Celebrating 30 years: Listening – The Secret Of Our Success

This year, we’re proudly celebrating 30 years of innovation at Listen, Inc. 

Back in 1995, when human listeners were responsible for 95% of end-of-line audio tests, I set out to change the industry with software-based automated production line audio measurements. Little did I know that 30 years later we would have built a well respected and successful audio measurement company, spanning both R&D and production applications. I’m often asked what my advice would be to someone starting a company today. It’s simple, and ingrained in our culture and our name: Listen.

I’m writing this on a plane on my way home from a trip to Germany and Italy. Over the past ten days I’ve visited the High End Show in Munich, multiple automotive companies and infotainment integrators in Germany and Italy, and the Automotive Testing Expo in Stuttgart. During this time I’ve had conversations about audio measurements with many people. One of the highlights of my trip was an enlightening discussion on headphone target curves and ANC distortion with one of the most knowledgeable people in the industry, Axel Grell of Grell Acoustics, formerly of Sennheiser headphones. I received updates on the state of the industry from customers, publishers and trade organizations. I heard demonstrations of new and innovative audio products from both established and new companies. Automotive industry veterans shared their thoughts on the TC-AA recommendations for in-car testing. And while on customer visits, I demonstrated SoundCheck to new potential customers and listened to both their enthusiasm about what our products might do for them and, in some cases, their reservations.

Customers, both existing and prospective, are often surprised when the company president shows up with colleagues to what they assume is primarily a sales call, but to me it’s essential. In order to strategically plan our future product offerings, I need to understand what audio measurements our users are making and listen to what they tell me about their current and future needs. This drives our product roadmap to deliver what the market needs. 

This year I’ve also hosted two specific focus groups, one in California and one in Denmark with what we call our “power users” – heavy users of  our products who are pushing its boundaries with complex measurements or challenging connection requirements. At these meetings we demonstrated new features under development for feedback, and listened to their ‘wishes’ for future development. As usual we gained valuable insight, but the highlight of this year’s meeting for me was the enthusiastic reception to  new features that had been suggested at a prior meeting.

I also regularly review our support tickets – the secret source of what our customers are thinking. While our support team deals with day-to-day customer questions, I’m not averse to jumping in where my specific knowledge enables me to come up with a creative solution – I enjoy the challenge! More importantly, hearing about people’s challenges tells me far more about how we need to improve your products than talking to those where everything is going smoothly. A case in point: the complexity of configuring 3rd party audio interfaces was what inspired us to develop our own range of plug-and-play hardware. Only when we know where the pain-points are, can we add new functionality to make it easier.

When I get back to the office, I’ll become my engineering team’s ‘most demanding customer’ for a couple of weeks as I participate in the final pre-release testing of SoundCheck 23. I’m in the process of writing a paper on ANC distortion measurement for a headphone conference, and I’m excited to explore how the new perceptual masking curves that we are introducing in the new release will enable me to take a deeper dive into audibility of distortion artifacts. After 10 days on the road, I’m excited to take a break from talking and listening and immerse myself once again in the R&D side of audio measurement!

So what does the future hold for Listen? 30 years ago I started Listen from the corner of my bedroom with an idea, a lot of enthusiasm, and many credit cards! We started with production testing but quickly expanded into the R&D space, as our customers saw the flexibility and forwards-compatibility of software based solutions in a laboratory environment. We have a 30 year track record of innovation in test methods, interfaces and algorithms that has allowed us to diversify from testing simple transducers to measuring communications devices, smart devices, car audio and more. Now, with over 25 employees and a custom-designed office and manufacturing space in Boston, we are firmly established as a global leader in audio measurements. 

My colleagues, mentors, distributors and customers, past and present, have all played a valuable role in building Listen. As we head into our fourth decade, I’d like to thank all of them for their hard work and dedication to making our company what it is today. And as for my advice on staying in business for 30 years? Listen. Take every opportunity you can to hear what your customers and other industry experts are saying, and figure out what you can provide to help solve their challenges.