Is listening at reference level dangerous?

[killdozzer]

I think most Klipsch speakers "alright." There you go.

Their classic series LaScala, Heresy, and Cornwall speakers are fine. And those Cornwall are large speakers which actually are very efficient. The owner of an A/V shop I frequent had them hooked up to a 25w per channel vacuum tube amp. They could easily drive you right out of the room without taxing that Jolida one bit.

In the lower price consumer lines, the newer Reference Premier (RP280-F, RP260-F, etc.) are very smooth. The previous Reference series (R28-F, R26-F, R24-F) were at least fatiguing if not downright painful to my ears for music, not as bad for HT.

I knew at least one of these will follow my post.

 

[yepimonfire]

Cel, it won't let me directly reply to your post without Tapatalk crashing. I'm a young guy and obviously enjoy loud music. I always thought my listening might be a bit too loud but had no way of gauging it without an spl meter. There is a certain point in volume I always gravitate towards that sound just right, any louder is obnoxious, any quieter the lows and highs drop off.

Recently I acquired an spl meter and checked what this level was. For music it's usually around 75dBC, which surprised me. I've been to only a few concerts in my lifetime and always found them uncomfortably loud, so much so I have little desire to attend them.

I'm in my mid 20s now, but back as an 18 year old I was able to hear all the way from 15hz-22khz. I can still hear 15 hz, but can no longer hear much past 17khz without excessive volume. I've not done much to harm my hearing other than running a saw a couple times while working at a hardware store. I just like the dynamic realism of listening at reference level. According to the various guidelines 105dB (which is the peak at reference) is okay for an extremely short period of time. In a 2hr movie I may experience a total of 30 minutes worth of exposure greater than 90dB.105dB peaks are very rare.

 

[Verdinut]

I am just quoting part of a text which I received with an apparatus (I don't remember which one, but it might have been an EV Pro Audio AMP), which is part of a page entitled "IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS:
Exposure to extremely high noise levels (that also includes music) may cause a permanent hearing loss. Individuals vary considerably in susceptibility to noise-induced hearing loss, but nearly everyone will lose some hearing if exposed to sufficiently intense noise for a sufficient time. The U.S. Government Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has specified the following permissible noise level exposures:

Duration Per Day in Hours --- Sound Level dBa, Slow Response

8---------------------------------------90
6---------------------------------------92 4---------------------------------------95
3---------------------------------------97
2--------------------------------------100
1½------------------------------------102
1--------------------------------------105 ½-------------------------------------110 ¼ or less-------------------------------115