottom left, there is an on/off toggle if that helps.
- revetkn 13y ago
  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

unicornporn 13y ago

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.smartandroidapps.equalizer https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartandro... ). 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 13y ago
Slightly related: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/audiofx/Equalizer.html https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/audiof...