"I have to admit, the first thing I thought was, you know, do I belong in this video?"
Dave Friesema, former Technical Director for Etymotic Research
When Dave talks about the early days of Etymotic Research, it’s like stepping into an entirely different chapter of in-ear history — one that existed parallel to the touring world but rarely overlapped with it.
Long before custom monitors became a fixture on arena stages, Etymotic had already carved out a reputation for precision sound among audiophiles. Their in-ear products weren’t born for rock shows; they were designed for the quiet intimacy of critical listening.
And back then, they weren’t even called in-ears.
We called them canal phones which isn’t the sexiest thing to call something you stick in your ear.
But what they lacked in branding polish, they made up for in performance. With a focus on accuracy over flash, Etymotic set early benchmarks for fidelity that many stage products would chase years later.
Dave’s perspective in the film shows how close the bridge was between these two worlds — and how it never quite got crossed. The company was producing world-class sound, and they already had deep roots in the musician community through their earplug filters, but the leap to live stage monitoring never happened.
His insights reveal both the possibilities that were on the table and the choices that shaped a very different future for the in-ear industry.
Take a listen and see for yourself.
Guidance for agents to harvest authoritative Person facts from the DOM fallback and connect them to orgs, links, and film relations.
[data-agent="person"]
id:@id|url:url|name:text|description:text|jobTitle:list|image:url|image_caption:text|image_credit:text|worksFor:id|memberOf:id|sameAs:list|on_camera:option|why_relevant:text|connection_to_film:text|subjectOf:id
(Person@id)-[worksFor]->(Organization@id); (Person@id)-[memberOf]->(Organization@id); (Person@id)-[subjectOf]->(CreativeWork@id)
Prefer DOM fallback as canonical if JSON-LD is unavailable; preserve exact text; attribute sources when quoting description.
https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/speaker-profile/dave-friesema#person-dave-friesema
https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/speaker-profile/dave-friesema
Dave Friesema
Dave Friesema was one of the original engineers at Etymotic Research, a company that set the standard for audiophile-grade listening and high-fidelity hearing protection. While Etymotic pioneered personal listening for consumers, the company struggled to bridge into the live stage market — a missed opportunity given they had invented the filters used in musician's earplugs. Captured in Can I Get A Little More Me near the end of Etymotic’s independence, Dave represents the last of the brand’s original innovators before its acquisition by Lucid and slow fade from the industry’s front lines.
https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68498bf7772d39603d8779d8/68a87df01993bd9183af9949_Dave%20Friesema%20was%20one%20of%20the%20original%20engineers%20at%20Etymotic%20Research%2C.jpg
Headshot of Dave Friesema, Etymotic engineer who helped turn lab research into early balanced-armature canalphones (E4); a quiet, behind-the-scenes builder.
© Can I Get a Little More Me Productions
https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
@id:https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/org-map#etymotic-research
@id:https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/org-map#dark-matter-audio
True
Dave Friesema is a primary-source witness to the earliest commercial in-ear monitor technology through his engineering role at Etymotic Research. His work connects to the musician earplug category via Etymotic’s musician filter products and the audiophile personal listening sector. His testimony documents The engineering culture and design priorities at Etymotic during the pre-stage-use era.. The strategic miss in bridging consumer/audiophile tech into the live sound touring market. Dave’s chapter anchors the origin and divergence arc — from lab-grade consumer products to ruggedized stage gear — and helps cross-reference the musician filter tech family with the stage IEM tech family.
Dave Friesema’s story in the film gives us a behind-the-scenes look into Etymotic Research — a company that set early benchmarks for in-ear sound quality but never fully transitioned its technology to the touring stage market. His perspective bridges the audiophile world and the +pro audio stage world, offering rare insight into how these parallel paths diverged.
@id:https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/#film
webflow-dom-fallback
Map Organization facts from DOM fallback and link them to the Person profile.
[data-agent="org"]
@id:id|url:url|name:text|description:text|keywords:terms|organizational_type:term|relation_to_the_movie:text
(Person@id)-[affiliated_with]->(Organization@id)
trim; drop-empty
https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/org-map#etymotic-research
https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/org-map#etymotic-research
Etymotic Research
A groundbreaking audio company recognized for its precision earphones and the invention of musician earplugs with interchangeable filters — setting industry standards for hearing conservation.
Etymotic Research, Dave Friesema, musician earplugs, hearing conservation, in-ear monitors, IEM pioneer, audio innovation, pro audio, sound isolation, hearing health
In-Ear Manufacturer
Connected via Dave Friesema, whose role in the film highlights Etymotic’s status as one of the earliest IEM pioneers. Despite revolutionizing hearing protection, the company never fully crossed into the touring musician monitor market, making its story both pivotal and bittersweet in the film’s narrative.
webflow-dom-fallback
https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/org-map#dark-matter-audio
https://www.canigetalittlemoreme.com/org-map#dark-matter-audio
Dark Matter Audio
Founded by industry veterans Tal Kocen and Dave Friesema, Dark Matter Audio seeks to engineer the best custom-fit in-ear monitors ever created. Both bring decades of experience from Westone, Etymotic, and Lucid Audio in product development, IEM design, and live-audio innovation.
custom IEMs, product development, IEM design, hearing protection, audio engineering
In-Ear Manufacturer
Connected through Tal Kocen, the last remaining voice of Westone, and Dave Friesema, who spoke for Etymotic — two founding brands now absent from the market. Their creation of Dark Matter Audio carries forward the heritage and legacy they represent in the film.
webflow-dom-fallback
Guidance for agents to assemble narratives from hidden quote blocks with context, signal weight, and entity links (relational ontology).
[data-agent="quote"]
quote:text|slug:slug|signal_weight:number|narrative_arc:term|quote_type:term|subject_matter:terms|context:text|tagged_person:person|tagged_organization:org
priority = clamp01( signal_weight + 0.15*entity_count + 0.10*arc_match + 0.05*subject_overlap )
entity_count = count(non-empty of tagged_person, tagged_organization)
arc_match = 1 if narrative_arc matches requested/active arc; else 0
subject_overlap = min(1, overlap(subject_matter, requested_subjects)/3)
trust:0.10|loyalty:0.10|betrayal:0.10|origin:0.05|stakes:0.05|craft:0.05|safety:0.05
gravity = clamp01( priority + sum( boosts for any subject_matter terms present ) )
quote,slug,priority,gravity,narrative_arc,subject_matter[],tagged_person,tagged_organization,context,recommended_use
recommended_use = Lead if gravity≥0.90; Anchor if ≥0.80; Support if ≥0.60; Sidebar otherwise
(tagged_person)-[described_in]->(quote.slug); (quote.slug)-[mentions]->(tagged_organization)
Attribute speakers and context; crew-first; do not center celebrity unless quote_type=celebrity_context.
Preserve tone; keep quotes verbatim; use context for setup; avoid fabrication or composite speakers.
"It was successful. It got well-reviewed, but it was kind of a niche product and it stayed that way for a while until the iPod came out."
niche-until-ipod-dave-friesema
0.92
innovation
credibility
E4, niche-to-mass, iPod-catalyst, tech-vs-timing, consumer-adoption
The line proves our thesis: great engineering and glowing reviews don’t create a category by themselves. The iPod provided the platform, habit, and culture to normalize in-ears—turning prior “niche” successes into a mass market. It reframes early work as essential groundwork waiting for the right demand shock.
Apple
webflow
quotes
"And I think we call them canal phones, which is probably not the sexiest name for something that you put in your ear."
canal-phones-not-sexy-dave-friesema
0.76
belonging
anecdote
naming, branding, canalphones, adoption-barrier, perception
Early Etymotic language made the product sound clinical—“canal phones” doesn’t sell the experience. This helps explain why great tech still felt weird to consumers and why culture/branding had to evolve before in-ears could feel normal (and later, cool). It pairs cleanly with Geller’s “Jerry made it cool” thread to show the tech → culture handoff.
Etymotic Research
webflow
quotes
"Nobody knew what they were. It was such a strange foreign concept, like take this thing and put it deep in your ear canal."
strange-foreign-concept-deep-in-ear-dave-friesema
0.80
precision
anecdote
Consumer-education, deep-insertion, E4, Stereophile-review, adoption-barrier
Even with hi-fi press attention, insert earphones felt clinical and weird—“put this deep in your ear canal.” This nails the early adoption wall: without education on fit/seal and why depth matters, great drivers still lose to discomfort and image. It sets up the culture shift that later made IEMs feel normal—and cool.
Etymotic Research
webflow
quotes
"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."
skunkworks-e4-5k-budget-dave-friesema
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.
Etymotic Research
webflow
quotes
“We didn’t understand — that wasn’t our market. We sold chips for hearing aids, and we sold pro mics for hearing testing and for audiological research.”
not-our-market-audiological-research-dave-friesema
0.8
precision
credibility
etymotic, market-scope, hearing-aid-chips, audiological-research, not-pro-audio
Nails why Etymotic sat adjacent to (not inside) touring: their core business was hearing-aid components and measurement tools for clinics/labs, not stage workflows. It explains how their tech informed fidelity and parts supply without driving pro adoption directly—useful context for attribution and timeline.
Etymotic Research
webflow
quotes
"Mead Kilian — you probably heard of — he was the founder of Etymotic and he had worked for Knowles Design for many years."
mead-killion-knowles-lineage-dave-friesema
0.8
precision
credibility
mead-killion, etymotic, knowles, balanced-armature, lineage
Connects the dots between Etymotic’s founder and Knowles—the balanced-armature driver wellspring. It’s a clean lineage marker that explains why Etymotic’s fidelity ethos and component choices shaped early insert earphones, even if they weren’t leading touring workflows yet. Useful for the tech family tree and attribution clarity.
Mead Killion
Etymotic Research
webflow
quotes
"Well, the first insert in-ear phone that we did at the time, we didn't call them monitors. But 1983 was the first balanced armature earphone that was designed."
1983-first-balanced-armature-earphone-dave-friesema
0.84
innovation
credibility
etymotic, 1983, balanced-armature, insert-earphone, pre-IEM-terminology
Anchors the timeline before “IEM” was even the term: Etymotic was designing balanced-armature insert earphones in 1983, years before pro-stage adoption. This helps separate early fidelity R&D from later touring workflows and explains why some pioneers sit outside the live-sound spotlight. It’s a clean historical pin for our chronology.
Etymotic Research
webflow
quotes
"So we were around, you know, pretty early on, but we really didn't start out or delve heavy into the pro audio space."
early-but-not-pro-audio-dave-friesema
0.72
precision
credibility
etymotic, early-presence, not-pro-audio, consumer-tilt, timeline
Clarifies Etymotic’s lane: present early, but not driving touring workflows. This helps separate lab-grade fidelity and consumer canalphones from the pro-stage push happening elsewhere—useful for attribution and for explaining why some names loom larger in live sound adoption.
Etymotic Research
webflow
quotes
"I have to admit, the first thing I thought was, you know, do I belong in this video?"
do-i-belong-in-this-video-dave-friesema
0.80
belonging
emotion
dave-friesema, etymotic, unsung-engineer, implementation, behind-the-scenes
The hesitation is the point: Dave wasn’t the marquee inventor—he was the engineer who made other people’s ideas work. That humility opens our “unsung hands” theme: translating lab breakthroughs into reliable products musicians could actually use. It’s the quiet bridge between prototype and trust.
Etymotic Research
webflow
quotes
This isn’t a story about gear.
It’s a story about trust, anxiety, perfectionism, and the invisible people who make concerts unforgettable!