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Author Topic: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing  (Read 38584 times)

Teddy G.

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #15 on: February 11, 2006, 12:27:52 AM »

What? I can't hear you through this whistling in my ears???

Turn down the phones, use ear protection when you're using the power mower or the chainsaw(Even for a minute - MAKE THE EFFORT!), wear discrete earplugs to the concert, speak quietly when arguing, cover your ears when the fire truck goes by, hope for good genetics. Remember that it's been said that whenever you hear your ears "ringing" you've lost at least a bit of your hearing - permanently.

If listening is your life, you won't really enjoy making the silly "what?" comments when it's gone.

TG

Dammit, now you got me thinking about it and I'll hear this GD ringing all-night long.
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midnightsun

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HEARING LOSS
« Reply #16 on: February 12, 2006, 09:56:29 PM »

I lost the hearing in one ear about 20 years ago!    Since then I have been obcessed with preserving the hearing in my other ear and have been successful.   I own a dB meter and use it frequently.   Noise pollution is everywhere, I mean everywhere.   Just driving my truck to work registers 85 dB.    In the studio over 100 dB is common.    

We all owe it to ourselves to be educated about our hearing.   HOUSE EAR INSTITUTE has a good website to check out.
http://www.hei.org/education/soundpartners/sp.htm

We are all going to lose our hearing if we live long enough.    We should spend our hearing wisely.    

In my studio I feel that it is a moral/ethical responsibility to insist that the musicians who are young and invincible wear ear protection.   Some get pissy about it -- too bad.   I keep the dB meter on and give the talent feedback on how the volume of the sessions(s) continues to grow.    

I never use the cans for mixing.   But I use them all of the time in tracking sessions to give my ear added protection.   Of course I keep the volume low.

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ted nightshade

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #17 on: February 15, 2006, 10:30:11 PM »

I'm the odd guy who turns the phones down lower and lower as my ears adjust. But trying to do overdubs with phones, I turned them up higher and higher and it still was nothing like it should be...

Scary shit, overdubs with headphones!
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Cosmic Closet

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #18 on: March 31, 2006, 01:07:13 AM »

...Excellent post with lots of wise words.

At 15 or so I went to my first concert. Way too loud, PA way too overstressed. When I exited the club, I could not hear any of the Saturday night traffic in the middle of the city for something like 20 minutes. I knew that I was not about to subject my ears to something like that again.

In my work as a videographer (home musician on the side), I wear headphones a lot, for hours on end. But never, never without 30-db earplugs. Even the quiet hiss of an intercom system for 4-5 hours deadens my ears at the end of the day. With plugs, it's a whole other story.

The Ipods are really the worst combination, because it isn't bad enough that they are used in noisy environments, but that the earbuds offer no attenuation of said noise, forcing the volume even higher. And with the mid-range honk of those pathetic little drivers, you're really on your way to Deafville.

Much like with people recovering from serious illness, or drug addicts, who lecture on campuses to drive home the message in person, maybe some reasonably well-known musician or singer with hearing loss should do the same.

Best,
CC
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Pingu

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #19 on: March 31, 2006, 09:36:18 AM »

Thanks for the heads up guys..

Ive been doing a lot of listening through HP, a lot and i feel tinnitus setting in.

I'm going to use them sparingly from now on.
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Ronny

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #20 on: March 31, 2006, 11:04:44 AM »

Cosmic Closet wrote on Fri, 31 March 2006 01:07

...Excellent post with lots of wise words.

At 15 or so I went to my first concert. Way too loud, PA way too overstressed. When I exited the club, I could not hear any of the Saturday night traffic in the middle of the city for something like 20 minutes. I knew that I was not about to subject my ears to something like that again.

In my work as a videographer (home musician on the side), I wear headphones a lot, for hours on end. But never, never without 30-db earplugs. Even the quiet hiss of an intercom system for 4-5 hours deadens my ears at the end of the day. With plugs, it's a whole other story.

The Ipods are really the worst combination, because it isn't bad enough that they are used in noisy environments, but that the earbuds offer no attenuation of said noise, forcing the volume even higher. And with the mid-range honk of those pathetic little drivers, you're really on your way to Deafville.

Much like with people recovering from serious illness, or drug addicts, who lecture on campuses to drive home the message in person, maybe some reasonably well-known musician or singer with hearing loss should do the same.

Best,
CC



How do you tell a deaf man to give a speech?  

Actually Pete Townsend has been speaking out pretty regularly on his hearing loss that he attributed to wearing cans,in an attempt to warn new and upcoming musicians.
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Stefan

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #21 on: April 01, 2006, 07:09:39 AM »

I agree that headphones can damage your hearing, especially when used in noisy environment without earplugs.

I would just like to add that the audience is listening to music with headphones more and more, so how instruments are placed binaurally (is that the right word?) is getting more and more important. Listening to a mix with all the instruments 'inside your head' can be a scary. I prefer using Wavelabs Externalizer or Soundhacks +binaural to move guitars etc. 'out of the head'.

I use headphones as part of mixing (also for practical reasons, because I do much of the mixing late at home) but I always watch my listening levels very carefully. If I find myself starting to turn up the volume to be able to 'hear better', I call it a day (or night).
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Bender

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #22 on: April 02, 2006, 10:19:34 PM »

Continuing on the iPod tangent, it is even more deliterious to your ear health to listen to headphones while exercizing as your increased blood flow decreases resistance to High SPL (and while I know all of us are lazy bastards that never run, I always feel like we should alert those ppl you see running around the city blasting whatever in those scary white earbuds)

Food for thought.
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timothyallan

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #23 on: July 29, 2008, 08:25:43 PM »

High SPL is high SPL regardless of whether you're wearing cans, earbuds or listening on monitors, no?

Earbuds make it easier to have loud noises in your ear, but they're not the cause of hearing loss. It basically boils down to using the grey matter in between your ears, and the volume knob connected to your device does it not??


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overlordofanalog

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #24 on: October 04, 2008, 06:30:38 PM »

I just got my pair of flat attenuation ear plugs today.  They are really, really, really really awesome.  I definitely recommend that everyone gets a pair if they care about their hearing.
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Mike

audio2u

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #25 on: October 10, 2008, 07:31:20 AM »

Great topic, guys, and one that I have mentioned more than once on my podcast.
I got into radio as a commercial and promo producer in '87.
In '91, the station I was working for gave me free tickets to go and see The Angels (Aussie hard rock band) supported by Cheap Trick  (this was in Hobart, in Tasmania).
It was a Friday night, I was 23 and still believed myself "10 foot tall and bullet proof" as the saying goes.
On Monday morning, trying to mix a promo, I had to "guess" the eq based on looking at the settings on the desk, and had to go and get another guy with 'ears' to come and confirm that it sounded ok.
My high frequency response was shot.
By Tuesday, it was pretty much back to normal... but that was 4 days after the event!!
That was my wake up call.
I realised that if I wanted to continue a career where my ears were my income, I would have to look after them. Up to that point, I was always monitoring notoriously loud in the studio, too.
It was at that point that I made a conscious descision to monitor at lower levels.
It took a while (read: weeks) to get used to the lower levels, but I'm sure glad I took that step when I did.
I haven't spent much time in headphones over the course of my career, but I have lost track of the number of on-air "jocks" I've met who have to have their headphones turned up to the point of feedback in order to hear themselves when they're on-air!
Scary stuff.
And those same guys tend to be a nightmare when you want them to read an ad or a promo, because again, they want their cans absolutely crankin'.
And when you're using a nice condensor in the production studio, you get that lovely "on-the-verge-of-feedback" 'ting' on every syllable.
It's frightening how many people in the (on-air side of the) radio industry are at that point.
So yeah, the more we can do to spread the word, the better.
The unfortunate thing is, right here at PSW, we're preaching to the converted (a lot of the time).
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MDM,

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #26 on: October 29, 2008, 06:02:55 AM »

well i got my worse habits with headphones working at a radio station and seeing talent blasting sound into their headphones ad rock concert volumes..

I guess I subliminally thought that if they do it every day and have no problems then it must be ok in the long run.

not the case.

hearing damage is very annoying and results in phantom noises which can be very disturbing..

and everyone has a different lifespan for their ears.

so just because X rocker still doesn't suffer from tinnitus doesn't mean you won't suffer either.
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KAyo

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #27 on: November 16, 2008, 02:38:08 AM »

Hi guys,

I see so many wearing Headphones on the trains nowadays. Some sensibly, and some loopy loud!
On the trains, the background noise is quite loud, and packing another 60db to 80db on top for listening pleasure, is like asking the ear to bench press twice your  own body weight throughout the session. Crazy I tell ya’ crazy…

I am very careful with my ears at all times. I wear ear plugs many a places. Especially, before I take off on my motorcycle in traffic. Where noise levels can ruin a session to be.. The ear tightens up and takes a long time for it to free up or fell relaxed. I am always looking to keep the ear at that relaxed feeling, just b4 a session… that’s just me.

Cheers,
KAyo
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Haydn Payne

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #28 on: April 07, 2010, 08:27:40 AM »

Supposedly driving with the window down can damage your hearing, although I dont know how much truth there is to that.

I cycle a lot and its worrying that having a constant fast airflow over my ears could be harming them.
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Haydn Payne

compasspnt

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Re: WARNING! headphones will ruin your hearing
« Reply #29 on: April 07, 2010, 09:30:46 AM »

Haydn Payne wrote on Wed, 07 April 2010 08:27

Supposedly driving with the window down can damage your hearing, although I dont know how much truth there is to that.

I cycle a lot and its worrying that having a constant fast airflow over my ears could be harming them.



I have been told that drivers in the UK show more hearing damage in their right ears, whereas in the US it is in the left ears, from driving with the windows rolled down.

Also,

http://improve-your-health.net/archives/riding-in-convertibl es-may-damage-your-hearing.htm
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