Doppler Labs’ Here Active Listening Is Personalizing Sound

Doppler Labs is revolutionizing how you listen to sound. Doppler Labs’ Here Active Listening appears like regular headphones but it's so much more. It's an in-ear audio system that uses two wireless buds and a smartphone app that lets users instantly personalize their live audio environment. Basically, the tech allows you to control how you hear the world around you. It's game-changing.

Each Here bud captures incoming sound waves, processes the audio, and then plays back the desired result with no perceivable latency (i.e. in under 30 microseconds). XXL spoke with Noah Kraft, the CEO and Co-founder of Doppler Labs, about the Here Active Listening System and why this new tech will change the way you hear the world.

XXL: What inspired you to make Here Active Listening?

Noah Kraft: Hearing is a very powerful sense. We are constantly bombarded by noise and we don’t have any control over it. We started with an earplug—the DUBS—then quickly realized there are more dynamic ways to curate how we experience sound. We put on sunglasses when it’s too sunny, we put spices on our food when it’s too bland and we put on a jacket when we’re cold. But our ears are on 24/7. We think everyone should have control over their ears and the ability to personalize their sonic environment.

Break down the differences between the two products, DUBS and Here Active Listening?

There are DUBS, which are passive acoustic filters and Here Active Listening, which is a digital audio system the provides control over real world sound. Everybody hears the world differently. If two people are listening to the same song, one person may think it sounds perfect, while the other person may think there’s too much bass or it’s too loud. Here Active Listening gives you dynamic control over how you hear the world, catered to your own personal senses.

What's the end goal for Doppler Labs?

Our goal as a company is to eventually put a computer, speaker and mic in every ear. We released Here in a limited edition run in order to garner user feedback, build a foundation and improve the product. We hope to have a mass consumer product ready by the end of the year.

How has Here Active Listening been tested in actual real life settings?

We hosted “Sound Experiences” for key influencers, media and musicians to experience Here Active Listening in an intimate setting. We had one of these events in partnership with National Sawdust in Brooklyn and one at Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Studio in L.A., as well as an activation at SXSW, where Here Active Listening took home the coveted “Best of Show” award. We also had a partnership with Goldenvoice this year at Coachella, where we on boarded artists and integrated fully into the festival with "Here optimized stages and presets."

Here Active Listening will only be made in a limited run and will not be available in stores. Join the waitlist for a chance to get one of the first pairs.