Introduction
The Yuni is the world's first true single-sided stereo headphone! It was designed for listeners with unilateral/single-sided deafness or hearing loss, and also those who need to keep one ear open while listening to music but still want to enjoy stereo sound.
The Yuni uses a revolutionary system of vertical stereo-spacing, which places one transducer above the user's ear opening and the other below the ear opening. This technology results in the user's ability to hear 100% of their audio, distinguish between the two stereo channels with a single ear, and hear stereo panning, when the sound moves back and forth between the two channels.
It has been a long time since the first generation Yuni was developed. We are
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The Yuni uses a revolutionary system of vertical stereo-spacing, which places one transducer above the user's ear opening and the other below the ear opening. This technology results in the user's ability to hear 100% of their audio, distinguish between the two stereo channels with a single ear, and hear stereo panning, when the sound moves back and forth between the two channels.
It has been a long time since the first generation Yuni was developed. We are
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[Dan]
Why We Developed the Yuni
Do you listen to music, watch movies or TV, or play video games through headphones? Then you'll know how cool it is to experience headphone stereo sound...to hear different instruments in each ear, to hear music moving trippily from one side to the other, to notice an offscreen character's voice is coming from a single ear!
...unless you're one of the over 8% of Americans who has deafness or hearing loss in one ear. Or maybe for some other reason you need to listen to keep one ear open while listening to audio -- perhaps you're at work, jogging, DJing, or recording vocals in the studio!
In these cases, every time you listen to sound with headphones, you're only hearing 50% of it! Most modern recordings don't put the sound evenly in both channels, so you have to miss out on the awesome, incomparable experience that is stereo headphone listening.
One common approach to address this problem is to collapse the two stereo channels into a single channel and to listen with one ear. But the interference between the two channels coming from the same speaker will boost some frequencies and cut others, resulting in a messy, cramped sound.
The Yuni gets around this problem with a revolutionary stereo technology that places both stereo channels in a single earpiece. but with two separate speakers instead of just one -- one above, and one below the ear opening.
If you're a unilaterally deaf music-lover who has never experienced these effects through headphones before, it may be difficult to appreciate how much your music will open up and come alive when it's played the way it was meant to be enjoyed...in stereo.
The Yuni looks like a standard headphone from the outside, and thus covers both ears. This avoids the problem of people in public trying to speak into your free (but impaired) ear, assuming that you'll be able to hear them; this is a major problem reported by unilaterally deaf users of existing single-sided headphone solutions (such as uni-earbuds or DJ headphones). Finally, the Yuni is reversible...a single model can accommodate you no matter what your needs. Just flip it so the speaker side is over your good ear!
If your job or hobby requires you to use headphones with one ear on and one ear off, you'll finally be able to do so without missing out on the stereo experience. Imagine tracking vocals in the studio while keeping one ear free to hear your own voice while still hearing where everything is in stereo space. Imagine being able to hear the house speakers with one ear while DJing, and hear the track on your 'phones in stereo. Imagine keeping one ear free while working, jogging, etc. and still being able to enjoy your favorite stereo tunes.
Bottom line: if you have unilateral hearing loss and listen to music, you NEED to own a Yuni!
Or, if you regularly listen to headphones through only one ear because you need to keep your other ear free while running, recording, working, DJing, or doing anything else -- you NEED to own a Yuni!
More information can be found here or on our Kickstarter page, which ran from April 17th to May 17th, 2013
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is the Yuni only for people with single-sided hearing loss?
A: Not at all! Anybody who regularly listens to audio through headphones with one ear but wants to listen in stereo should have a Yuni. This is includes performing and recording musicians (for recording or monitoring use), and anybody else who needs to keep one ear free while listening to music.
Q: I am not totally deaf in either ear, but I have limited hearing in one or both ears. Would the Yuni be right for me?
A: Definitely! No matter your absolute level of hearing loss, if you hear better in one ear than you do in the other, you're going to miss out on some of the true stereo experience when you use headphones. Get a Yuni and listen with your better ear to make sure you don't miss out on that sound!
Q: If I use a CROS hearing aid, would a Yuni give me any benefit?
A: Yes! Hearing aids that function via Contralateral Routing of Sound (CROS) pick up the signal from the deaf ear and route them to the good ear, so that you hear both. As you can imagine, this is an extraordinarily helpful device for people with unilateral deafness. However, listening to stereo headphones with a CROS would mean that the signal from either side goes into your good ear without any spatial localization. The benefit of the Yuni is that it gives you the stereo experience with a single ear. Users who use CROS hearing aids may find that they prefer the Yuni experience because it maintains the stereo image of their music, rather than compressing it into a single sound-stream.
Q: My iPhone/iPod/etc. has an Accessibility setting which moves the sound to a single ear. Why should I get a Yuni?
A: This type of setting squishes the two stereo channels into a single mono channel and plays it through one of your ears, through a single speaker. It makes the music sound cramped, with no sense of space, no distinction between channels, and no ability to hear stereo panning. Up until now, converting a stereo signal to mono in this way has been the best option for unilaterally deaf headphone users. But the Yuni gives you true single-sided stereo, not mono. It plays each channel into a single ear through two separate speakers, maintaining the incomparable sense of stereo. The experience is completely different, and much better with the Yuni.
Q: Why is using a Yuni better than getting a stereo-to-mono converter and plug it in between my headphones and my music player?
A: See above. Also, an added converter makes the whole setup bulky, and it can easily break right off in the jack if it catches on your backpack, jacket, etc.
Q: Are you ever going to make a Bluetooth/wireless Yuni?
A: Yes! We are in the process of designing one now and would like to get your feedback.
Q: I'd like a special Yuni with speakers in both sides (or some other non-standard feature). Can you do that?
A: Yes we can! One of the benefits of 3D printing, as opposed to standard mass production, is that there is not a huge wasted cost of producing only a small number of special items. However, since we put considerable time and effort into the design and testing of any custom product, we reserve the custom-built option for our higher-level backers. Please contact us if you're interested in a special commission.
Q: Do you have any plans to create a hi-fi flat frequency response model appropriate for studio monitoring or a model with a microphone for gaming? What about a Yuni appropriate for runners?
A: These are all things we'd like to do eventually! We're taking it one step at a time, and we hope down the road to have the flexibility to create a variety of models. A gaming Yuni is especially highly requested. If you sign up for our mailing list, we'll let you know when about any new Yuni models that are coming out!
Q: Can you ship internationally?
A: But of course! In an attempt to bring single-sided stereo to as many people as possible, we offer an international shipping option from our Purchase a Yuni page. Just use the PayPal option, and if your international address is on your PayPal account, the proper shipping option should apply.
Q: Is the Yuni suitable for children?
A: Many people want to ensure that the valued youngsters in their lives are able to hear single-sided stereo too. While the Yuni's headband is adjustable, the Yuni is a bit on the large side, necessitated by having two speakers on the same side -- this may make it too bulky for very young heads. Also, note that headphones specifically designed for children are created to limit the volume at 85 decibels to protect young ears, and the Yuni does not have this feature. Adolescents, however, should be able to use the Yuni with no problem!
A: Not at all! Anybody who regularly listens to audio through headphones with one ear but wants to listen in stereo should have a Yuni. This is includes performing and recording musicians (for recording or monitoring use), and anybody else who needs to keep one ear free while listening to music.
Q: I am not totally deaf in either ear, but I have limited hearing in one or both ears. Would the Yuni be right for me?
A: Definitely! No matter your absolute level of hearing loss, if you hear better in one ear than you do in the other, you're going to miss out on some of the true stereo experience when you use headphones. Get a Yuni and listen with your better ear to make sure you don't miss out on that sound!
Q: If I use a CROS hearing aid, would a Yuni give me any benefit?
A: Yes! Hearing aids that function via Contralateral Routing of Sound (CROS) pick up the signal from the deaf ear and route them to the good ear, so that you hear both. As you can imagine, this is an extraordinarily helpful device for people with unilateral deafness. However, listening to stereo headphones with a CROS would mean that the signal from either side goes into your good ear without any spatial localization. The benefit of the Yuni is that it gives you the stereo experience with a single ear. Users who use CROS hearing aids may find that they prefer the Yuni experience because it maintains the stereo image of their music, rather than compressing it into a single sound-stream.
Q: My iPhone/iPod/etc. has an Accessibility setting which moves the sound to a single ear. Why should I get a Yuni?
A: This type of setting squishes the two stereo channels into a single mono channel and plays it through one of your ears, through a single speaker. It makes the music sound cramped, with no sense of space, no distinction between channels, and no ability to hear stereo panning. Up until now, converting a stereo signal to mono in this way has been the best option for unilaterally deaf headphone users. But the Yuni gives you true single-sided stereo, not mono. It plays each channel into a single ear through two separate speakers, maintaining the incomparable sense of stereo. The experience is completely different, and much better with the Yuni.
Q: Why is using a Yuni better than getting a stereo-to-mono converter and plug it in between my headphones and my music player?
A: See above. Also, an added converter makes the whole setup bulky, and it can easily break right off in the jack if it catches on your backpack, jacket, etc.
Q: Are you ever going to make a Bluetooth/wireless Yuni?
A: Yes! We are in the process of designing one now and would like to get your feedback.
Q: I'd like a special Yuni with speakers in both sides (or some other non-standard feature). Can you do that?
A: Yes we can! One of the benefits of 3D printing, as opposed to standard mass production, is that there is not a huge wasted cost of producing only a small number of special items. However, since we put considerable time and effort into the design and testing of any custom product, we reserve the custom-built option for our higher-level backers. Please contact us if you're interested in a special commission.
Q: Do you have any plans to create a hi-fi flat frequency response model appropriate for studio monitoring or a model with a microphone for gaming? What about a Yuni appropriate for runners?
A: These are all things we'd like to do eventually! We're taking it one step at a time, and we hope down the road to have the flexibility to create a variety of models. A gaming Yuni is especially highly requested. If you sign up for our mailing list, we'll let you know when about any new Yuni models that are coming out!
Q: Can you ship internationally?
A: But of course! In an attempt to bring single-sided stereo to as many people as possible, we offer an international shipping option from our Purchase a Yuni page. Just use the PayPal option, and if your international address is on your PayPal account, the proper shipping option should apply.
Q: Is the Yuni suitable for children?
A: Many people want to ensure that the valued youngsters in their lives are able to hear single-sided stereo too. While the Yuni's headband is adjustable, the Yuni is a bit on the large side, necessitated by having two speakers on the same side -- this may make it too bulky for very young heads. Also, note that headphones specifically designed for children are created to limit the volume at 85 decibels to protect young ears, and the Yuni does not have this feature. Adolescents, however, should be able to use the Yuni with no problem!
Testimonials
"With my Yuni I now love listening to music! Thanks so much!" - Taliah
"Opens up a whole new world of sound! Didn't realize what I was missing until the Yuni came along. Many thanks!!" - Joe W.
"I love being able to hear stereo in one ear at last. I have total congenital hearing loss in one ear, and I am a musician (go figure!). For the first time I don't have to worry about what I am missing when using headphones. thanks!" - LA in QC
"This has evened the playing field for our child both at home and at school." - Anonymous
"The Yuni is the best set of headphones I've ever owned, hands down. I can hear things I could never hear before, things I never thought I'd get the opportunity to hear. I never thought anyone would have the interest or the ingenuity to create a stereo headphone for people who have unilateral deafness, like me, and I am eternally grateful that the Yuni proved me wrong." -- Salomé
"In March of 2013, I suddenly lost some hearing in one ear. One day I had normal hearing, the next I had sudden sensorineural loss. As well as fluctuating low frequency loss, I also got the strangest auditory impairment I had ever (actually, never) heard of before. Here's what Wikipedia says about it: 'Diplacusis, also known as diplacusis binauralis or interaural pitch difference (IPD) is a type of tinnitus that is the perception of a single auditory stimulus as two separate sounds which may differ in pitch or in time.'
Oh, does it ever! What it really does - and thoroughly - is ruin the ability to listen to music with both ears. I've been an amateur musician and audiophile all my life. But now music sounded as if the entire string section of our local award-winning symphony forgot how to play. Not only were the notes off-key, the music was muddy due to the differences in the perception of time in one ear compared to the other.
I tried ear plugs, but they didn't work since I could still hear the off-key pitches and inaccurate timing, albeit 30 decibels softer. But hope dies hard, so I went to three more symphony concerts before giving up on live music entirely. OK, well. Is there any way to correct the pitch that enters one ear? Even if I had a degree in audio engineering - no. My variant of diplacusis doesn't have the decency to lower all notes by a quarter- or half-tone across all frequencies, that would be too easy. Some notes are sharp, some flat and some are right on, depending, it seems, on the whims of my cochlea.
Digital stereo music can be collapsed into mono, right? I could listen to music piped into my good ear. But it doesn't sound right. The flatness I could have learned to live with, I guess, but the music didn't sound right, somehow. And so I learned about phase distortions. I got so desperate that I'd listen to my favourite playlists with one stereo channel fed to one ear. Hardly the way I wanted to listen to music for the rest of my life.
And then came the Yuni. I found it during one of the innumerable Google searches that occupied every waking minute (so it seemed, some days) that first year of my hearing loss. I crossed my fingers, read the company's info, and took the chance.
I love it! I have music back in my life. Pure, wonderful, in-tune music. The Yuni is everything it's advertised to be. OK, I can't use it at a live concerts, but those are out of the question now anyway due to another weird hearing impairment - hyperacusis. In a very bizarre irony, the ear that can't hear low frequencies well or at all, depending on its mood, is sensitive, to the point of pain, to too much noise coming in.
So now I also use the Yuni to listen to TV programs, movies, anything with background music for "mood" a.k.a. noise to me. No more wearing out the volume button on the remote! A relatively inexpensive system of a splitter amplifier, extension cables and local volume controls allows me to use my Yuni (and my husband to use regular headphones) with our home theatre system." -- M.
"Opens up a whole new world of sound! Didn't realize what I was missing until the Yuni came along. Many thanks!!" - Joe W.
"I love being able to hear stereo in one ear at last. I have total congenital hearing loss in one ear, and I am a musician (go figure!). For the first time I don't have to worry about what I am missing when using headphones. thanks!" - LA in QC
"This has evened the playing field for our child both at home and at school." - Anonymous
"The Yuni is the best set of headphones I've ever owned, hands down. I can hear things I could never hear before, things I never thought I'd get the opportunity to hear. I never thought anyone would have the interest or the ingenuity to create a stereo headphone for people who have unilateral deafness, like me, and I am eternally grateful that the Yuni proved me wrong." -- Salomé
"In March of 2013, I suddenly lost some hearing in one ear. One day I had normal hearing, the next I had sudden sensorineural loss. As well as fluctuating low frequency loss, I also got the strangest auditory impairment I had ever (actually, never) heard of before. Here's what Wikipedia says about it: 'Diplacusis, also known as diplacusis binauralis or interaural pitch difference (IPD) is a type of tinnitus that is the perception of a single auditory stimulus as two separate sounds which may differ in pitch or in time.'
Oh, does it ever! What it really does - and thoroughly - is ruin the ability to listen to music with both ears. I've been an amateur musician and audiophile all my life. But now music sounded as if the entire string section of our local award-winning symphony forgot how to play. Not only were the notes off-key, the music was muddy due to the differences in the perception of time in one ear compared to the other.
I tried ear plugs, but they didn't work since I could still hear the off-key pitches and inaccurate timing, albeit 30 decibels softer. But hope dies hard, so I went to three more symphony concerts before giving up on live music entirely. OK, well. Is there any way to correct the pitch that enters one ear? Even if I had a degree in audio engineering - no. My variant of diplacusis doesn't have the decency to lower all notes by a quarter- or half-tone across all frequencies, that would be too easy. Some notes are sharp, some flat and some are right on, depending, it seems, on the whims of my cochlea.
Digital stereo music can be collapsed into mono, right? I could listen to music piped into my good ear. But it doesn't sound right. The flatness I could have learned to live with, I guess, but the music didn't sound right, somehow. And so I learned about phase distortions. I got so desperate that I'd listen to my favourite playlists with one stereo channel fed to one ear. Hardly the way I wanted to listen to music for the rest of my life.
And then came the Yuni. I found it during one of the innumerable Google searches that occupied every waking minute (so it seemed, some days) that first year of my hearing loss. I crossed my fingers, read the company's info, and took the chance.
I love it! I have music back in my life. Pure, wonderful, in-tune music. The Yuni is everything it's advertised to be. OK, I can't use it at a live concerts, but those are out of the question now anyway due to another weird hearing impairment - hyperacusis. In a very bizarre irony, the ear that can't hear low frequencies well or at all, depending on its mood, is sensitive, to the point of pain, to too much noise coming in.
So now I also use the Yuni to listen to TV programs, movies, anything with background music for "mood" a.k.a. noise to me. No more wearing out the volume button on the remote! A relatively inexpensive system of a splitter amplifier, extension cables and local volume controls allows me to use my Yuni (and my husband to use regular headphones) with our home theatre system." -- M.