Subscription headphones

Saw an youtube add the other day, subscription headphones, 9$ a month for this ear penetration. Could be interesting if it catches on, I'm thinking a 3-6 month subscriptions for a TOTL can.

 

So... it approximates the performance of an assortment of headphones and attempts to replicate the experience of actually using them via a torture device that's some arcane admixture of IEM and circumaural headphone?

I'm guessing it's just going so far as FR profiles.

 

9 Dollars a month buys you at least two Porta-Pros per year. Three with a discount and four if you are into bargain hunting.

108 Dollars versus a Porta-Pro and Spotify/Tidal (5 to 10 Dollars a month with the right deal), hmmm.

Not convinced.

 

Is this tech related to the NuraLoops that @Augmentin mentioned?

https://www.nuraphone.com/products/nuranow

 

Now I can’t unsee what I just saw.

 

What next? Cloud headphones? Headphones as a service?

 

Someone's gettin' rich off of my beautiful ideas! ::The Funny/LOL Thread

Motherf****ckers.

 

LOL! Nearly spit out my coffee. Early access headphones?

And WTF are these the first headphones with DRM?!

 

A lot of people here seem to be lambasting mostly the nuraphone; it does seem insane, but I've never experienced it before, so can't say.

But I want to comment seriously about that headphones/gear-as-a-service idea (@m17xr2b was this your original intent?). It could be a good idea.

Imagine a service where you pay a set amount and you could choose a headphone to "rent" for a week or two from a vast selection of TOTL or otherwise headphones (kind of like SBAF or other loaner programs or TTJV loaners, except it would be on-demand/faster and have a set price-per-month). This might appeal to those who don't have audio stores/meets close by, or who want to try gear out on their existing systems with their own music. The logistics/infrastructure may be difficult to manage, but if the price/implementation is right, I think this could be cool.

Just my two cents.

 

Have different $ tiers for a group of headphones. $150/wk you can get access to $1k-2k MSRP headphones, $50/wk access to $500 MSRP headphones, etc. If you break a pair you pay full MSRP.

That would be right up @songmic 's alley.

But yeah sounds like a pain in the ass to manage that shit if this is a startup. Get Netflix or whoever to try this.

 

That is one disturbing photo. Apparently you can buy the things from Amazon for one payment of $399 but if you use the website you only have the rental option. The reviews on Amazon aren't that great. Moving to a less expensive rental plan probably means they were not selling well. Interesting idea but they apparently don't fit comfortably for everyone because the stem the ear tips attach to is rigid plastic not flexible.

 

Looks at perpetual upgraders... Sees business opportunity in those who are perpetually disatisfied with their 'phones (etc).

And yes, there could be a seed of a good idea in there, although, unless it follows the Uber model, it would probably be cheaper just to buy and upgrade from time to time.

 

My son got a pair of those, insisted that I try them. So I did.
Then I understood #meetoo.
Didn't sound any worse than the ear buds you get with an ipad, didn't sound any better either.
Next time I want to connect with youth trends I'll just eat a Tide pod.

 

No matter how good they may sound, I gotta imagine they are extremely uncomfortable. A lot of reviews on Amazon.com pointing out the discomfort.

 

Those things look like some kind of porn prop. I'm strangely aroused by them.

 

Speaking of the business model, it may work for some but NOT at the amount of fee that everybody is happy with. Lots of credibility issues there. It may need at worst full price of the product as deposit.. Nura guys seem to use it as a marketing tool, not as a per-se sustainable business. Even if so, {100+9*months} dollars needed for $400 new product. I'm not convinced.

And on the Nuraphone product front, I had a couple of friends who bought them when kickstarted quite a while ago. They're terrible in comfort, and less so in sound -- but no better than Sony or Bose's 300-350 usd BT ANC headphones. WH-1000XM3 was way more solid and normal.

 

Aside from the fact that the individual above headphones don't seem very good, I'm actually a little surprised no one has done something like this yet:

1a. You can rent planes, boats, nice cars, and all sorts of other fancy stuff for much more $. Heck, even a lot of bags/purses/similar objects in the $1-5k range - the same range as of a lot of stuff talked about here. Designer clothes seem to be the exception to this.

1b. There are many ways to mitigate risks for this thing.

2. Works for people without audio dealers or larger audio communities near by.

3. Good for FOTM or "just want new sounds" people as well.

While I get the "high end" market may not be able to sustain this, I could definitely see the mid-fi market taking up the bulk of this market.

The only argument I could see against this would be maybe the overall profitability (as in total dollars earned) may not be enough versus $ invested somewhere else or the market cap being too small for a big company/VC investor type.

 

This has been done before by a shop or two...

 

Didn't know that. Do you by any chance remember the names?