Ear buds and hearing damage

Maximlee, post: 38488, member: 2165 wrote: its not loud music its disortion… if its in the red its disortion… alll mussic nowadays is slighly disorted as its mastered that hard. alll djs play in the red.. its fu”ked even before its left the player

>.> as a hardstyle man i take big offence to this,while distortion is present in music it is often far more ear friendly then you portray.

On a side note learn about presures,it’s not distortion that kills your hearing though it does assist in it,it’s the decibel presure build up from the presure waves.Sound,any sound,is essentially just a presure wave traveling through air at a serten frequency that we identify as a serten sound.Distortion aids the degredation of hearing but it self on it’s own has an almost negligable effect.

Here is a guide to SPL dB levels (at the ear) and how long before damage occurs.
Note: Rule of thumb-For every 3db increase listening time is ~halved.
115 dB 0.46875 minutes (~30 sec)
112 dB 0.9375 minutes (~1 min)
109 dB 1.875 minutes (< 2 min)
106 dB 3.75 minutes (< 4 min)
103 dB 7.5 minutes
100 dB 15 minutes
97 dB 30 minutes
94 dB 1 hour
91 dB 2 hours
88 dB 4 hours
85 dB 8 hours
82 dB 16 hours

Think the official level here (in Holland) for concerts is 103dB at 10 meters from the FoH (Front of House) stack of speakers.

Since the sound level drops by 6dB for every doubling of the distance (or increases 6dB for every halving), you can easily calculate that at 5m it is 109, at 2 1/2m it is 115 and at about 1 m it is 121. A whopping 18dB over only 9 meter distance. Fyi: 10dB increase is perceived by the human ear as being TWICE as loud!

As you can tell from the table above, if you are one meter from the speakers in this case you can stay there safely (i.e. without earplugs) for … well not at all really. At 120dB we are in the pain zone. At 10m you can stay for 7,5 minute..

Regular, off the shelf, earplugs usually attenuate between 15 and 25 dB depending on the frequency.

So, for safe calculation: stand at least 10m from the speakers, wear -15dB earplugs and you’ll be safe for 4 HOURS!

Trust me, it is stupid to go to a concert, party, festival, anything without some serious ear protection. Like many in the industry I have Tinnitus, not very bad, but it is there every day all day. Also, according to my latest audiogram, I have the hearing of a person 15 years older than I actually am (and I am 49).

And the nasty thing is, you might not notice til way later in your life what damage was done at a younger age.

You get better comfort and better (flatter) frequency response if you get some custom earplugs. These are a lot more expensive, but then again, what is it worth to keep your ears intact?

Greetinx,
C.

Chuck van Eekelen, post: 38537, member: 2756 wrote:
Trust me, it is stupid to go to a concert, party, festival, anything without some serious ear protection. Like many in the industry I have Tinnitus, not very bad, but it is there every day all day. Also, according to my latest audiogram, I have the hearing of a person 15 years older than I actually am (and I am 49).

And the nasty thing is, you might not notice til way later in your life what damage was done at a younger age.

You get better comfort and better (flatter) frequency response if you get some custom earplugs. These are a lot more expensive, but then again, what is it worth to keep your ears intact?

Greetinx,
C.

V-Moda Faders Musicians earplugs. -12dB across full spectrum, without muting sounds, it just lowers everything. $20 retail, maybe 15 on ebay

Here’s the official website

http://v-moda.com/faders-vip/

The Black Rag, post: 38551, member: 7330 wrote: To be honest as far as hearing damage headphones are the nicests thing for your ears.nicer then even nature,i’ve had headphones on every day for the past 18 years,and im 22 this year.I went to have my hearing checked,i’ve got the hearing of a 16 year old.

Good for you! The only thing they can’t see now is to what extend you’ll develop tinnitus. That usually doesn’t start showing it’s ugly head til your late 30s, early 40s.

The fact that you are aware of the risks means you will take better care than most of your age which is a good thing!

Greetinx,
C.