Cleer Audio, commonly branded simply as Cleer, is a consumer-audio company specializing in wireless headphones, open-ear earbuds, noise-cancelling headphones, and smart speakers. The brand was established in 2012 and has roots in San Diego, California. Cleer describes itself as a performance-audio brand that combines audio engineering, minimalist design, and new wireless technologies. Its products utilize technologies such as Dynamic Bass Enhancement, Qualcomm audio platforms, and spatial audio. Today, Cleer’s strongest differentiation is its open-ear headphone technology, where it competes as a premium alternative to conventional in-ear designs. 1

One interesting aspect of Cleer’s identity is that it sits between the traditional Hi-Fi/audio-engineering world and the modern consumer-tech market. It initially became known for conventional high-performance headphones and ANC products, but its strongest recent identity has been its development of open-ear wireless headphones.

Quick facts

Cleer’s own U.S. materials describe it as a San Diego-based company founded by people with extensive experience in the audio industry. Its stated mission is to push wireless headphones and smart speakers beyond conventional designs while emphasizing functionality, minimalist design and craftsmanship. 2

2012 — Foundation

Cleer was established in 2012. The company says its roots are in San Diego and that its team was formed by people with backgrounds at established audio brands. The original objective was to create products capable of delivering a more engaging listening experience while combining sound quality with industrial design.

There is an important nuance concerning Cleer’s identity: although its international branding presents it as a U.S.-based/San Diego audio brand, Cleer is also closely associated with Grandsun/Cosonic, a Chinese audio-electronics manufacturing group. Cleer’s Chinese corporate materials identify the brand as being created by 冠旭电子 (Cosonic) and describe its Shenzhen connection. 3

So, in simple terms, Cleer can be understood as an international audio brand with U.S. roots/branding and substantial Chinese R&D/manufacturing infrastructure.

2013 — Early noise-cancelling development

According to Cleer’s historical timeline, the company developed its first noise-cancelling headphone prototype in 2013. The company also says that this early work received recognition including CES innovation and iF Design-related awards.

This is significant because ANC became one of the company’s major product categories years before open-ear headphones became its most recognizable area.

2014 — Industrial design

Cleer began working with a Swedish design company to develop a stronger design language for its products. This helped establish the brand’s combination of industrial design and acoustic engineering.

2017 — NEXT

The Cleer NEXT represented the company’s move further into the audiophile/high-fidelity headphone segment.

The NEXT was positioned as a premium over-ear headphone emphasizing high-quality sound, materials and industrial design. Cleer’s historical material says the product involved Andre de Salis, a designer associated with BMW Designworks and Rolls-Royce Phantom design, and received several design awards.

2018 — ALLY

In 2018, Cleer introduced ALLY, a true-wireless earbud product. It incorporated an ergonomic Freebit-style ear-wing system and was marketed around comfort, water resistance and battery life.

This marked Cleer’s expansion from traditional over-ear headphones into the rapidly growing TWS earbud market.

2019 — International retail expansion

Cleer expanded its presence in international premium retail, including appearances at London’s Harrods and Selfridges, according to the company’s Chinese historical timeline. 4

The same year, Cleer introduced MIRAGE, a smart speaker featuring a flexible display concept. It subsequently received CES recognition.

2020 — Smart speakers

Cleer continued experimenting beyond headphones with CRESCENT, a multi-channel smart speaker.

The company positioned CRESCENT as a premium home-audio product, and its historical materials state that it received a CES Innovation Award and recognition from Newsweek.

Perhaps the most important chapter in Cleer’s modern history is its transition toward open-ear audio.

Traditional earbuds place a speaker inside or directly over the ear canal. Open-ear products instead position the acoustic driver near the ear, allowing the listener to hear music while retaining awareness of the surrounding environment.

Cleer entered this area with the ARC series.

The company describes itself as one of the pioneers of open-ear wireless earbuds and says it introduced its open-ear wireless product in December 2021.

This became a major part of Cleer’s differentiation.

Why open-ear?

The concept addresses several limitations of conventional in-ear headphones:

• Less physical blockage of the ear canal
• Greater awareness of surrounding sounds
• Potentially greater comfort for long listening sessions
• Suitability for running and other outdoor activities
• A more natural interaction with the environment

Cleer particularly emphasizes the safety and environmental-awareness advantages of being able to hear surroundings while listening.

ARC

The original ARC established Cleer’s open-ear product identity.

Rather than attempting to completely isolate the listener from the environment, ARC was designed around the idea of listening while remaining connected to the outside world.

This was strategically important because open-ear headphones have since become a major category alongside conventional TWS earbuds.

ARC II — 2023

Cleer introduced ARC II in 2023, describing it as an open-ear smart headphone designed to move the category into a more intelligent generation.

The ARC II helped establish several characteristics that have become central to Cleer’s open-ear products:

• Open-ear acoustic architecture
• Wireless connectivity
• Sport-oriented usability
• Improved sound reproduction
• Smart features
• Ergonomic ear-hook design

ARC 3 — 2024

The ARC 3 represented another major step for Cleer.

Introduced in April 2024, it was marketed as an open-ear AI headphone and incorporated features such as heart-rate and blood-oxygen monitoring. Cleer’s materials also highlight a large 16.2 mm driver, Qualcomm audio technology and Snapdragon Sound support.

This illustrates how Cleer’s strategy evolved:

Headphones → wireless earbuds → open-ear headphones → smart/open-ear wearables

In other words, Cleer increasingly treats headphones not merely as audio playback devices but as wearable technology.

Dynamic Bass Enhancement

One of Cleer’s notable proprietary technologies is Cleer DBE — Dynamic Bass Enhancement.

Bass reproduction can be particularly difficult with open-ear headphones because the speaker does not form the same acoustic seal with the ear as a conventional in-ear headphone.

Cleer says its DBE technology has evolved to version 4.0, with the objective of providing stronger and more impactful low-frequency reproduction from open-ear designs.

This is an important part of the company’s technical proposition because bass is one of the biggest acoustic challenges of open-ear headphones.

Qualcomm technologies

Cleer has also worked with Qualcomm technologies in its wireless-audio products.

Its company materials specifically mention partnerships involving Qualcomm reference designs, while newer products such as ARC 3 use Qualcomm audio platforms and Snapdragon Sound technologies.

This places Cleer within the broader ecosystem of modern Bluetooth and wireless-audio technology rather than positioning it solely as a traditional headphone manufacturer.

Spatial audio

Spatial audio has become increasingly important in Cleer’s current product strategy.

The current ARC lineup includes products supporting spatial-audio technologies. The company’s current website, for example, positions ARC 5 as an open-ear product featuring THX Spatial Audio, while ARC 5 Gaming is designed around spatial audio and low-latency gaming.

Today, Cleer’s portfolio can broadly be divided into several categories.

Open-ear earbuds

This is currently Cleer’s most distinctive product category.

The current lineup includes:

• ARC 4 Plus
• ARC 5
• ARC 5 Gaming
• ARC-series predecessors

The company describes open-ear products as designed to blend music with awareness of the surrounding environment, with applications including everyday listening, sports and gaming.

Over-ear headphones

Cleer continues to produce traditional headphones.

One of its better-known modern products is ENDURO ANC, which emphasizes long battery life and active noise cancellation. The current product page lists up to 60 hours of battery life.

The company also has the ALPHA over-ear headphone line.

In-ear earbuds

Cleer has also produced conventional in-ear/TWS products, including the earlier ALLY family.

These products generally emphasize:

• Compact design
• Active noise cancellation
• Wireless connectivity
• Battery life
• Secure fit

Speakers

Although headphones are now the dominant part of Cleer’s identity, the company has also produced smart and portable speakers.

Historical examples include:

• MIRAGE
• CRESCENT
• HALO
• STAGE

Cleer describes its speaker products as combining room-filling sound with industrial design.

Design is unusually important to Cleer’s brand identity.

The company repeatedly emphasizes three ideas:

Minimalism + functionality + performance

Its U.S. corporate description says it aims to combine thoughtful, intuitive design with craftsmanship and uncompromised performance.

This philosophy can be seen in Cleer’s products, which generally avoid extremely complicated visual styling and instead use relatively clean industrial forms.

The involvement of designers with automotive/luxury-design backgrounds, particularly around products such as NEXT, is another part of this identity.

Cleer occupies an interesting position in the headphone market.

It is not traditionally positioned as an ultra-high-end audiophile company like Focal, Audeze or Meze, nor is it primarily a mass-market electronics brand like Xiaomi or generic TWS manufacturers.

Instead, its positioning is closer to:

Premium consumer audio + innovative technology + industrial design

Its products tend to compete around a combination of:

• Sound quality
• Comfort
• Design
• Wireless technology
• ANC
• Open-ear technology
• Smart features
• Lifestyle applications

That makes Cleer particularly relevant to consumers who want something more technologically ambitious than a conventional pair of headphones.

Cleer’s biggest contribution to the consumer-audio market is arguably its work in open-ear headphones.

The company entered the category before open-ear products became as mainstream as they are today. Its ARC family subsequently became the core of its brand identity. Cleer itself describes the company as one of the pioneers of open-type wireless earbuds.

The broader trend is significant because headphones are increasingly moving from:

“Block out the world”

toward both:

“Hear your music” + “Stay connected to the world.”

Cleer’s ARC products are essentially an expression of the second philosophy.

Cleer has accumulated recognition for both technology and industrial design.

According to Cleer’s own historical materials, its products have received recognition associated with:

• CES Innovation Awards
• iF Design Awards
• Good Design Awards
• CE Week awards
• Other industrial-design and consumer-electronics awards

The company also states that its early products and subsequent smart-audio products received multiple international awards. These claims are best understood as company-reported awards, since individual award programs and product categories should be checked separately when evaluating a specific award.

Cleer has increasingly used collaborations with prominent figures to position itself as a premium lifestyle/audio brand.

Its Chinese materials document collaborations involving:

• Guo Dan, a Chinese speed-skating/roller-skating athlete
• Richie Jen, Taiwanese singer and actor
• Lang Lang, internationally known concert pianist
• Gina Alice, pianist
• YiNuo, esports player
• Other sports and entertainment figures

5

The collaboration with Lang Lang is particularly aligned with Cleer’s attempt to associate the brand with high-fidelity musical performance. The current international website continues to feature Cleer × LANG LANG as a major brand partnership.

As of 2026, Cleer is placing substantial emphasis on its open-ear range.

Its current international website highlights:

• ARC 5
• ARC 5 Gaming
• ARC 4 Plus
• ALPHA
• ENDURO ANC
• Speakers and accessories

The company’s Japanese operation also lists the newer ARC 5 AI ANC, ARC 5, and ARC Air 2, showing that the brand continues to expand its open-ear lineup rather than treating ARC as a one-off product family.

The current generation therefore represents a considerable evolution from the company’s original high-performance over-ear headphones.

One thing that can be confusing when researching Cleer is “Where is Cleer actually from?”

The answer depends on what aspect you’re describing.

• Brand origin: Cleer says it was established in San Diego, California, in 2012.
• International identity: The company presents itself internationally as a U.S.-based/performance-audio brand.
• Chinese corporate/manufacturing connection: Cleer’s Chinese corporate materials identify it as an international smart-acoustics brand established under 冠旭电子/Cosonic, with roots in Shenzhen.

Therefore, calling Cleer simply an “American headphone company” is somewhat incomplete. A more accurate description is:

Cleer is an international consumer-audio brand founded in San Diego in 2012, with substantial Chinese corporate, engineering and manufacturing connections.

The historical timeline is primarily based on Cleer’s own published brand history, supplemented by its current international product pages.

Cleer Audio is a consumer-audio brand founded in San Diego in 2012 that combines traditional headphone engineering with modern wireless and wearable-audio technology. The company began with noise-cancelling and high-performance headphones, expanded into TWS earbuds and smart speakers, and eventually made open-ear audio the centerpiece of its identity through the ARC series. Its products emphasize minimalist industrial design, wireless technology, comfort and high-performance sound, with technologies such as Dynamic Bass Enhancement, Qualcomm audio platforms and spatial audio. Today, Cleer’s strongest differentiation is its open-ear headphone technology, where it competes as a premium alternative to conventional in-ear and over-ear headphones.

1. ブランド – Cleer公式サイト
2. Official Cleer Audio website
3. About Us – High-End Performance Audio Brand | Cleer Audio
4. Cleer音响-Cleer蓝牙耳机-关于Cleer耳机-Cleer中国官方网站
5. Collections – Cleer Audio