Has this ever happened to you?

It's probably the result of recovering from temporary deafness, where what you normally hear sounded too quiet. The same sort of thing can happen from listening to music too loud or quiet. Turn the volume up or down for a few songs, and your normal listening volume will sound too quiet or loud. Makes for an effective way to turn down the volume to safer levels, just drop it a little bit every day and you get used to it.

 

I'd recommend you bring ear plugs next time 

And tell the school (if they were in charge) to turn it down!  Maybe get them to measure the level next time, and keep it reasonable.

 

Was this a band/orchestra/choir concert, or a concert with rock/etc. bands?  The latter, I presume - although bands and orchestras can get dangerously loud within the brass and percussion sections, and with better/bigger groups in the audience as well.  Luckily orchestral peaks are usually relatively short compared to always-loud rock bands...

Yes, take ear plugs.

I won't go to any amplified performance without earplugs these days.

I don't know why people think sound should be turned up to ear-damaging levels, but I wish it would stop. It doesn't make things sound any better and physically harms the audience.

Where's the benefit? If I were a senior in high school today, I'd pick a career in audiology or become an ENT doc. There is going to be a huge demand for hearing aids and hearing implants. Ears are, sadly, being destroyed.

Grab a pair of Etymotic ER20's next to you go to a gig. Do your ears a favor. :)

 

This only happened once when I went to a visual, music waterfront showcase, the music was good but was played at very damaging levels. Lucky I had my earplugs then, learnt my lesson the hard way after attending a bad concert once though....

 

Might not make things sound better, but being able to feel the sound through your entire body is, in my opinion, an awesome experience and the concert would not be the same if it wasn't so loud. But I can understand it if some people don't like that. However, I also always use decent earplugs and never hear ringing afterwards. While I love extreme sound levels at live shows, through my head-fi rig at home I apparently listen at medium/low volume, judging from people who have similar equipment as me.

We have very small hairs called cilia in our ears which vibrate to the sound waves traveling threw a liquid. If these cilia get damaged they lay down. Some cilia never get back up. This is the cause of non repairable hearing loss.

sorry 2x

Edited by Redcarmoose - 10/29/11 at 8:28am

I went to see beethoven's 1st and 7th symphonies a week ago. I really liked the sound level, loud enough to really "feel" the performance, but quiet enough not to hurt my ears. no need for earplugs

 

nothing equals live music, nothing...

 

I wear my earplugs when I walk out in the street, I really hate motorcycles's noises.

 

I suspect that it has more to do with overpowering the sound of the audience. If a concert were at a "comfortable" listening level, but everyone screamed/clapped/whatever through the whole show, nobody would be able to hear the music. If the concert is louder than the maximum SPL that the audience collectively will reach, then at least nobody can complain that they couldn't hear the show (well, other than due to bad acoustics/FOH/etc).

 

But I completely agree with you -- people should shut up during concerts so they don't have to be so loud. Then I'd actually be able to enjoy going to them again, since I wouldn't have to listen through the muffled mess that earplugs cause.

What's the db level of your average concert?? They could stand to turn it down a few notches, i don't know why they don't.