The Personal TV Audio System I’d Been Searching For
By Bob Rapoport, Essence For Hi Res Audio
★★★★★ 5.0 / 5 — Highly Recommended
The Earis Premium is an alternative personal TV audio system designed to solve the problems created by today’s television and movie soundtracks.
About 10 years ago, I adopted a dialogue-enhancing headphone for television listening for a practical reason: modern streamed TV shows and movie soundtracks were becoming increasingly difficult to follow at a single, comfortable volume over a conventional audio system, soundbar, or even the TV’s built-in speakers.
Today’s 4K streamed shows and movie soundtracks are produced with enormously wide dynamic range, the difference between the softest and loudest sounds we hear.
Soft-spoken actors, British accents, and whispered dialogue often required turning the volume up, only to have the next explosion, musical crescendo, or car chase arrive much too loudly. My wife would yell, “Turn it down!” when that happened. Sound familiar?
I found myself continually reaching for the remote—turning the volume up for dialogue, down for loud effects, and back up again when the dialogue resumed.
“Remote riding” constantly interrupted my immersion in the story. I kept the remote close by, sometimes even in my hand, ready to react to the sudden intrusion of loud special effects or commercials.
The headphone solved the volume-control problem by giving my wife and me individual headsets with personally adjustable volume.
But dialogue was only part of the soundtrack. Music, ambience, sound effects, bass extension, spatial information, and everything else the recording contained mattered too. Low-priced TV headphones were not an audiophile solution.
The headphone we used was useful, but it wasn’t truly high fidelity. As streamed soundtracks became more sophisticated and dynamic, its limitations became increasingly apparent.
That experience started my search for something substantially better—not merely another dialogue-enhancement product, but the best-performing personal television audio system I could find.
That search led me to a specialty manufacturer in Germany called Humantechnik—pronounced “Human Technique.”
My Evaluation
I ordered a system and evaluated it over several days at home, listening to the same kinds of demanding material I use when assessing any serious audio component.
This included dialogue-heavy American and British dramas, movies with very wide dynamic range, orchestral scores, electronic dance music, popular music, deep bass, quiet atmospheric effects, and action sequences containing sudden changes in level.
The difference was immediately apparent. The silky, rotary dial turns the volume up and down at the touch of my fingertips, giving me instant personal control without fumbling around for a remote. I stayed immersed in the story.
The Earis Premium produced a smooth, rich, full-bandwidth presentation with no audible background noise.
Voices were naturally intelligible without becoming thin, exaggerated, or detached from the rest of the soundtrack. Music retained its tonal weight and harmonic character. Ambient sounds, room tone, footsteps, distant effects, and other low-level details remained intact.
Loud passages retained their scale and impact without harshness.
Most importantly, I no longer had to sacrifice the complete soundtrack simply to understand the dialogue.
House of the Dragon
One of the most revealing evaluations came from HBO’s House of the Dragon.
The dragons sounded real. Their movements and vocalizations had texture, weight, and location.
In flight, I could hear their high-pitched squeals moving through the scene with startling realism. As they descended to land, the sound fell away naturally toward the ground. When they landed, their enormous physical weight became part of the experience.
Their growls and rumbles could be heard both close and at a distance, precisely positioned within the scene.
That was more than bass or volume. It was scale, movement, perspective, and believable physical presence.
The Earis allowed the soundtrack to create the reality of the scene rather than merely accompany the picture.
Madonna and Electronic Dance Music
Music presented an entirely different test.
Electronic dance music depends on rhythmic drive, deep bass, speed, layered electronic textures, and the ability to remain clean when the mix becomes dense.
Madonna’s new album passed that test with flying colors.
The Earis preserved the energy and pulse of the music without becoming hard, congested, or fatiguing. The bass had genuine foundation, while the vocals, effects, and surrounding production remained clear and distinct.
This was important to me because a personal television listening system shouldn’t merely make speech understandable. It should also reproduce music with the drive, weight, and excitement the recording was intended to deliver.
Terence Blanchard and Perry Mason
Terence Blanchard’s trumpet on the HBO soundtrack for Perry Mason offered another kind of challenge.
His playing is evocative, brassy, atmospheric, and inseparable from the mood of 1930s Los Angeles created by the series.
Through the Earis, the trumpet had the proper metallic bite and body without becoming shrill. The surrounding ambience remained present, allowing the music to draw me into the time, place, and emotional atmosphere of the story. The sounds of the cars and trolleys of that period were distinct, bringing that time to life.
I grew up in Los Angeles, and that soundtrack made the period feel real to me.
Hearing its tonal character and atmosphere reproduced so convincingly reminded me that high fidelity is not simply a collection of specifications. It’s the ability of sound to establish a place, create an emotional response, and pull the listener more deeply into the story.
Comfort Matters
Comfort was equally impressive.
The two-ounce under-chin receiver is exceptionally light, works well with glasses, and applies just enough inward pressure to remain properly positioned without becoming fatiguing.
During extended viewing, it became easy to forget I was wearing it.
That ability to disappear physically is important because anything that calls attention to the listening device works against immersion.
A product can sound excellent for ten minutes and still fail if the listener wants to remove it after half an hour. The Earis passed both tests: sound quality and long-term comfort.
Key Specifications
| Specification | Earis Premium |
|---|---|
| MSRP | $699 |
| Wireless transmission | 2.4–2.5 GHz digital |
| Digital audio input | Optical 24-bit/48 kHz PCM stereo |
| Analog input | 3.5 mm |
| Microphone input | 3.5 mm |
| Frequency range | 20 Hz– 20 kHz |
| Maximum output | Up to 125 dB SPL |
| Battery life | Up to 9 hours |
| Charging time | Approximately 2 hours |
| Operating range | More than 210 feet |
| Headset weight | Approximately 2.2 ounces |
| Included | Transmitter/charging base, headset receiver, cables, and power supply |
My Conclusion
After my evaluation, I reached a straightforward conclusion: the Earis Premium stands alone as the state-of-the-art in this category.
It’s not merely a device for making voices louder.
It’s a genuine high-fidelity personal television audio system capable of delivering dialogue, music, ambience, localization, dramatic impact, and the full emotional character of a modern soundtrack.
Eliminating the room reflections was big. I blended it in with my powered sub with the mains off, and got the best of both worlds. No compromise. Full range personal listening. One transmitter can drive 2 sets of headphones.
I was impressed enough to begin discussions with Humantechnik about bringing the Earis Premium to the American audiophile and home-theater market through Essence For Hi Res Audio.
I didn’t decide to import it because it was adequate. I decided to import it because it was the first product of its kind I’d heard that met my standards.
Bob Rapoport
Essence For Hi Res Audio