Vincent Van Gogh’s vision was much more receptive of yellows than most. A wine taster’s tongue can distinguish flavor profiles others cant. Similarly, everyone has a unique hearing profile. You hear some frequencies better than others, there are some frequencies your ear doesn’t pick up well (and that affects what music you like too), and all personal audio devices should be able to account for that, to provide a listening experience tailored to your ear’s abilities.

That’s where the SnowOwl comes in. The tiny device comes with a lot of capabilities, one of them being, giving you, the wearer, the ability to balance and modify any audio input to your tastes. The wireless wearable straps to your wrist, or can be clipped onto your person. Connecting to your headphones, the SnowOwl lets you control audio playback from your phone, adjusting left-right ear balance and even frequencies, or even lets you listen to the world around you, courtesy an on-board microphone. Imagine trying to listen to a conversation with music or crowd-noise in the background, or to a presentation/meeting while there’s traffic noise. The SnowOwl lets you cut out frequencies that don’t matter, isolating the audio you need from the audio you don’t. A heaven-sent for loud concerts, the SnowOwl also lets you limit the audio coming into your ear (working like earbuds where you can control what you want to listen to and how much of it you want to enter your ear), letting you cut the high decibels so you can listen to the music at a desired amplitude.

The wireless design of the SnowOwl has an additional advantage. It works with any earphone or headphone you have, and since it pairs with your phone through Bluetooth, has the ability to take your corded headphones and give them wireless abilities. Working alongside Clementine Audio’s smartphone app, the SnowOwl augments your hearing, allowing you to boost voices or music, tune out noise, or even regulate frequencies and outputs in harsh environments that would damage your hearing. Oh, and with its in-built directional microphone, it’s a rather neat spy tool too!

Designer: Samplified-Audio Clementine Wear