Company News
New Manufacturing Manager: Al Takeda
Listen is expanding and developing its manufacturing capabilities with the appointment of Al Takeda as Manufacturing Manager. He will lead the expansion of Listen’s existing manufacturing capabilities, as well as prototyping and testing new products. Al brings extensive audio manufacturing, engineering, supervisory and lab management experience to this role, having held a variety of similar positions at Harvard, Harman and Lexicon. Outside of work, Al is a keen amateur astronomer and deep-sky astrophotographer.
New Logistics Co-ordinator: Elizabeth Martin
We are excited to announce the expansion of our Admin/Logistics team with the appointment of Elizabeth Martin as Logistics Co-ordinator. Elizabeth will be the main point of contact, for both customers and reps, for all open orders. She joins Listen with several years’ experience in account management and customer service, as well as a degree in advertising and German. When not working, Elizabeth can be found baking in the kitchen, sipping on some Starbucks with a new novel or training for her next charity bike ride.
New Administrative team
We are excited to introduce our new admin team – Barbara Keane (Office Manager) and Brianna Everette (Administrative Assistant). Barbara and Brianna will be the first point of contact many customers have with our office. They are responsible for processing orders and supporting the sales team, as well as ensuring that phones are answered, visitors are greeted, and the office runs smoothly. Barbara has an extensive background in project management, and Brianna has diverse administrative and office experience. Please join us in welcoming them on board. Barbara is on the left in the photo, and Brianna on the right.
New Manufacturing Team
Listen has expanded its manufacturing team with the addition of Evan Driscoll (left in picture) as Production Supervisor. Evan graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology in 2015 with a B.S. In Electronics Engineering Technology, where he also received the President’s award. Evan is very familiar with manufacturing at Listen, having held several internships and temporary positions at Listen over the past 3 years.
Evan replaces Nick Alston (right in picture), who has been promoted to the position of Manufacturing Supervisor after 2 years in the Production Supervisor role. Together, Nick and Evan manage all of our manufacturing and hardware assembly, test, and QC, ensuring that products are build and delivered on-time to high manufacturing standards.
Software Engineering Team Expands
Listen is expanding its software development team staff with the appointment of Ben Stern to the position of Software Engineer. Ben, who graduated from Tufts University earlier this year with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, has a strong interest in acoustics, DSP and music. Prior to working at Listen, Ben interned at Sonos where he worked on their ‘Trueplay’ speaker tuning feature. While in college he started a student-run recording studio and managed and DJ’d college radio. When Ben is not working he plays bass in a local band and enjoys cooking.
New Senior DSP Engineer
Listen is excited to announce the appointment of Dr. Alfred Benjamin Roney (Ben) to the position of Senior DSP Engineer. After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree, a PhD from the University of South Florida, and several years’ research experience, Ben has spent the past 10 years in algorithm development for audio software. He has extensive experience in audio DSP algorithms, gained from senior developer positions at MOTU, The MathWorks and Shure, and has experience with a broad range of languages, frameworks, environments and development methodologies. Outside of work, Ben enjoys wilderness hiking and playing classical guitar.
Retirement Congratulations!
Our sales manager, Neil Rubado (on the left in photo), is retiring at the end of March. Neil joined Listen in 2004, and over the past 12 years has worked with many customers to help develop SoundCheck solutions to their audio test and measurement projects. He also successfully managed the sales team to ensure steady, consistent growth.
We will all miss his sales skills, experience, friendship, and ‘salesman stories’, but we’re excited to hear all about his new adventures as he plans to spend time traveling with his wife, Kathy, learning to play guitar, and organizing his new home. Please join us in wishing Neil all the best for the future.
A visit to Reviewed.com
About Reviewed.com
Reviewed.com, part of the USA Today network, carries out quantitative reviews on a wide range of products including appliances, headphones, cameras, televisions and more. Since the beginning, their reviews have been built on the principle of using standardized scientific testing procedures to examine the performance of products, and a proprietary scoring method to ensure a level playing field amongst all manufacturers. Recently, I met with senior scientist Julia MacDougall, and received a tour of the facility and some insight into their headphone test methods, as well as a demonstration of their recently upgraded SoundCheck system.
The large brick building in Central Square, Cambridge, is in a part of town renowned for its young start up culture and unconventional work environments, so it’s no surprise to see a ping pong table next to the large, glass-walled conference room. However, once you get beyond the main lobby it is a labyrinth of test labs, each designed for testing a specific product. A room dedicated to camera testing features various test pictures on the walls, as well as 3d models with many moving and rotating parts to evaluate the camera’s capture of movement. Another lab was filled with massive flat screen televisions that were being tested for display performance, color measurement, luminance, contrast and more. Perhaps the most impressive was the appliance lab, where staff get to do their laundry while they work (in the interests of testing the washers), as well as working their way through many loads of white towels and stain strips that are marked with red wine, chocolate, sweat and more to scientifically evaluate the performance of the washing machines. Dishwashers, dryers, microwaves and ovens are also tested here, and a dedicated temperature and humidity controlled room contains many refrigerators filled with ‘dummy food’, the temperature of which is continuously monitored. The floor above the test labs is where their testers retreat to write up product reviews for their website, away from the whirr of tumble driers, swishing of dishwashers and stepped sine waves from the audio test lab.
The Audio Test Lab
The area that interested me the most was the smallest test area – the audio lab. Headphones are small and the test equipment is also compact, so a large room is unnecessary. Reviewed.com has been using Listen’s SoundCheck software since they first started looking for an objective way to test audio products back in 2007. Back then SoundCheck was being used for measuring mobile phones – smartphones were in their infancy, the next ‘hot product’, and Reviewed.com was the first review website to measure sound quality of a wide range of phones.
