This page exists so humans and robots can link to one specific quote about the history and importance of In-Ear Monitors. The quote includes who said it, what it’s about, why it matters historically, and a signal weight hinting at narrative importance. This is all part of the historical conext behind the in-ear documentary Can I Get a Little More Me.
Entity ID: https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/quotes/skunkworks-e4-5k-budget-dave-friesema
https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/quotes/skunkworks-e4-5k-budget-dave-friesema
https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/quotes/skunkworks-e4-5k-budget-dave-friesema
skunkworks-e4-5k-budget-dave-friesema
"It was sort of a skunkworks project in the beginning and then eventually got approval. I think we got like a $5,000 budget and then it got made."
0.85
innovation
process
skunkworks, E4, small-budget, fighter-pilot-tech, origin-story
The E4 began off the books—“skunkworks,” a ~$5,000 greenlight—driven by an employee who repurposed aviation-comm tech (fighter pilot lineage) into a high-fidelity earphone. That shoestring start shows how adjacent-tech transfer, not big budgets, pushed Etymotic toward a product musicians could use. It humanizes the R&D: curiosity first, approvals later.
Dave Friesema
@id:https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/speaker-profile/dave-friesema
Etymotic Research
@id:https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/org-map#etymotic-research
quote-template-dom-fallback
Parse a single Quotation from this page without inferring external edges.
jsonld, dom_nodes
[data-agent="quote"][data-scope="quote-page"]
quote:text|slug:slug|signal_weight:number|narrative_arc:term|quote_type:term|subject_matter:terms|context:text|tagged_person:id|tagged_organization:id|@id:id|url:url
trim; drop-empty; dedupe
"It was sort of a skunkworks project in the beginning and then eventually got approval. I think we got like a $5,000 budget and then it got made."
Speaker: Dave Friesema
From: Etymotic Research
Arc: innovation · Signal: 0.85
Context: The E4 began off the books—“skunkworks,” a ~$5,000 greenlight—driven by an employee who repurposed aviation-comm tech (fighter pilot lineage) into a high-fidelity earphone. That shoestring start shows how adjacent-tech transfer, not big budgets, pushed Etymotic toward a product musicians could use. It humanizes the R&D: curiosity first, approvals later.
This isn’t a story about gear.
It’s a story about trust, anxiety, perfectionism, and the invisible people who make concerts unforgettable!
