The New Yorker entrepreneur Ronnie Madra has made it his mission to save our hearing. His stylish EAROS ONE is a sleek and comfortable way to protect your ears in places where the decibel levels can soar while still enabling full enjoyment of music and communication with those around you.

The choice is no longer to stay away or just to accept the inevitable ear damage. Instead, with EAROS ONE securely in place you’re safe to enjoy an immersive clubbing or concert experience. The music still cuts through but it doesn’t cut through you. As an entrepreneur, who has spent years in the entertainment and music industry and co-founder of the leading international nightclubs (e.g., 1 OAK and Up&Down), Madra really believes that now is the time to take hearing protection much more seriously – and to a next level. He has suffered himself from tinnitus and attributes this to a long-term exposure to excessive noise. That, as well as similar stories from friends and colleagues, is what has driven him to develop a superior solution to protect those in loud recreational environments – he understands just how much hearing loss can limit the lives of those affected.

Anyone who’s a regular in the entertainment industry knows only too well how many venues have the decibel levels cranked up to the max. Such levels can and do cause long-term damage to your hearing. Yes, the noise can be part of the fun of a memorable night out. However, taking the simple step of wearing EAROS ONE can make a measurable difference in guarding against long-lasting damage without detracting from the experience.

So, what does EAROS ONE actually do?

It protects our ears’ natural listening system through an acoustic filter that provides up to 25dB of noise reduction. While doing this, the passive technology, which was designed by top audiologists and vibration engineers, ensures that the clarity of the music and quality of acoustics remain intact. There’s no loss of fidelity and all the elements that make up the sound maintain their integrity. It’s a sophisticated technology, comfortable to wear and designed by experts to let the user “stay safe in sound” for a longer period. It can make a night out (and the following morning) much better by preventing what Madra and his team call an “acoustical hangover”. In addition, by filtering out excessive noise, it’s easy to communicate clearly with those around you.
Underpinning the EAROS ONE brand is a determination to protect the hearing of future generations. Users of the product are doing their bit to send out a message that hearing health matters and that something simple can really make a big difference. With research showing the many consequences of damaged hearing like social isolation, early-onset dementia and cardiovascular disease (to name just a few), it surely makes sense to build awareness of the risks associated with having a good time, and the existence of this breakthrough technology that offers a superior way to protect yourself.

I’ve met Ronnie Madra in New York to speak about his story, as well as his vision and ambitious motivations for EAROS ONE.

Ronnie, how do you persuade those who say “hearing loss is never going to happen to me…”?

I learned the hard way that once you have hearing loss it’s disturbing your everyday life. Sadly, most people don’t understand this until it’s far too late. All the medical research reveals that too much exposure to loud noise causes permanent and irreparable damage to your hearing. It’s a fact.

Tell me more about the well-being and health aspect of EAROS and its technology. Would you consider it a breakthrough in this sector?

We do feel this a major health & wellness advancement for the entertainment and hospitality industry. Creating a breakthrough high-fidelity product that people actually want to wear while socializing and enjoying music will alter the course of hearing health for millennials and GenZ. They’re the ones at major risk under the status quo.

What’s your vision for the future of EAROS when it comes to awareness, especially among the younger generation?

We see two parts to the equation when it comes to embracing this product. First, people must fully understand the health risks they are taking when exposing themselves to loud noise without adequate hearing protection. Second, there must be the awareness that EAROS achieves this protection without sacrificing fidelity through a cool, exciting brand that people want to be seen wearing.

What does your vision look like for EAROS over the next couple of years?

Our company’s mission is to protect the world’s ears while enabling people to keep doing what they love, socially and professionally. EAROS ONE is our first product and allows those who work and play in loud recreational environments (concerts, nightclubs, sporting events, fitness classes) to protect their hearing and still enjoy the full spectrum of sound frequencies in those loud settings. Our aim is for people to understand the importance of protecting their hearing in loud environments.

Where does the responsibility lie for the creation of unsafe decibel levels?

As an operator of loud hospitality venues and an events producer myself, I know the responsibility lies firmly in the hand of the venue owners, operators, and managers to provide a safe environment for their workers and patrons. This means giving quality hearing protection equipment to staff and making it readily available for patrons. Ultimately, it’s the individual’s decision whether to wear hearing protection, but venues must make it easy to access for everyone in their space. And it is not enough just to just offer cheap, disposable foam earplugs as they wreck effective communication between workers and ruin the experience for patrons.

What steps should club businesses, concert halls and other entertainment venues take themselves?

At EAROS we work with leading nightclubs, live music, sports venues, and fitness companies to offer premium hearing protection to their employees and patrons. However, loud recreational venues need to spread awareness about the importance of protecting your ears — people need to know the risks they are taking when entering a loud venue and understand that there is a great hearing protection solution without sacrificing the experience.

What’s next after EAROS ONE?

We have very ambitious plans. After addressing the hospitality, entertainment, and sports market with EAROS ONE, we are developing superior hearing protection products for military, aviation, construction, and several other applications.

Thank you, Ronnie Madra.

Above all, EAROS ONE demonstrates that sound can be made much safer without compromising the joyful experience of live music or a night of clubbing. By engineering a design that works at an affordable price point and by building a culturally relevant brand, EAROS ONE has developed into a product with a tremendous potential impact.