Perry Teevens, CEO at Comhear, demonstrates the Yarra 3DX, the world’s most advanced 3D audio platform at the ShowStoppers  Show in San Francisco. Photo by Marcus Siu.

Article and photo by Marcus Siu

I just returned from the Showstoppers Show in San Francisco, which showed off the latest “hot” products from “cool” companies directly to the media and press in concurrence with the three day Mobile World Congress Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The most innovative “home theater/entertainment” product of tomorrow that I encountered at ShowStoppers was from a 360 degree soundbar for multimedia.  

Actually, just to call this a “soundbar” is belittling it, since it is also a beamforming speaker that redefines and sets a new standard the way we hear sound sound from a soundbar. Perhaps, it’s company, Comhear should call it a “beambar”.  In any case, whatever you want to call it, I can see these soundbars replacing many multi speaker home theater setups in many homes, just because they don’t take up much room and they sound extraordinary and are powerfully quite immersive for its size.  

YARRA 3DX™ is an industry-first 3D-audio sound bar. Powered by Comhear’s industry-disruptive MyBeam™ technology, YARRA 3DX provides immersive 360-degree sound without the use of headphones or multiple speakers, delivering a first of-its-kind audio experience for home entertainment, gaming, VR and music reproduction.

Perry Teevens, CEO of  Comhear, gave me an impressive demo.  I sat right down on a chair facing the YARRA 3DX™ along with a computer monitor, and even in the loudest of rooms, the nuanced audio could pinpoint directly into my right ear and whisper right into it, even though I was sitting five feet from the soundbar.  It felt as though someone whispered an inch away from my ear.  It actually sort of freaked me out, as though there was an apparition out of mid air.

Then the next demo was even more immersive, as though my hair was being cut with the sound of rapid scissors right by my ears. Imagine the sound coming from mid air precisely around your ears, as though you are sitting right down in the barbershop.  No speakers can do that….

Comhear uses their patented technology called “MyBeam”, along with YARRA 3DX to accomplish this feature. 

Courtesy of Comhear

The gaming portion of a one-shooter game came on, and the gunshots and explosions come from you at all different directions, right, left, center, around and even above you. It’s insane.

When the musical demo came on, the opening bars of Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” started to play and just hearing the opening chords with the bass lines gave me the chills. Not just because it my favorite song, but because I never heard it in the way it was coming from the soundbar.  It was amazing to hear all the spatial separation of the soundscape between the bass, guitars and drums, since all of the instruments seemed to be surrounding me from different areas around the entire room, giving it unbelievable realism via high resolution audio.  It was uncanny how there was so much atmosphere coming from such an unassuming sound bar.

Even the classical demo with the violin sounded so real and lifelike that I just shook my head in disbelief even at 20 feet away from where the sweet spot of the demo’s chair was located from the room.

I assumed these were specially encoded high resolution audio DVD’s, so I was quite surprised to find out they were just ordinary CD’s that were played.

As far as movies are concerned, with those who do not cannot put multiple speakers in their living room due to the lack of space or spousal dissatisfaction; this would be the perfect solution.   You can experience surround soundtracks in 5.1, 7.1, or 11.2 without the expense of a home theater setup.

What is equally appealing is that you can use this as part of your home entertainment or just use it in any room, such as the bathroom.

Courtesy of Comhear

With typical immersive experiences usually being associated only for individuals, such as with VR gear and stereo headphones, it’s nice to be able to share the same immersive experiences with several people at the same time.  The YARRA 3DX™, through the use of its app allows you to create three or four sweet spots, so a whole group can enjoy the same experience.  Certainly a much more pleasurable as a social group experience.

In short, I was totally blown away by the Comhear demonstration put on for me featuring their YARRA 3DX™.  

The company just recently announced a Kickstarter campaign almost two weeks ago, and was hoping to raise $50,000 in their initial offering.  They reached that amount in just four hours and they are well over $350,000 at the time of writing, with nearly one thousand supporters, including myself.

Here is their press release:

YARRA 3DX™ — World’s First 3D-Audio Sound Bar Campaign Launched by Comhear Inc.

Sep 12, 2017