Listening Volume - Page 3

 

Yeah this is something I do try and keep to, there are some songs that I sometimes feel don't have enough punch to them at med volume (i'm at 50% right now) but the minute I up it to 60% and then want to go back down it takes a good 5mins for me to once again become happy with 50% as the difference seems huge for the first 30 seconds and slowly it becomes more detailed as my ears adjust (or my brain? :P)

WTF??? when did head-fi gt spammed like this??? are u kidding me....    I'm more than annoyed! JOE  JUDE,, do something 

 

most of the time i go abt 50 - 40 % ( Thanks to the volume limiter on my Pod Classic )  but... their are tyms that sm old recording frm artist's such as Quiet Riot , Anthrax , Metalica , Cannibal corps , judest priest , Led Zeppelin  which require at least 99% to power up...  i guess those are very much unavoidable moments ...

The ear has it's own protective mechanism whereby parts move to lessen the amount of sound making it past tympanic membrane into the inner ear thereby reducing the effect of louder sounds. In other words it adapts to louder environments to protect itself.

So this makes perfect sense when you go loud your ear closes things down a bit and has to readjust once you go back to a lower volume.

I hadn't really thought about it but you bring up a good point in that listening at high volumes can be a slippery slope because you are essentially fighting against your ear's attempt to lower volume while you are there turning it up.

This is why sounds like gunshots, explosions, etc cause immediate trauma because the ear does not have the time to make adjustments that it would at lets say a rock concert for example. You are actually safer hearing an explosion in a noisy environment than a quiet one based on that logic.
Edited by Doc-holliday - 11/19/12 at 12:10pm

Since posting I've spent a fair amount of time today listening at lower volumes and noticed quite a difference.

 

Instead of before, where if I felt mids/bass needed some more I'd knock up the volume a notch or two, now I've been going the opposite way and found that by infact decreasing the volume, I'm stopping the treble or bass drowning out the mids or whatever I felt was lacking (and all at the same time hopefully saving my hearing way more than before!!)

 

Quite funny how this decrease has actually improved my listening experience on a number of tracks that before I enjoyed but now I really enjoy!

 

It's pretty strange, and I think it's maybe just because I used to listen to certain rock (alternative and punk) probably way too loud, not to a dangerous level but just a level that my headphones start to end up kicking out so much, and my ears are starting to drown out certain parts... So by now lowering the volume ranges I use by 15-20% (from 60/50% to 47/40%) I have found more detail rather than less.

 

I'm kinda stunned that I was somewhat stupid not thinking of this before.
 

Edit: I really need to get hold of a dB meter to check my levels...