As we forge ahead, celebrating our significant research breakthroughs and achievements, we are nearing the end of our extensive beta testing program. This program has enabled us to work closely with each of our research participants, leading to numerous victories, revived careers, and enhanced lives. Before concluding this research phase, we are offering a limited opportunity for more individuals to join our Beta program and experience our innovative technology. To inquire about eligibility, please contact Info@asiustechnologies.com.

James Hill has been a musician for years and runs MidiTempoTracks.com, where he matches "tempo / groove / feel to any audio of your choice" by modifying a midi so it does not feel lifeless, mechanical, and sterile.

He recently received a prototype of the ADEL™ Drum 10 earbuds and was overjoyed- in fact he was using the ADEL Drums during the interview.

Asius: So what was the first song you listened to using the ADEL™ Drum 10 earbuds?

James: I used to be in a band that did a lot of covers of hard rock and metal bands.  My first choice was a natural: "Strutter" by KISS - it's a favorite from way back when, and it blew my mind to hear it now with such quality.

Asius: Besides the enjoyment you experienced from hearing that song, what were your next thoughts? 

James: I thought, "Let me play with the knobs to adjust isolation.  This looks like it will really be cool to do."

Asius: And then what happened?

James: I thought, '"Wow." I mean, by adjusting the isolation, I realize  I can actually 'spread the stage' to suit how I want the sound to feel and can isolate instruments and "place" them geographically on the stage.  I don't need those clunky 'wedge' speakers at the edge of the stage.  I can actually hear myself and have "throat last" without having to shout.

Asius: You've been in the music world for a while and have seen a lot of changes.  Does this change things for you?

James: Definitely.  I have been using wireless monitors but they don't compare to these.  I won't use them any more.

Asius: Is there anything else that we can do for you?

James: As soon as you can get me my customer ear molds, I'll be rocking up a storm.

Asius: Sure James, we'll get those to you shortly.  Thanks for your support!

In Czech author Milan Kundera's 1984 novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Sabina, a main character, says, "People are going deaf because music is played louder and louder, but because they're going deaf, it has to be played louder still.”  That was written before the iPod and boy, was it prophetic.

We've always said we exist to stem the tide of hearing loss in the world and Asius Technologies is proud to have been part of a paper recently published in Acta Acustica, the official journal of the European Acoustics Association. The EAA is an affiliate member of the International Commission for Acoustics along with the Acoustical Society of America.

This scholarly paper by Texas Tech University Ph.D. candidate R.P. Oates, his professor Dr. David Klein, and Asius Technologies Founder and President Stephen Ambrose, "Kinetic Molecular Theory of Sound Exposure in Personal Listening Devices," explains how acoustic waves enclosed in the ear canal force the tympanic membrane to move 100–1000 times greater than acoustic waves of equal amplitude in open air.  Since classical acoustics knowledge has not fully explained this biophysical phenomenon a kinetic molecular theory was used, in conjunction with Special Relativity, to quantify sound pressure exposures in personal listening devices more accurately. With this model, a non-linear dependence of sound intensity on speaker excursion is predicted, demonstrating that earbuds sealed in the ear canal can exceed the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) ceiling limit of 140 dB.

This work also re-confirms Stephen Ambrose's prior discovery of the existence of the harmful in-ear pneumatic pressures, which were first revealed in his 2011 AES (Audio Engineering Society) publications using both electronic and fluid dynamics models. 

You can download the 4-page paper here, but the bottom line from it is that sound intensity increases non-linearly with speaker excursion size, independent of speaker diameter.  Based on the increase in molecular kinetic energy from a speaker excursion, this model predicts that even small excursions and speaker diameters are capable of producing excessive sound intensity levels when enclosed in the ear canal.  This model predicts that earbuds sealed in the ear canal have an expanded dB range and can exceed the NIOSH ceiling limit of 140 dB.

Click here to see other important whitepapers relevant to Asius Technologies.

We're pleased that our ADEL™ modules have worked so well with Empire Ears' in-ear monitors.  
And we are happy to say that we have received a great review at InnerFidelity which had a lot to say about Empire Ears' Zeus XR ADEL Custom IEMs. You can read the entire review here, but let's just share the last paragraph with you:

"What I am sure about is the Zeus XR ADEL being the best CIEM I've ever heard. Every iteration I tried was pleasing, but the Zeus R with G1 ADEL modules hits all the right notes for me. Whatever health benefits ADEL may or may not offer, I'm confident in declaring it a success when it comes to sonic properties. The Zeus R with G1 bests my other favorite CIEMs by a not-insignificant margin, advancing the state of the art and putting a huge smile on my face with each listening session. And that makes it worthy of a spot on the Wall of Fame."

Here's a review of the ADEL™ Drum 11 earbuds by drummer Colby Peters:

"The ADELs allowed me to experience several sensations I've NEVER experienced before. One of them being the ability to essentially open and close the "gate to the eardrums." (Adjustable ambient control). There's a lever feature that allowed me to control how much sound was being let in/out that left me dumbfounded in the best possible way. I was on FaceTime with Stephen live and he probably thought there was a ghost in the room or something by the expression on my face... but I was just trying to fathom what was happening. When the gate was all the way open, I could talk to Christian (guitar player/ADEL testing assistant) as if the ear buds weren't even in my ears. Then, when Christian would start talking about how OFF I was from the click track at rehearsal... I could shut him off right away! It was great! ... only kidding... but what that allows from a listening perspective is it gives the listener the option of essentially EQ-ing the sound of the ear buds to the room or atmosphere they are in.

On the topic of EQ-ing, there's also a "wheel" (ADEL membrane tensioning thumb screw) on the ear piece I could turn to further EQ the sound. All the way forward would give me more low and all the way back, more high. I noticed that while listening at lower volumes, this wheel had a very subtle effect in changing the EQ, but as the volume raised it became very apparent. I'm still experimenting with the different combos between lever and wheel, but I can already tell how these features will provide manual control of endless "atmosphere" EQ options.

Another feature that immediately stood out to me with the ADEL drums was that fact that I could listen to music at loud volumes but it didn't feel agitating. It SOUNDED loud but didn't quite FEEL loud. It's a sensation that words don't really do justice, as you'll experience once testing these buds out.

As far as being "in" the music while listening through these buds, I was IN THE MUSIC. I tested a pair of Shure SE425 in ear monitors and then the ADEL drums. The difference was like watching TV in your living room with the TV speakers as the source of audio, and then being in an IMAX theater. The SE425's had more of a tall and narrow sound, whereas the ADEL's had an extremely WIDE sound. So wide in fact, it appeared sounds were coming from BEHIND me. At moments if I closed my eyes, it was hard to tell WHERE the sounds where coming from. They were EVERYWHERE! It was like going from 2-D to 3-D... but from an auditory perspective.

One final thought in regards to the ADEL drums, is that when the lever (Adjustable ambient control) controlling the "gate to the eardrums" as previously described in this message was all the way open, I could sing with the music and it sounded as if I was recording vocals into the track. I could truly see this feature becoming a great tool for vocalists to practice singing harmony, or just singing over musical arrangements in general. It's a very interesting sensation to hear music IN your ears while simultaneously being able to hear noise from the room you are in. EXTREMELY cutting edge in my opinion."

Thanks, Colby!

 photograph by Autodesk Accelerate 2016 attendee Mike Watkins.

We are happy to say that last week in Boston, Asius President and Founder Stephen Ambrose was the keynote speaker the first morning of Autodesk's Accelerate 2016 conference.  Hundreds of Autodesk's Fusion Lifecycle customers listened to Stephen talk about how he developed the ADEL™ technology and with Autodesk's amazing platform.  Several audience members were tweeting away during his speech, and of course we made sure we favorited every single one!  In the picture above, you can see Stephen wowing the crowd with his announcement of our upcoming "Rock Gives Back Hearing" crowdfunding campaign.

Below, Autodesk hired Ink Factory to provide a graphic drawing which we love because it helps tell our story so well.  Engineering.com also covered us with this great article.  We are very grateful to Autodesk for allowing us to share our exciting story with many of their other customers.  If you're an Autodesk customer, we recommend you go to future Accelerate events.  And if you watch the video below, you will see the artist in the corner at the beginning, who was there to draw it as Stephen Ambrose spoke.

As we grow our company and develop important products, we always appreciate feedback.

One of the things we're trying to earn about is hearing loss and how it may or may not have affected you.

Won't you please click on the link below to take the survey?  

It consists of only 20 quick questions and should take well under five minutes to do.

Your answers will be kept private and only used in aggregate. 

Please share this important survey with your family and friends.

You will also have the chance to enter yourself in a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift certificate.  

Thank you!

The Better Hearing Institute has come out with a great poster that can really wake you up.  They sound the alarm (pun intended) about things to consider if you feel that your hearing is going or gone - all of these things to consider are very alarming indeed.  

Your ability to communicate with others is a hallmark of your humanity.  Without that ability, the stress upon your mind, spirit, and body can negatively affect you in significant ways..  Please take a moment to review this illustration and think about how you can help yourself or a loved one to prevent further medical harm.

Thank you to The Hearing Loss Institute for putting together such a great illustration!

At a recent National Association of Music Manufacturers, Stephen Ambrose, Founder of Asius Technologies, demonstrated the ADEL™ Control earbuds to a booth visitor.  We are very happy that we could help her hear again and see her tears of joy as she heard sounds she hadn't in years.

Now compare it to this recent computer generated explanation as told by the BBC:

So do you think that computer generated imaging makes it easier understand? They sure cut to the chase pretty quickly. Funny how we're more distracted nowadays and can no longer watch a 10 minute video!:  What do you think?

Creative Commons Weatherman90 at en.wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Not too long ago, Asius Technologies Founder Stephen Ambrose recorded a heart felt video letter to famous AC/DC rocker Brian Johnson after reading that he has had to stop touring with he band due to hearling loss.   

We saw this post at Healthy Hearing and liked it so much we had to improve upon it with links and images for annotation.

The History of Audiology

When did audiology begin? It depends on who you ask. It's clear that audiology as a profession really began taking off in the 1920s when technology was advanced enough to design the first audiometers to measure hearing, though the term "audiology" wasn't used until 1946. Yet even thousands of years ago, people began investigating hearing, hearing loss and its causes. Here's a timeline of important events in audiological history:


1550 BC - There are writings from a famous medical scroll - the Ebers Papyrus - that, among various other medical topics, discuss "treatments" for hearing loss. Historians believe that this document is based on even older writings, but they can only speculate. The history of audiology goes very far back into time indeed.

4th century BC - Sometime between the 5th and 4th centuries BC, Hippocrates - that most famous Greek doctor and philosopher, whose legacy and impact on medicine is still apparent in the Hippocratic Oath - made his mark on the study of hearing loss. He was the first in written history to use clinical research to attempt to find a cause for hearing loss, which he thought was related to the direction of winds, weather changes and also tinnitus. He also believed that hearing loss could be related to skull trauma.

50 - 25 BC - Aulus Cornelius Celsus was the first to differentiate between various hearing disorders, and some of Celsus's treatments are still in use today in their most minimal form, including those dealing with foreign bodies in the ear, ulcers and ear wax blocking the ear canal.

1st century AD - Roman physician Archigenes used loud sound to stimulate the auditory system, believing (incorrectly) that this could stimulate hearing in those with hearing loss.

4th century AD - Physician Alexander of Tralles used herbs to treat hearing loss, as well as the auditory stimulation method by blowing a trumpet directly into the ear canal.

Middle Ages - Other interesting rehabilitation methods were used by well-meaning ear doctors to stimulate hearing in patients with hearing loss, including speaking softly and using a small silver or gold tube to suction the eardrum.

Real progress

No major progress was made in the understanding of hearing and how the ear works until the Renaissance, and big steps were not taken in audiology until the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Here are cures that were believed to be valid a mere 150 years ago (don't cringe!) Luckily, medical science advanced and brought us some of the biggest moments in modern audiology:

1898 - Miller Reese Hutchison invents the first electronic hearing aid, called the Akouphone.

1920s - The audiometer is designed and invented to measure hearing loss and pave the way for new hearing loss research and innovations.

1940s - Soldiers return from World War II with noise-induced hearing loss due to advanced warfare technology.

1946 - The first appearances in print of the word "audiology" are in the Journal of Speech Disorders and the Volta Review.

1948 - Meniere's disease is differentiated from acoustic tumors.

1950s - The use of physiologic measurements to test hearing are routine now.

1961 - Doreen Kilmura and Brenda Milner discover the right ear's advantage in processing language.

1977 - The Academy of Doctors of Audiology is founded.

1978 - The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is founded.

1988 - American Academy of Audiology is founded.

2007 - The Au.D. degree (doctor of audiology) degree becomes required for all new professionals entering the field. Practicing individuals become grandfathered in.

It became clear to Asius Technologies many years ago that an ear bud in your ear blocks your ear canal from the rest of the world, which means the atmosphere.  So a different pressure is in your ear that remains constant when there is no sound being pumped through.   When there is, the pressure is increased so the air has no place to go except deeper into your ear canal, where it meets the delicate membrane known as the "ear drum."

Over time, damage occurs to the ear drum, and a person's sense of hearing is weakened.  The natural reaction to this when using earbuds is to turn the volume higher, which causes additional damage to the ear drum.  Eventually this can lead to hearing loss.

Our solution is to manage the air pressure while delivering quality sound, thus stopping the progression of any harm.

We want you to enjoy your music the safe way.  Our Ambrose Diaphonic Ear Lens (ADEL™) absorbs harmful in-ear pressures, thereby preserving the health of the human ear, and allowing you to more safely hear sound the way it was intended to be heard.

Don't let the "cool" ear bud brands slowly rob you of one of your important senses.  Start hearing properly with Asius and its products.