that’s a pretty broad and general statement. 105dB peaks for the average person isn’t likely to do any long term harm (or short term harm). The music would generally only peak at those levels for very brief moments at a time. Hearing damage is most associated with the total dosage received, at least up to a point. Instantaneous damage isn’t usually seen until 120dB or more (and the frequency matters quite a bit, bass really doesn’t cause instantaneous damage at those levels).
we did a video on hearing loss and the dangerous of commercial cinema levels. The first myth I dispelled was that hearing loss was assisted with loud levels like we are talking here. That it’s actually about total exposure over the course of a day. That 85dB causes long term hearing loss if that is your total average daily dose all day long. Yet 105 won’t cause damage if most of your day is at or below 65dB and the 105 dB was for just a second or two.
As part of that I did a dosage study. Two in fact. One was for an actual ATMOS music at a Dolby cinema. The other was for a day in the life of Matt. In both cases you could see how some people could exceed their daily dosage if they did a lot of noisy things. In my case, most of my day was spent in relative silence such that music listening and movies put me just below the limit as I recall. I intentionally made that day a noisier day for me by watching an action movie at reference levels and listening to music while I worked.
that is all to say that listening at reference levels is not inherently dangerous. None of the levels achieved over the course of 2-3 hours would be sufficient, even in the context of average normal loudness throughout the rest of the day, to cause permanent hearing loss. Further, it’s worth noting that while I advocate for taking care of your ears, I could find no studies that shows cinemas had in fact caused actual hearing loss and I similarly found no evidence that people exposed to dangerously loud levels (like symphony performers) had higher rates of noise induced hearing loss. The studies that did show causes of NIHL were typically for rock musicians and manufacturing jobs where exposure was to levels found to exceed 120dB on a routine basis.
now as for why I like a speaker capable of high output. Keep in mind that, besides the fact that a speaker that is distorting is very distracting, a distorting speaker also has higher total energy output due to the harmonics.
Rise in THD also reduced speech quality and intelligibility.
PDF | Noise and distortion reduce speech intelligibility and quality in audio devices such as hearing aids. This study investigates the perception and... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
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this is why i advocate for higher output in speakers. Many have argued that a normal receiver and average speakers exceed any reasonable peak level but this is based on nothing more than conjecture. The reality is most speakers fall way short of reference levels and begin distorting at pretty modest levels. Many people perceive distortion and compression as a hearing issue. If it’s painful it’s dangerous. In many cases the pain and poor sound is actually a function of the distortion and compression of the low output speaker. A cleaner speaker would be listened to louder without discomfort.
