Now, you can capture 3D sound for your videos

One morning, I was checking out some headphones when my cook called out and asked me something. I frowned in irritation and demanded to know why she had to ask me everything twice, when I realised she wasn’t even there: The second time I had heard her question was actually through the headset but it was so real I responded.

My cook did come rushing in to ask what I had said and looked baffled when I shooed her away and turned my attention back to this interesting headset with which I was instantly impressed. The sound was so clear and so directional that I couldn’t help but be.

What German audio giant Sennheiser, along with Apogee, has done with the AMBEO headset is to put in microphones on the earpieces. These sensitive mics pick up sound from whichever direction the wearer hears it.

We don’t normally hear from a single channel, as it were, but from all around, and that’s what this ‘binaural’ headset is doing. The best way to check out this binaural sound is to stand on the pavement of a street and record while a car whooshes past. On playback, you’ll clearly hear it going from left to right or right to left as it actually did.

An audio enthusiast demonstrated the headset’s ability simply by putting the earphones into the ears of a dummy and then walking around it playing his guitar. In the playback, you can hear the sound of the guitar go all around your head.

Sound all around

With everybody turning into filmmakers, the AMBEO headset is meant to add rich omni-directional sound to everyday videos you capture on your iPhone or iPad. It connects to these devices using the Lightning port and leverages its connectivity as well as gets power from the device. It doesn’t do much with audio recording, but with video, the sound becomes rich and specific and realistic.

Any video recording app will work, but Apple’s native one in the camera app will do as well. A version for Android is supposed to be in the offing.

You needn’t use the same headphones to listen to the recording made using the AMBEO headset’s microphones. As long as you use something of fairly good quality, you’ll hear it.

You could also hear some of what the headset is capable of when you playback on a device with stereo speakers, but it won’t be 360 sound. On the iPad, for instance, I could hear a motorcycle go from one side to the other and even stop in between like it actually did, but I can’t hear sounds that took place behind me.

The sound from recordings made wearing the AMBEO headset is not only omni-directional, it’s superbly clear. It’s also remarkably low-hiss, which is why my cook sounded so unlike a recording. These are not Bluetooth earphones and are connected with strong cables, both to the Lightning port and to each other. The earpieces on this headset are angled to hook over the ear lobe and then be placed into the ear canal — they don’t go in deep like they tend to do with ordinary in-ear phones, but they don’t fall off because of the hook.

At the fork of the two cables is a converter and controller, which enables a few of the other features.

On the controller, you’ll find the usual volume and play/pause buttons and a red light that goes on when you’re in recording mode.

Transparent hearing

But there are two other interesting controls. One is a slider, which does any one of a number of things depending on what you choose from the companion app. Most interestingly, it will toggle ‘Transparent hearing’ on or off. When it’s on, you can hear sounds outside sharper and clearer. Speech actually becomes clearer. The slider can also launch the camera app and trigger other compatible installed ones.

There’s another toggle button, which, when listening, switches on or off active noise cancellation and when recording brings in Transparent Hearing. I’m afraid the noise cancellation didn’t do anything for me. I could hear everything one way or the other, including steady consistent sounds like the hum of my heater.

You can of course use these earphones to listen to music but it should definitely not be chosen for that purpose — it’s better at recording. You’ll hear detail and clarity but you won’t find a lot of bass as you would on headphones meant just for listening. I often found the sharpness and treble a little too harsh and had to hurriedly turn down the volume because it almost hurt. It makes music you know sound so different that I found myself using something else for music during my time with it.

An equaliser in the companion app gives you some options of changing to preset settings for more bass, treble, hi-fi, speech and you can also make your own custom setting and keep it that way. If you have music recorded especially for binaural headphones, like Dr Chesky’s music available on iTunes, it’s a very interesting experience as well.

You can trigger Siri by voice command but I didn’t find this working all the time. But then I also find my Apple Watch sometimes fussy about calling up Siri. A button press will always do it, of course.

You can also receive and make phone calls but the other person usually said I was clear but sounding ‘far away’.

The unique thing about this headset is that it will allow those who make videos, including for use on VR headsets, to add real richness and direction to the sound on their creations. And anyone can hear it.

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