Here Active Listening Earbuds Use Coachella as a Live Lab

The ability to personalize your live music experience may happen sooner than later with Here active listening earbuds.

Here Active Listening Earbuds

The bite-size earbuds were created by Doppler Labs to “change the way we hear the world.” Many hearables have set out to do the same thing, but Here is looking to give you festival feels, like recreating a psychedelic adventure, without the contraband, whenever you listen to live audio.

How so? Each bud acts as a micro-processor that adjusts the audio in real-time. As explained by Tech Crunch, “there is no latency. Whatever you’d hear without them, you hear with them at the exact same time.”

The buds are synced to an accompanying smartphone app that is the key to controlling the audio. The “tune out” feature allows for active noise cancelling – placing air conditioner noises and your pesky colleagues on mute, as well as adjust the reverb and bass. There is also a number of presets to choose from, like Carnegie Hall, Psychedelic, Human Speech, and Hallway.

Here partnered with Coachella to use the major music massive as its real-life lab. Doppler Labs granted those with wristbands early access to the buds which are currently on waitlist for $199. Those lab rats – er, festival-goers would take them to Coachella and check out how they really perform.

According to Fast Company, this is what some users had to say. “The hallway effect is cool,” writes Sheila Marikar.  “It feels like the concert is happening in my head instead of 50 yards away.”

Her friend Victoria felt a bit different, saying “The problem is that you lose the ambient sound around you, it makes you feel discombobulated.”

Marikar also recounts a fellow Coachella-goer, Shaun Alexander’s reaction to Here. “The most amazing thing is the filters: You press the crowd filter and you could just hear the music and the people talking to you. You couldn’t hear anything else.”

The concept behind Here sounds awesome, but I can’t help but wonder if altering the bass, reverb, and more of a live audio performance takes the wearer away from the music since they wouldn’t be hearing the live audio the way it is actually being produced before their eyes. Customization seems great, but wouldn’t you like to know if said performer actually performs at an exceptional level or not?

Regardless, I would not be opposed to having the option of customizing my live audio experience. The Here augmented reality earbuds seem like something I’ll have to hear to believe.

The headphones come in a portable case that double as a charger. The battery life on the earbuds are about six hours.

The waitlist is open for those interested in adjusting their live music experience with Here active listening earbuds.