https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/3/16402996/nuraphones-ship-date-announced-on-sale-nura
 
When you put these headphones on the first time, they administer a hearing test. Then they create an EQ curve to compensate for your ears' response, much like they do with hearing aids. Very interesting concept, but might be a few years before they're practical and affordable. This first iteration will be retailing for 400 bucks.
 

Looks like a cool product but the explanation of how it works seems sketchy  (see bold text quote below).
How can sound bouncing back determine if you actually hear the sound or not? 
 
"The Nuraphones test your hearing by playing a pattern of high frequency tones into your ears when you first put them on. A microphone then measures how strongly the sounds bounce back, indicating whether or not you’re actually hearing them. Using that information, Nura creates a profile for you that’s built into the headphones and will automatically amplify sounds your ears aren’t great with, supposedly tweaking playback so that that those tones come across as loud as they’re supposed to."

Assuming they get less expensive, I wonder how they would work for tracking. Mine always seem to bleed. Looking at these maybe I'll try earbuds inside of closed backs.

mikedocy
Looks like a cool product but the explanation of how it works seems sketchy  (see bold text quote below).
How can sound bouncing back determine if you actually hear the sound or not? 
 
"The Nuraphones test your hearing by playing a pattern of high frequency tones into your ears when you first put them on. A microphone then measures how strongly the sounds bounce back, indicating whether or not you’re actually hearing them. Using that information, Nura creates a profile for you that’s built into the headphones and will automatically amplify sounds your ears aren’t great with, supposedly tweaking playback so that that those tones come across as loud as they’re supposed to."

I don't know if they actually have good tech, but this is a real thing believe it or not. When I last went to the audiologist, they did a test like that. The first test was your standard "tones and speech in headphones at various levels." However after that had confirmed my hearing was basically intact (about 10dB of loss from childhood ear infections) I went to another room with a device that played MLS tones at my ears. They then measured the response and that told them something about the condition of my ears. The audiologist said it was a fairly recent discovery that when you play tones at the ear, it changes them when they come back based on its condition. MLS measurements are used because you can easily isolate them in the time domain, so they can tell the difference between the tones they are making and the return from my ears.
 
I have no idea where the tech stands today, as I said it was not the only thing they measured, they still did a manual, subjective, measurement first, but it isn't some complete BS. This really is a known field of audiology.

Very interesting Sycraft.
Perhaps it has something to do with this phenomenon:
otoacoustic emissions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otoacoustic_emission#Evoked
 
 

the physical size and layout of everyone's ears and canals are different.
 
just because a sound bounces back at 100% or whatever the metrics are,
how can it read the specifics of your ear, versus mine?
 
i'm sure the science behind the sales is solid,
i just don't believe someone could dial it in accurately in a headphone arrangement.
 
jury is out, 
until it isn't.

Anyone know of a good online hearing test?

better off seeing a real specialist.

My last hearing test was very similar to this. I am not sure if it is measured by the sound bouncing back or not. What I found interesting is the result which was almost identical to one I had a year before in which I raised my hand when I heard a tone.

For me, headphones like this would me a godsend. Both ears are bad, but very different. My right ear has a severe dip in the 1k zone making conversations a bit difficult. The left ear has extreme tinnitus in the 12k-15k range. Like an ice pick in my brain. It is that range that has complete sound loss. Cymbals aren’t heard. If I rub my fingers together I cannot hear them in the left ear, but that is the ear I rely on for conversations.

I asked Bobby Owsinski about dealing with this situation. He told me many engineers have ear problems but their brains compensate and they do remarkable work. Not so with me.

I want to believe this technology really works.

we put a man on the moon in 1969.
 
today, we still cannot afford healthcare.
 
why would you believe in technology at this point?