Ronnie Madra, founder and CEO of EAROS, joined Cheddar News to discuss his company's products for affordable hearing protection, especially ahead of the New Year's festivities.

The Benefits of Wearing Hearing Protection

well the world is about to turn up the volume and many of us will celebrate the arrival of 2023 with parties, music and fireworks. Events that could get loud even perhaps to some unsafe levels. So according to the cbc noise above 70 decibels, that's the sound of a vacuum cleaner for a prolonged period of time can damage your hearing. Loud noises above 100 and 20 decibels can cause immediate harm. That's the average level of fireworks turns out. So joining me now is Ronnie Madre, founder, inventor and Ceo Heroes, a hearing protection company, Ronnie fitting that we are chatting before the holiday. I know your product promising to offer protection while fully enabling the sound experience of an event or an outdoor concert. Tell me how it works. Um It's it's all about engineering and design of the product and sorry, I get ahead of myself, I would say thank you for having me on the show. Um So with some of our acoustic and vibration engineers at M. I. T. We created a product that actually can really function stay in place and actually um allow you to hear the music or the sound while still protecting your hearing and the science, basically, it's just engineering and design its acoustic sound bar gasket, a resident cavity, an inlet. I mean there's all these various little different aspects of the product that makes it really special. There's seven parts to it and we have a fully designed and utility patent already approved for the U. S. So Ronnie talked to me about how someone might use this for New Year's Eve being surrounded by people at parties, loud music and of course even fireworks. That's a good question. Um you know the fact that it mitigates hearing damage and it actually prevents the acoustic hangover. I think it's one of the really cool things about the product and it still looks stylish, so it's kind of sleek and it feels almost like you're wearing something very uh you know, fashionable. And so I think for the user who, you know, who are wearing, who's wearing this product that they're going to an event or a party, they want to protect their here and they want to still communicate, they want to hear the music and they want to get closer to the experience. And I think that's how it's really going to be beneficial to the wearer. So obviously it sounds like it's preventative. The earbuds, Ronnie and the technology. What about for someone who's already experienced hearing loss? Is is there a way that the products can benefit those people? Yeah. You know, hearing damage, you know, once it happens it doesn't, it's irreparable unfortunately. Um, I suffer from tinnitus right now, but you know what I am doing by wearing the product or wearing custom um, hearing protection or product heroes is that I'm actually uh I'm not incurring more damage, basically. I'm not putting myself in more risk. So I'm protecting what I have because eventually my hearing is going to fade as I get older. But because of our lifestyles, we're always pushing the envelope And I do feel that in a variable technology is very unhealthy. So I want to pull up this full screen that we were just showing because we've talked about some of the obvious use cases, right? Allowed concert, fireworks, things of that nature. But I see according to it appears like a web MD, even the subway. Uh, this subway is above a harmful level. And I think about people who commute on the subway at least twice a day here in new york city that adds up over time. What would you recommend to those, those subway users? Um, I think, uh, the first product we, we have on the market, uh, heroes one is basically for people like to listen to music that don't want to compromise the nuances of the, of the acoustics or the vibe or the track basically. Right? You want to hear the, the music and all its beautiful splendor. Um, if you're on the subway, you know, I think you should wear like an earplug, you know, which just blocks it all out. But you know, our products are engineered for social environments. Our second product, which is out on the market right now we built it for motorsports and for people to like call it soul cycle or barry's bootcamp, loud sporting events is called Eurosport and that's a little more sexier and you know, more sleeker and has a higher DB protection. You can wear that in the subway, You can wear that in a loud city like new york walking around the city and you know, hearing the sirens and jack cameras, which, you know, it's really annoying. It is annoying in terms of replacement Ronnie. What's the average use life of these products? Well, we're made from medical grade composites. Um, we engineered it in the US at top medical device manufacturer, so it's not disposable. So, you know, but most earplugs, right? And we don't consider ourselves an earplug because we're not disposable. We're more of a high fidelity hearing protection equipment. Is that earplugs are disposable, right? You wear them once you throw them out and end up in the landfill or in the whale's belly or something like this. And you know, it's not a real effective product. I do feel that eros is the, is the answer to the sustainability question, if that's on the, we got to leave it there Ronnie. But I also appreciate you joining of course. Timely ahead of the New Year's Eve holiday. That's Ronnie, Madre, founder, inventor and Ceo of Heroes