SoundFocus (YC S13) launches iPhone Amp for amazing speakerphone calls with better mic, speakers and software

by Alexis Ohanian10/8/2014

Is there a more loved, yet deeply hated part of the iPhone than the speaker? On one hand, it lets you take your calls without holding the phone up to your face. You can also use it while watching videos or listening to music without headphones, and — of course — hear calls coming in from afar. On the other hand, it’s pretty terrible for listening to music, if you’ve ever tried to use it for music at a barbecue or, god forbid, on public transit.

Inventors Alex Selig and Varun Srinivasan have come up with a specialty iPhone case that they believe solves both these problems. It’s called the Amp and it’s one part speaker, and one part microphone. It listens to ambient noise and adjusts what you’re playing to compensate. It’s not really noise cancellation; think of it more like adaptive EQ.

Selig and Srinivasan, who met while working at Microsoft, call the feature dynamic noise reduction. It analyzes music and noise, and tunes elements of the music accordingly. It’s constantly listening to what’s around you using the microphone array built into the Amp case, and it compensates for what it hears during the last 10 seconds, making changes within 5 seconds of noticing a difference in ambient noise. How does this work in real life? Say you’re walking along the city street and bunch of cars and buses start driving by. The sound will get adjusted in a way that’s not louder, just more discernible, Srinivasan says.

Read the full article at The Verge

Author

  • Alexis Ohanian