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Listening Loud Distroys Fidelity
As I hope we all know, the dark underbelly of this hobby is hearing damage---usually in the form of tinnitus. I have it moderately in my right ear. I given this a great deal of thought as I don't want to contribute to others suffering in my business...heck, I want to pleasure the ears of others.
Obviously we make a big deal of warnings folks: we have a big warning on our web site; we have a full page warning in our manuels; I lobby for turning it down when I talk with others, but I know the allure, a good punchy listening session is a lot of fun. None the less, a week straight of that and you might find yourself in trouble with your ears. If you are interested in this hobby, that would---and does---suck. What to do? How can we save our ears and still have fun? Well, I think I've stumbled upon an answer.
This hobby is not about how loud, but how good. We strive for the most faithfull and tasty sound, not the most impactfull. Sure, dynamics are important, but it's dynamics in a musical mix with fidelity, imaging, ect, in proportion to your personal taste that matters most. Therefore, audiophiles spend a lot of money on gear with the assumption that it made the sound going into your ears better. OK, nothing wrong with that, but what if I told you that your ears suffer a loss of fidelity starting at about 85dB until at 100dBspl the decrease the dynamic range is about half, and the amount of noise is rougly equivalent to an air conditioner running in the room. What would you say if I told you that, past a certain point, turning your volume control up amounts dailing down the quality of your gear until it's about that of a transistor radio.
Your ear have tiny muscles attached to the bones that transmit sound from the ear-drum to the inner ear. There is a natural reflex associated with the these muscles that when you hear lound sounds that causes them to tense up to limit how much your ear drum can wiggle and how much pressure gets to the inner ear. When the muscels are fully tensed it cuts down the sound by about half, and it increase noise significantly because your muscles are jittering as they tense which is translated into a signal that you can hear. If you have a vivid imagination, you can fake a reaction to a surprisingly loud sound, and if you do it right you can hear a burst of relatively low frequency sound---that's the muscles tensing during this acoustic response. The point, of course, is when you turn it up loud enough to trigger this response you are singificantly changing the signal at your inner ear.
Now this isn't just a guess anymore at this point. I've had the opportunity to exchange a few emails with Dr. Jens Blauert author of one of my favorite books "Spatial Hearing", in which I asked him about the subject, and he confirmed my suspicions. I've been listening with this in mind for a while, and I can pretty easily sense a tension when things get loud. Hearing the sound quality decrease, I'm not so sure, but I do sense a subconcious unwillingness to aurally relax and attend to listening. And I can consciously tense these muscles and hear the noise, and it's clearly audible, I'd call it moderatly loud noise in the upper bass. I know for sure though that the loss of fidelity would be measureable at the eardrum and inner ear; and I know for sure that if I want to get the best from my gear and for my ears I'll basically keep it around 85dB.
I've been really concerned lately with my volume listening and being trying to train my ears for low volume listening. I realised i can live with low volume and still listen all the details i can listen when the volume is loud.
Too loud volumes gets kind of confused and my eyes starts to blink on the high passages of the song, like chimbals for example. Proving that it's excessively loud.
I'm turning the volume, at least trying, to a level where i can hear all the environment. Including TV, dog, family, etc. I'm still in time to learn to avoid loud volumes, before my ear gets dameged for life.
I really support people who bring this subject for discussion, once it's probably the first thing we need to know and be conscientious about ...
The interesting thing is that I constantly turned quiter the better my equipment was. Nowadays I listen at a very very low level but I still enjoy most of my music. If I want to rock out it's mostly on speakers.
It's very good that you talk about it again tyll!
__________________ Team Music first! Team I like them all: Senn, AKG, Beyer, Grado & AT
This feeds into the "high end is headphones" argument. With speakers we learn to turn the music up to hear detail. With headphones in a quiet environment (or with IEMs) we resort to a learned behaviour that needs to be unlearned.
Recent Obsession: Umphrey's McGee (You have to hear this band if you haven't already!)
Selected Rock: Ben Folds, Sufjan Stevens, Frank Zappa, Grateful Dead, Richard Thompson, Phish, Ani Difranco, Tori Amos, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Roy Harper
Selected Classical & Jazz: Shostakovich, Steve Reich, John Adams, Sorabji, Mahler, Arvo Part, Keith Jarrett, John Zorn
i find myself listening to slightly higher volumes when i am sitting here at the computer. just as soon as i step away from the computer and get in me comfy chair i notice the volume will become louder to me. at this point i am concentrating on the music instead of other things. so i get back up and turn the volume down.
i think when i listen to headphones i am just gonna turn the lights off and sit back and focus on the music like i use to in the old days.
Is there any easy way to determine the maximum safe volume for a setup?
Various countries health and safety organizations (OSHA in the US?) set limits for exposure in the workplace. leisure should be no different.
Is there any easy way to determine the maximum safe volume for a setup?
Various countries health and safety organizations (OSHA in the US?) set limits for exposure in the workplace. leisure should be no different.
Yes, do get the rat shack meter. But be warned, it will not give you an accurate reading if you just put it next to your headphones at an equivalent distance to where your ear would be - you will get a very low reading, as the ear pad/ear cup is no longer coupled to your ear, and is thus radiating sound over a much wider field, thus yeilding a much lower SPL. To measure your headphone output, a simple way of doing it is to get a piece of cardboard, and cut a hole just the right size for the microphone tip - place the cardboard so that it covers the ear cup as it would against your head, place the microphone poking through and then take a reading.
The 'sweet spot' for both my senns and grados is around 78-82dB. I just hope my ratshack meter is accurate enough that I'm not damaging my ears when I think I'm listening at a safe volume.
Listening Loud Distroys Fidelity
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