Starting with nuanced audio means buying them online or through glasses dealers. Pre-use option, unless you want to use glasses with uncorrected lenses, you will need to install the lens separately. Home options are available with only two frames – a square version called Audio Square (with two sizes), and a circular version called Panthos (with only one size). Both framed homes have black or burgundy families, all options can be configured with clear, tinted or transitional lenses – prescription glasses providers can put any lens you want into it (extra price). My local light mirror configured my audio square lens based on my prescription and configured with an unsteady progressive lens.
The subtle audio glasses are different from any hearing aids I have tested, so the user experience is also different from any hearing aids I have tested. Nuance’s mobile app does not have a hearing test. Instead, the user can select from four presets and denoted by letters A to D. A stands for “flat mild hearing loss” and C is “favoring moderate hearing loss”, and although the nuances provide some description of each of the four presets, it largely boils down to trials and errors to see which one helps the best. I spend most of my time on the preset B, “tilt mild hearing loss”, which only enhances the higher frequency.
Photo: Chris Null
Other options on the app’s home screen allow you to reduce or increase background noise or stay as it is (I’m almost always on it reduce) and switch audio mode between frontal lobe amplification or full range. The option to adjust how your voice is amplified is buried in the Settings menu.
Volume is one of the only things that can be changed by the unique buttons on the glasses themselves, and you can also configure three levels in the app (of five totals). The side switch of the frame switches between the front and all-around amplification, but I find this movement difficult to perform reliably.
