10 Questions With Mead Killion

10 Questions With Mead Killion

Date Posted: January 12 2008

Written By: Michael Jeffers

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Etymotic Research is one of the leaders in hearing protection and products throughout the world. Etymotic Research, Inc. (ER) is a research, development and manufacturing company located locally in Elk Grove Village. The name "Etymotic" (pronounced "et-im-OH-tik.") means "true to the ear." Etymotic's products are used worldwide by scientists, hearing practitioners, hearing-impaired consumers, professional and amateur musicians, and anyone who insists on superior sound quality. Innovation and education are key elements of ER's mission. ER holds eighty-nine patents and sixty-one patents pending, covering instrumentation for audiometry, infant hearing screening, otoacoustic emissions, auditory brainstem response and real-ear measurement, as well as circuitry, directional microphones, and other components for hearing aids and automotive applications. Because Chicago Jazz Magazine is geared toward musicians and music lovers in the Chicagoland area, it seemed great idea to sit down with the president and founder of Etymotic Research, Mead Killion, to discuss how hearing loss occurs and what you as a musician or music fan can do to prevent it.

1 CJM: What made you branch out and start Etymotic Research?

Mead Killion: I worked for about twenty-one years for a company that made microphones and earphones for hearing aids, although one of the microphones, an electret microphone, was used in recording studios. Then in 1983 I decided to spread my wings and develop products that would help people with hearing loss, measure hearing and help make hearing more fun. We have been able to do all of those things at Etymotic Research for the past twenty-four years.

2 CJM: When did you realize the need for hearing protection for musicians?

Killion: Perhaps the final realization that we should do something even for symphony musicians came when Bob Swan, one of the viola players in the Chicago Symphony found he couldn't hear after a concert. He had been sitting in front of the bell of a bass trombone during the concert, which included Berlioz' Damnation of Faust with nearly 200 symphony and chorus musicians on stage plus four soloists performing one of the most intense pieces in the repertoire. Fortunately, his hearing recovered completely, but it was a warning. That episode alerted all of us to the fact that symphonic music wasn't as safe as it used to be. Music has become much louder than in Mozart's day. Mahler and others wrote symphonies that require many more closely-packed musicians on stage and are sometimes scored for "fff" and "ffff" playing. The musicians are closer to each other and to the percussion section as a result of the larger number of musicians on stage. The turning point was when I became a consultant for the Chicago Symphony in the mid-eighties. The engineer who taught me most of what I know, Elmer Carlson, had developed a high fidelity earplug, but it didn't look as if it was going to be commercially practical. It would have taken too much money to advertise it. I made a pair of his earplugs for a couple of CSO members and they started using them. Soon the management of the Symphony bought them for any full-time orchestra member who was interested. This was a great opportunity, because with the members of the Chicago Symphony using the earplugs, it got the word out and we didn't have to run an ad in the New York Times.

3 CJM: How did you find out which members of the Symphony actually needed hearing protection?

Killion: I once stood on the podium in front of the entire Chicago Symphony. As a choir director this was my big moment. However, I was only up there trying to convince them to get their hearing tested for the study we were doing. We found that the average musician had better hearing than the same-age "man on the street," but violin players tended to have a slight loss at about 4 kHz in the left ear and the flute players had a slight loss in the right ear. And those in front of the brass section and near the percussion section were sometimes at risk. So it became clear that there was a need for hearing protection while performing some pieces.

4 CJM: What are Musicians Earplugs?

Killion: Musicians Earplugs is the name we gave to the earplugs that were developed by Elmer Carlson, who was too modest to let us use his name. The Musicians Earplugs are a premium high fidelity custom earplug, with an almost exactly flat attenuation from 80 Hz up to 16 kHz. Musicians Earplugs have the ability to lower the sound level by 9 dB, 15 db and 25dB, depending on the attenuator button you snap into the earplug. These earplugs are custom made to the person's ear so they will fit perfectly. Once we built the Musicians Earplugs, we realized that there was a need for something less expensive and more accessible for students and music fans, so we developed a lower-cost high-fidelity earplug, sort of a one-size-fits-almost-everybody construction. Most recently, we introduced the same earplug with smaller "BabyBlues" eartips for the ten percent of the ears that the high fidelity earplugs won't fit properly.

5 CJM: What is the biggest obstacle in getting people to use hearing protection?

Killion: Its ironic that high school football players are provided with padded helmets and equipment. If they break a bone, their body will usually heal. The marching band and drumline players stand and practice for hours just like the football players, but they usually aren't provided with any hearing protection and, unlike football players, if a drummer damages their hearing it will be gone forever: Currently, there are no medical or surgical procedures to repair any of the 15,000 tiny hair cells in the inner ear. Fortunately, things are changing. Now in the Pittsburgh public schools, hearing protection is becoming "the" thing to do. They have a clinic called the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Musicians Hearing Clinic, and many schools provide Etymotic's HiFi Earplugs.

6 CJM: Doesn't Etymotic Research have a fundraising program for schools and non-profits?

Killion: Yes, in a sense. We support school band organizations that sell ER-20 HiFi earplugs as a fundraiser, instead of candy bars. With a quantity order, we will emboss the schools' name and website on the packaging. I suspect many musicians today wish their high-school band directors had been more involved with hearing protection. Etymotic Research goes to the band directors' Midwest Clinic each December in Chicago. With one exception, we've never met a band director over forty who doesn't have a serious hearing loss. A band director sits all day in a band/orchestra room made most of the time out of concrete, because the typical school system believes the band room should have a lot of reverberation, which dramatically increases the sound level the directors are subjected to.

7 CJM: Do you think people are becoming more aware of the importance of protecting their ears?

Killion: Yes, it is gradually happening. Even though some of the information regarding iPods is misdirected, it is helping people realize there is a problem. The problem with iPods comes up only when listening to an iPod in noise. With the common "open ear" earbuds, most listeners must turn the volume up too loud to be safe in order to overcome the noise of trains, plains, and busses. Fortunately, there is a solution: In a University research study of 100 subjects utilizing Etymotic's noise-isolating earphones, virtually everyone chose a safe listening level in noise.

8 CJM: How important is it for young kids to get tested?

Killion: Very important as a baseline reference. If you see a drop in hearing later on, you can start being much more careful with your ears. A temporary loss of hearing tends to become permanent with persistent exposure to the noise or music that caused the temporary loss. When you are exposed to sufficiently loud sound, the tiny hairs (stereocilia) on top of the hair cells inside your ears lose their shape and turn to spaghetti. When the body becomes aware of the damage, it sends in a rescue squad that delivers Bcl-2, glutathione, and other proteins to rescue the cell. If the damage is severe enough, the rescue attempt fails and you will be left with nothing but a scar where that hair cell was before. More often, the body can at least partially heal the hair cell, although those that are partially healed are not able to move as freely. In normal ears the sound will bend the hair cells over, causing little trap doors to open that allow potassium ions to flood into the cell so that it will fire and send signals to the brain. When the hairs get clumped together, the doors don't get fully opened and an often insufficient number of potassium ions get through to cause the hair cells to fire.

9 CJM: Is there a certain age associated with hearing loss?

Killion: No, there isn't. In one reported case, a baby was sitting in a car seat and a firecracker was tossed in the window and went off near the baby's right ear. That caused instant permanent hearing loss. More likely, however, loss occurs gradually over ten or twenty years of consistently being exposed to high levels of music or noise. The average person starts with 15,000 hair cells. If you lose ten hair cells a week, you won't have any left after twenty-eight years! You probably don't notice the lost of the first one to 2,000 hair cells, so you think there is no problem, but sooner or later you will lose enough to cause a serious, permanent, hearing loss. Most of the recent studies on hearing loss relate it not to age but rather to what you have done up until that age. It appears that the majority of hearing loss may be caused from years of not protecting your hearing. My brother and I are an example: We are both engineers and musicians, but I have always protected my ears and have normal hearing at age sixty-eight. He has a large high-frequency hearing loss from years of playing unprotected in rock bands and riding and repairing motorcycles without hearing protection. Years ago Pete Townshend was quoted as saying: "The real reason that I haven't performed for a long time is ... I've shot my hearing." And Ted Nugent added: "Pete Townshend has good hearing compared with me. My left ear is there just to balance my face, because it doesn't work at all." Ruben Gonzales, co-concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony years ago, had a fifty-five dB loss in his left ear (from playing a powerful violin) and normal hearing in his right ear. Charlie Geyer, who played trumpet sitting just to the left of the percussion in the Chicago Symphony for twelve years, said: "It creeps up on you. You don't know it's happening it's so slow, and then you find you are talking on the phone only with your left ear."

10 CJM: How loud is the sound at different clubs and concerts?

Killion: I always have a sound level meter with me. I know that at a certain famous blues club in town the sound level was a steady 108 dB the times I have been there. It is a good place for music and having the sound kick up to108 dB once in awhile is okay, but a steady dose of 108 dB is only safe for seven minutes before damage occurs. So if you drink your beer fast enough, you'll be fine, but most people don't do that. They sit in the noisy environment for hours. I have estimated that if you sit for a couple hours at 108 dB in a blues club, you probably will lose about 10 hair cells. That isn't a lot, but if you keep doing that pretty soon you will have enough damage to notice it. Interestingly enough, the ear overloads above a certain level, so some musicians report that they can hear better in performance once they try hearing protection. Two earplugs are high fidelity: the custom Musicians Earplugs, and the ready-fit ER-20 HiFi earplugs which provide nearly as good fidelity at a lower cost. I insert an ER-20 earplug in my left ear when I practice the violin. -CJM

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