Woops!! I may have damaged my ears!

[amazingtrade]

I was listening to a song at on CD at 1:00 o'clock position and I went into the other side of the house (its a long house) and I could hear every word of it leaking out from my headphones. I have no idea how loud it was but it must be have been about 120db!+.

Has anybody here ever damaged their ears due to loud music?

 

[saddam]

Nope but i damaged them about a week and a half ago by cleaning with a cotton bud :saw: Still cant hear now except for a hissing noise ...........................

 

[davidcotton]

Originally posted by amazingtrade
I was listening to a song at on CD at 1:00 o'clock position and I went into the other side of the house (its a long house) and I could hear every word of it leaking out from my headphones. I have no idea how loud it was but it must be have been about 120db!+.

Has anybody here ever damaged their ears due to loud music?

Are the phillips open or closed headphones? Never ceases to amaze me the amount of leakage coming out of those cack little in ear phones that get given away with walkmans.

My right ear is a little duff, probably due to too many rock concerts, infections when younger etc.

Best advice is to back off the listening a bit to give em time to heal up, and also to go see a specialist if your at all concerned.

 

[amazingtrade]

Lol no these are quite expensive and decent headphone, they are Philips HP890 they have 50mm drivers. They sound much better than the any sub £100 senhiesers I've heared.

http://www.hifichoice.co.uk/review_read.asp?ID=1572

They are open back. A lot of people on headfi have said they sound on par with the Senhieser HD600 although a they produce a different sound. In fact its these headphones that made me realise what a load of rubbish branding is, i.e if these Headphones had the Marantz badge on I bet they would have been sold for quite a bit more than £65.

P.S I realise by the standards here a £60 pair of phones is not expensive!

 

[felix]

Unfortunately its very, very easy to damage your hearing with music and headphones. It'a all about intensity.

Have a look at health&safety regs for a clue. 80-85dB(A) for 8 hours a day is thought to cause no more hearing loss than aging alone would produce. Up the intensity, and the time allowed drops dramatically; at 97dB(A), we're talking 3 minutes allowable on this criterion! (reference)

The problem with headphones is that distortion is so low, and you have no external cues, that 'loud' doesn't sound like LOUD. But the damage is done all the same, and headphones allow 100dB(A) easily, whereas sustaining levels of 95dB(A) via speakers is PARTY LOUD. Scary fact: thanks to the walkmen of this world, the current generation of 15-20 year olds have hearing that, when they reach their parents age, will be aged an excess 30 years (ie 70+ yr old equivalent). I have references for this somewhere too...

The really bad news: no matter where excess levels happens in the audible spectrum, the damage happens first always starts with diminishing sensitivity in the range covering speech consonants (1khz-4khz); it's called presbycusis, and it's non-reversible. Eh? wot? didn't catch that bit.

The good news is that noise-induced temporary threshold shifts (when you can't hear sh*t for a couple of hours after leaving the club) after periods of excess volume are largely reversible; but this effect does not allow you to get away with going clubbing repeatedly. If your ears are ringing the next morning... there's probably some sensitivity lost. :-(

Take care of your hearing; it's not repairable. A good trick is to rub your finger and thumb together just next to the top of your pinna ( outer ear). If you can't hear it, the sound is probably too loud for prolonged exposure (>85db(A)).

Felix

(who uses headphones and horn-loaded loudspeakers...)

 

[Mr.C]

Erm, you seem prone to a little exaggeration, amazingtrade. You do realise how loud 120dB actually is? Your 'phones couldn't reproduce anywhere near these levels....putting it into perspective, 120dB is the loudest ever recorded sound pressure levels at a live performance, which was by Judas Priest.

 

[felix]

There's a world of difference between peak and average though. It's the mean level that does the damage - that's where the bulk of the energy lies.

120dB+ average is jetplane-at-takeoff levels; 122dB transients I can produce at the vents of my Impulse H5s driven by just a Nait2; by the time I move back to my seat the meter 'only' reads 106-108dB peaks. Still bloody loud, but not the same at all, since most recorded music has a dynamic range (peak:mean) of >20-30dB - although this may only be 8-10dB for really compressed rock and rap recordings!

As an aside, my Senn. HD565s quote 97dB/1mW sensitivty and powerhandling of 200mW - implying a peak capability of 120dB!Having built a bunch of experimental headphone amps I do know that 10mW is more than enough for all purposes.

Felix

 

[themadhippy]

aye wot someone say something? speek up ya young wiper snapper, and stop whispering.
The olny time i had any hearing proplems was standing underneath the side fills at a who gig,there was a constant whisling in my ears for sevral days after,my own fault,id left my ear plugs elsewere.

the loudest ever recorded sound pressure levels at a live performance, which was by Judas Priest

erm what about the 152db measured at the foh position during an indoor orbital gig in han(g)over,

 

[angi73]

some of those loony people who pointlessly enter soundoffs in their cars have hit as much as 170db. These cars are lined with concrete and have re-enforced windows! They are operated by remote control and a soundmeter measures the output. The're no good to drive of course

Strikes me as really really pointless, but i guess you do it because you can! http://www.iascauk.com/

 

[greg]

I have a real earwax problem. A) it protects my hearing, B) I cant hear properly so whats the point of the protection? Anyone else have this issue?

 

[greg]

The sound system at the Hac was probably the start of my troubles. DJing for 12 years the conclusion.

 

[scoop]

Greg - so that explains your signature. Have been wondering about the reference to the Hacienda for a while!

 

[lloydsj]

I went into the other side of the house (its a long house) and I could hear every word of it leaking out from my headphones

If you could still hear your cans, then I'm guessing there is not too much wrong with your hearing.

 

[Joolsburger]

I'm thoroughly worried now. I aquired a nice little portable headphone system of a Sony D303, Headsave amplifier and AT EM7 clip on phones, it's very loud indeed and as I can't get on with in ear phones I tend to crank it up on the way to work.
This pisses off other travellers but I didn't realise short exposure could also leave me deaf!

Hmmmm. Anyone got any suggestions for knowing if your overdoing it on the volume??

 

[domfjbrown]

I have tinnitus, constant infections that never shift, and my ears don't pop. I've given up worrying about it.

Mind you, "Kids in America" at 4pm on the dial on the Rega Ear was, err, a bit too loud last night. Distillers at 12 pm on the dial not quite so bad!

 

[domfjbrown]

Originally posted by Mr.C
120dB is the loudest ever recorded sound pressure levels at a live performance, which was by Judas Priest.

Breaking the law!
Breaking the law!