Hearing Protection and Listening Safety

[gene]

If you are an Audiophile, then you are probably familiar with the years of hard work and stress your ears go through. The goal for every audiophile should be to enjoy hi-fi for a lifetime. But, in order to do that, care must be taken to not over stress or abuse your ears with sustained excessively loud sounds.

This article talks about the importance of hearing safety and how to combat tinnitus using active hearing aids and soundscapes.

Read: Hearing Protection and Listening Safety

 

[shadyJ]

This is a subject which needs more attention from the audio community. I see people who abuse their hearing terribly on a regular basis, and it is like nothing to them. Probably some of them don't care about the future, but I am sure quite a few of them are just ignorant as to how easily noise-induced hearing damage can occur. Musicians are just as dumb here as anyone, and I am glad the article mentioned this. Hearing loss is very prevalent among classical instrumentalists; it's not just bone-headed rock bands who lose their hearing. We also get lots of posts around here like "My speakers do not get loud enough- recommend me a louder speaker!" and they turn out to be using some tower speakers. The thing is, most speakers, in a normal setting, can get more than loud enough to cause hearing damage. I can understand the argument for speakers with a greater dynamic range, but plain old loudness is not a problem for most mid range speakers. Anyone who gives a damn about their long-term hearing should, at the very least, have an SPL meter, and a knowledge of safe noise exposure. It doesn't take that much to cause hearing loss. If you getting hearing fatigue on a regular basis, you need to step back from whatever it is you are doing and rethink it. Hearing loss can have a profound effect on your quality of life, much greater than most people realize, and they treat their ability to hear so casually. I could go on and on about this subject...

 

[mtrycrafts]

... I see people who abuse their hearing terribly on a regular basis, and it is like nothing to them. Probably some of them don't care about the future, but I am sure quite a few of them are just ignorant as to how easily noise-induced hearing damage can occur. Musicians are just as dumb here as anyone, and I am glad the article mentioned this. Hearing loss is very prevalent among classical instrumentalists; it's not just bone-headed rock bands who lose their hearing. ...

Yep, people many really don't think much into the future. Perhaps that is how we have evolved in the last century, only now matters. Don't have to look too far for examples. Profits now, hell with the future consequences.
No amount education will help most people as they just don't see a consequence right now or tomorrow when the buzzing went away after a night at the clubs.

And why wouldn't musicians, conductors, recording engineers be immune to this?
After all, in a large venue, physics dictates how loud it has to be at the delivery location for the audience to hear it reasonably well.

 

[herbu]

I can offer a word of advice. When you get an MRI, take their headphones. They're useless for listening to their music, but they help block the inherent MRI noises. On this matter, I can speak with some authority.

 

[highfigh]

It's not just listening to/playing music or working in a loud environment, just driving at normal speeds with the windows open is loud enough to cause damage. I carry ear plugs all the time, but on work sites, I constantly see people using rotary hammers, impact drivers and hammering nails without any hearing protection. This Old House had an episode with someone from OSHA, who measured the sound from a hammer driving nails- 135dB with the mic 3' away. Transient noise sources are some of the worst, for the hearing mechanism. I know a builder who is profoundly deaf- he said it's from decades of cutting wood with a circular saw without hearing protection. He also said that he used to do this with his head close to the saw- I don't know why he would do that, since being closer adds to the problem and increases the chance of particles getting into his eyes, even with safety glasses.

 

[Pogre]

I learned a few things watching the video. I played drums for years and worked in a noisy butcher shop for 3 decades with no ear protection. I do have tinnitus and always blamed the drums and loud music, which I'm sure didn't help, but there was a lot more going on accumulatively than I realized or even thought about.

It's been a very long time since I've had my hearing checked. I keep telling myself I should but I'm half afraid of the results. I don't think I'm annoyingly hard of hearing yet, but I do have to ask people to repeat themselves sometimes, especially in a noisy environment. So yeah, I really don't want to end up with hearing aids, but might be a candidate. I'm a lot more careful now than I used to be. I do still like cranking it up sometimes, but I set the rev limiter on my receiver at "0" and have yet to go beyond it, the thinking being I'm safe due to some misleading OSHA data.

On hearing aids, the way I think of them are that they're basically little tiny speakers that amplify incoming sound waves entering your ear. If so they'd be reproducing what's being reproduced by my (or any other) system and would most certainly color the sound, right? Or is that not how they work? Anyone here have any experience with hearing aids?

 

[GO-NAD!]

I learned a few things watching the video. I played drums for years and worked in a noisy butcher shop for 3 decades with no ear protection. I do have tinnitus and always blamed the drums and loud music, which I'm sure didn't help, but there was a lot more going on accumulatively than I realized or even thought about.

It's been a very long time since I've had my hearing checked. I keep telling myself I should but I'm half afraid of the results. I don't think I'm annoyingly hard of hearing yet, but I do have to ask people to repeat themselves sometimes, especially in a noisy environment. So yeah, I really don't want to end up with hearing aids, but might be a candidate. I'm a lot more careful now than I used to be. I do still like cranking it up sometimes, but I set the rev limiter on my receiver at "0" and have yet to go beyond it, the thinking being I'm safe due to some misleading OSHA data.

On hearing aids, the way I think of them are that they're basically little tiny speakers that amplify incoming sound waves entering your ear. If so they'd be reproducing what's being reproduced by my (or any other) system and would most certainly color the sound, right? Or is that not how they work? Anyone here have any experience with hearing aids?

I've wondered about that as well. Although I don't have hearing aids, I'm sure I have hearing loss caused by various sources over the years. I do have trouble following conversations in loud restaurants sometimes...

 

[Stanton]

I learned a few things watching the video. I played drums for years and worked in a noisy butcher shop for 3 decades with no ear protection. I do have tinnitus and always blamed the drums and loud music, which I'm sure didn't help, but there was a lot more going on accumulatively than I realized or even thought about.
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On hearing aids, the way I think of them are that they're basically little tiny speakers that amplify incoming sound waves entering your ear. If so they'd be reproducing what's being reproduced by my (or any other) system and would most certainly color the sound, right? Or is that not how they work? Anyone here have any experience with hearing aids?

I just picked up on this article/thread and (like you) am a long-time drummer...who now wears hearing-aids. I have known Gene for some time (I occasionally write for Audioholics), and it just so happens the H/A I chose were from Starkey. I finally got to the point where my family got tired of me saying "what" and turning up the TV. My tinnitus has also become worse. The H/A have (mostly) solved the first problem, but the tinnitus setting (similar to what Gene experienced in the "custom" device) hasn't been as successful. Wearing H/A is as much a mental hurdle as a physical one, but I can tell you that it is invaluable in the work environment and (luckily) my audiologist did some tweaking such that movie/music listening is still enjoyable (those old cassettes really don't sound as bad as I thought)! I wear the Starkey Halo-2 that interface directly to my iPhone (which was a key selling point).

 

[pbarach1]

I've been using Bose over-the ear (QC25) headphones for several years when I go to a movie that I know will be too loud ("Baby Driver" without the headphones was the last straw). Speech is audible, but other frequencies are attenuated.

 

[red_kk]

I've been using Bose over-the ear (QC25) headphones for several years when I go to a movie that I know will be too loud ("Baby Driver" without the headphones was the last straw). Speech is audible, but other frequencies are attenuated.

Finally BOSE has some use for the audiophiles.

 

[flyboylr45]

I will say, Bose makes some kick-ass aviation headsets. They're expensive ($1,200) like everything Bose, but well worth it with their noise canceling.