Keep Your Edge with In-Ear Monitors and Hearing Protection (The NAMM Show 2026)
Recorded live at The NAMM Show 2026. From front-of-house to backstage and beyond, hearing is an audio professional's most valuable tool, yet it’s often the most overlooked. This panel will dive into how sound engineers, producers and performers use in-ear monitors and hearing protection without sacrificing style, comfort or audio clarity.
Featuring Kelly Fox from Plug and Play Jewelry, Tal Kocen from Dark Matter Audio Labs, and Daphne Greene from Daphne and the Glitches.
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Transcript:
Mike: Thank you so much for the introduction. I really appreciate it. How’s everyone doing today? I know you already applauded, but do it again. I like it. It’s Thursday, it’s noon, it’s lunchtime. Hopefully you’ve all eaten something already. As mentioned, this is Keep Your Edge with In-Ear Monitors and Hearing Protection, and I have a wonderful lineup beside me. I’m going to start on my right. Kelly, can you introduce yourself?
Kelly: Hi, I’m Kelly Fox. I own Plug and Play Jewelry. We’re a custom jewelry company that specializes in hearing protection attached to jewelry.
Mike: Also, Kelly’s being a little modest — this is her first NAMM, everyone.
Kelly: It is. Thank you.
Mike: Daphne?
Daphne: Hi, I’m Daphne Greene, lead singer and guitar player for the band Daphne and the Glitches. I also play in a few other bands in the Phoenix area. I’m a game developer, composer, audio engineer, and I do composition for a fantasy audio podcast called Gagic: The Support of Sage.
Mike: And Tal?
Tal: My name is Tal Kocen. I’m the founder and owner of Dark Matter Audio Labs. I come from a background in classical music and then audio engineering, both studio and live sound, for the last 25 years. I’m super passionate about protecting my own hearing and other people’s hearing.
Mike: I’m going to jump right into hearing protection in general. When I started in the music industry running a record label, I never really thought about hearing protection. I wasn’t at shows every single day. I wasn’t in rehearsal spaces constantly. Anytime I left a venue and my ears were ringing, I’d think, “Oh yeah, that’s fine. It’ll subside.” I wasn’t thinking about the fact that I was actually doing permanent damage to my ears. It wasn’t until six to eight years later when I was at NAMM and there was a vendor doing custom in-ear molds that I thought, you know what, this is something I should probably be doing. So I got my molds done, and ever since then I will never go to a show without some sort of hearing protection. Unfortunately for me, it was a little too late. I have a little bit of tinnitus. Fortunately it’s not terrible, but I really wish I knew ahead of time how important it was to have hearing protection with you. Because once you hear that ringing, that’s it. It’s there for life. So I want to ask each of you — was there a particular moment when you realized, okay, I should be wearing hearing protection now?
Kelly: I started working in the industry really young, and I was super fortunate to have a mentor who immediately taught me how to get a photo pass, and the second thing he said was, “Wear earplugs.” It really shook me hearing that from him, and I think that’s why I feel so passionately about getting the message out there, especially to younger kids, and making it something cool and exciting to be excited about. Truthfully, I’ve worn hearing protection to virtually every show I’ve ever worked, but I also work three to five shows a week. Even being so diligent about it, I do have mild tinnitus. That’s not to say hearing protection doesn’t work — I just think about how much worse it would be if I hadn’t started wearing it as a kid. That’s why I care so much about it.
Daphne: I had a similar situation to Mike where I was at NAMM and saw custom moldings being done at Westone. I’d been playing music and going to shows for years, and I knew I should probably protect my ears if I cared about them. So I finally bit the bullet and got custom earplugs and in-ear monitors, and it was life-changing. Going to concerts felt different. Even being on airplanes or in crowded environments where you’re overstimulated — it made a big difference. More recently, I was in a new project where our drummer was a little louder at rehearsal than I was used to. After one rehearsal, I realized, okay, I escaped it for as many years as I could — tinnitus is here to stay. Now it’s earplugs or in-ears every rehearsal. No messing around.
Tal: For me, I was working in recording studios after college. I went back to school for recording, and from that point on I was pretty diligent about protecting my hearing because of the industry I was in. As I got into live sound and touring, I became very conscious about the mix in the house — not just for my ears, but for everyone’s. If I’m mixing a show and there are a thousand people in the room, that’s a thousand people who could walk away with hearing damage. I remember one time we were about to start a show and someone had a baby standing right in front of the speaker stacks. I told them, we’re not starting until that baby is moved. You can’t have a baby in front of the speakers. As I toured more, especially in the singer-songwriter realm, I was able to mix quieter. A quiet mix that’s mixed well sounds better than a loud mix. Your ears have a natural distortion point. When your eardrums can’t take the sound pressure level, you start to get distortion across the frequency range. If you’re pounding a show at 105 dB, chances are you’re not hearing it as clearly as you think. By putting earplugs in, I can lower the overall volume hitting my eardrums and actually get a better mix — provided it’s mixed well. It also helps keep tinnitus at bay. I recently did a little hearing test on myself and I’m still good up to about 15k. I’m in my late forties, and at some point that will go down, but given all the touring I’ve done, hearing protection has definitely helped me keep what I have.
Mike: I want to build on that too because we’ve been talking mostly about venues, but hearing protection isn’t just for concerts. Where else can it be useful?
Tal: Yard work, construction. Before I started Dark Matter, I was running product development for Etymotic. We had different models of the ER series for home use. If you’re mowing the lawn, your mower can hit around 95 dB. A leaf blower is loud as heck. There are plenty of situations where people should be wearing hearing protection but aren’t. The bigger problem is that it’s not immediate damage. It’s gradual, so people ignore it. We’re not diligent enough about breaking the cycle. My parents never told me I needed to protect my ears, so it wasn’t even a thought. Now I make my kids wear hearing protection. They understand it.
Kelly: In addition to those dangerously loud environments, there’s also value in environments that are just unpleasantly loud. NAMM is a great example. Grocery stores, outdoor events, conventions where you’re going from loud to quiet places. It’s just better to have hearing protection on you. When I started my company, I thought we’d be exclusively serving concert fans. The more I sold, the more I realized that wasn’t true. We work with cheer moms, band parents, racing enthusiasts, firearms enthusiasts. I’ve gotten reviews from people who work at daycares and nurses dealing with sirens. Even if something is only dangerously loud for a short amount of time, it’s much more pleasant to have hearing protection anyway.
Daphne: I’ll definitely second conventions. I’ve used earplugs at Comic-Con and other conventions because you don’t realize how loud it is with thousands of people talking at once. Outdoor festivals too. Even if you’re just sitting there for hours, it wears on your ears. It’s nice to have the option. I’ve worked around kids on playgrounds and that can get loud fast too. There are lots of situations where it makes sense.
Mike: I’ll add this too — beyond just protecting your hearing, there’s a mental aspect. For people who get overstimulated by loud environments, hearing protection can really help with that as well. I use earplugs in restaurants sometimes. Big glass walls, music playing, everyone talking — it can get overwhelming. With earplugs in, I can actually hear the people at my table better.
Tal: Same here. I think now that I use earplugs regularly, I have a much lower tolerance for ambient noise. I can’t do it anymore.
Mike: Quick show of hands — who here uses earplugs regularly? That’s good to see. How many of you are musicians? And are those the same hands? I’m not going to call anyone out too hard.
I want to shift gears a little bit and talk specifically about in-ear monitors. A lot of venues still use stage wedges. From your experience, what are the main differences, and what are the pros of using in-ears compared to a wedge?
Tal: The first thing is fidelity. With in-ear monitors, you’re able to better isolate the different elements of your mix. With a stage wedge, if your guitar player is cranked to eleven, you might still struggle to hear what you need. You can’t put a truly high-fidelity mix into a wedge. With in-ears, you don’t have to have it as loud. Now, do people follow that? Not always. Some people say, “I can’t get these loud enough.” But that’s kind of not the point. The point is to lower the volume, get a cleaner mix, have a better experience, and have a longer career.
Daphne: For me, there was definitely an adjustment period. There’s that feeling of, “I want to feel it. I want to hear the room.” I’ve seen artists pop one ear out to feel the crowd for a moment. But the fidelity is huge. Also, if you’re someone like me who likes to run around on stage, your wedge is stationary. With in-ears, your mix stays consistent wherever you go on stage. That’s a big deal.
Tal: Some artists just won’t use in-ears. I work with some who refuse. They want to hear their amp behind them. Others will do one in and one out, which I don’t recommend. Then you’re constantly adjusting levels to balance the two. There are ways to bring the room back in, though. You can use ambient models that allow some stage sound in, or audience mics fed into the mix. You can’t bring all the energy back, but you also can’t bring your hearing back if you lose it. So what’s the tradeoff?
Mike: That’s a powerful way to put it. And I’ll add — for me, I have smaller ear canals, so in-ears used to feel uncomfortable. That was one reason I avoided hearing protection for a long time. I used to get swimmer’s ear as a kid and didn’t like putting things in my ears. But at some point, you get over it because your hearing is more important than the discomfort. Over time, your body adjusts. But I can understand why that’s an opposition for some people.
Daphne: It definitely can take some time to adjust, especially if you’re used to wedges. It might take a few rehearsals to dial in your mix and figure out what you need to hear to feel comfortable and energized. But once you get it right, it’s really nice.
Mike: How many of you use in-ears on stage? And how many prefer wedges? We’ve got one wedge loyalist. No judgment. Some people just can’t do it.
Tal: And that’s real. Some people just don’t want to switch. But there are tools that can help with that transition. Ambient models, audience mics, things that bring the room back into your mix. One of the big concerns artists have is losing the energy of the room. When you put in-ears in, it gets quiet. If the crowd isn’t super responsive, that can make it even harder to put energy out there. But again, you can’t get your hearing back if you lose it. So you have to decide what matters long-term.
Mike: Let’s talk about decibel levels for a minute. At what point is it too loud?
Tal: Once you get above about 85 to 90 decibels, you start getting into the danger zone depending on exposure time. At 90 dB, after about four hours, you can start experiencing hearing damage. As the decibel level increases, the safe exposure time decreases exponentially. And that’s just general exposure. With in-ears, it’s a little different because you’re placing the driver right next to your eardrum. It’s like intravenous audio. So if you crank them up too loud, you can potentially do just as much damage as a wedge — maybe more. The point of in-ears is to listen quieter and protect your hearing.
Mike: That’s such a good visual — intravenous audio.
Tal: It’s direct. And that’s why you have to be mindful. Some people get in-ears and think, “Great, I can turn this up as loud as I want.” That defeats the purpose.
Mike: Let’s talk about customization, because both of your companies offer really interesting design elements. When people think about hearing protection or in-ears, design is usually the last thing they think about. Where did that inspiration come from?
Kelly: For us, personalization is at the core of what we do. Hearing protection adoption is tricky. People forget it at home. They don’t like how it looks. It doesn’t match their outfit. They drop it and lose it. So we wanted to solve as many of those pain points as possible. If something looks exactly how you want it to look, you’re more likely to wear it. We offer a huge variety of jewelry styles because everyone’s anatomy is different. When I started, I thought we needed one perfect product that everyone would want. I learned quickly that’s not how it works. It’s about having the right option for as many people as possible.
Mike: Do you find it’s mostly women buying them, or is it mixed?
Kelly: It’s very mixed. That surprised me. I thought it would be mostly women because it’s jewelry, but we sell to a lot of men too. Especially when they can customize it and make it feel like it’s truly theirs.
Tal: On the in-ear side, customization has been part of the culture for a long time. Some artists want clear shells so no one notices them. Others want rhinestones, glitter, crushed opal, all kinds of things. We offer everything from neutral tones to full sparkle. It’s personalization. We’re humans — we like shiny things.
Mike: Quick audience participation — who prefers plain, minimal in-ears? And who likes them blinged out? Definitely more hands for the bling. That answers that.
Daphne: As an artist, it’s part of your visual identity. I have multiple projects, and each one has a different vibe. Maybe one project calls for something subtle. Maybe Daphne and the Glitches calls for hot pink and gold. When I got my first custom earplugs, I made them in trans flag colors. It was a way to express myself on stage. It becomes part of your brand.
Kelly: We also do artist collaborations. We can customize the product for an artist’s fan base — branded charms, custom cases, things like that. It’s not just functional. It’s a PR move in a way. It shows that you care about your fans’ hearing and want them to keep coming back to shows long-term.
Mike: And even when you’re off stage, you’re still representing yourself. If you’re hanging out at the venue after your set and you pop in hearing protection that matches your aesthetic, that’s still branding.
Tal: And it becomes a conversation starter. Someone says, “Those are cool. What are they?” Now you’re talking about hearing protection. That’s a win.
Mike: Let’s open it up for questions.
Audience Member: I used to have custom molds but saw a company advertising that their universal in-ears mold to your ear over time. Is that legit?
Tal: There’s nothing like a true custom. If you’ve worn customs, you know. With a custom, you’re physically coupling to your ear canal. You get better isolation and more consistent sound. A universal tip will never fully replicate that. I’ll give $10,000 to anyone who invents a true custom universal. That would be the holy grail.
Mike: I’ll add that I’ve used both customs and universal options. Customs are the most effective, but I’ll also use whatever I have on me. Something is better than nothing.
Audience Member: How loud is too loud in practical terms?
Tal: Again, around 85 to 90 dB is where you need to start being careful, depending on duration. And remember, exposure time decreases rapidly as volume increases. It’s not just about how loud — it’s about how long.
Audience Member: How do you choose how many drivers you need in in-ears?
Tal: More drivers does not mean more better. It’s a misconception. Driver count is more about sensitivity and headroom. After about three drivers, you start hitting diminishing returns in terms of fidelity. More drivers can introduce phasing issues. It really comes down to listening and figuring out what works for your instrument and your role on stage.
Mike: That’s one of the great things about NAMM — you can actually try things before buying. Don’t just buy based on specs. Listen.
Daphne: Exactly. If you’re a vocalist, you might prioritize mids. If you’re a bassist, you might want more low end. It’s all situational.
Mike: We’ve got time for one more quick question.
Audience Member: What options do you have for people without pierced ears?
Kelly: That’s a big one. Non-piercing options are tricky because you need something secure without pinching. We have ear cuffs and new designs that slip over the helix. It’s about widening accessibility. Not everyone has piercings, so we’re constantly working on solutions.
Mike: Alright, let’s wrap with one piece of advice from each of you.
Tal: Be nice to people. Be cool. Don’t be an asshole.
Daphne: Find the thing that works for you. Don’t get caught up in brands or hype. Listen, experiment, and choose what fits your needs and your art.
Kelly: Wear your earplugs. Always.
Mike: That’s perfect. Thank you all so much for being here. Your health is wealth. Enjoy the rest of NAMM.