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Max volume mishap, are my ears OK?

post #1 of 5
11/19/11 at 2:55pm
Thread Starter 

I have 2 questions, first off on sennheiser's site when it lists sound pressure level at 114DB, is this the MAX the headphones will do?

 

2nd, i was on my brothers computer listening to his PC151's to compare to my 598's, and i didnt know his volume was at MAX (he turns down individual programs) so I played a song on rhapsody and it was full volume... it scared me, i hit pause as soon as i could, i would say it was 3-4 seconds of that level in my ears...

 

he uses onboard audio just crappy reltek or whatever, so IF that could power his headphones fully, it wouldnt be more than 114DB right? and if that is the case, should I be worried about damage to my ears? thanks...

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post #2 of 5
11/19/11 at 3:11pm

3-4 seconds wont permanently damage your ears unless at insane DB levels, 114 isn't that insane.

Also even though they are only 32ohm the sound card shouldn't be able to drive them to 114.  Lastly 114 Db is as loud as they can go without serious distortion or possible damage to the headphone.

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post #3 of 5
11/19/11 at 3:35pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks so much for the info John, makes me feel much better.  And I definitely didn't hear any distortion, so I agree they probably were not at the full 114Db.

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post #4 of 5
11/19/11 at 5:22pm

Time is as big a factor as the actual noise level (unless it is at really high levels - and you would know, your eardrums would have burst immediately). 

 

If you are not hearing persistent ringing, or muffled sound in general... then you dodged a bullet. 

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post #5 of 5
11/19/11 at 6:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by John In Cali View Post

3-4 seconds wont permanently damage your ears unless at insane DB levels, 114 isn't that insane.

Also even though they are only 32ohm the sound card shouldn't be able to drive them to 114.  Lastly 114 Db is as loud as they can go without serious distortion or possible damage to the headphone.


They're 118 dB/V sensitivity, which is 103 dB/mW at 32 ohms. That's pretty sensitive, they'd only need 13 mW to reach 114 dB. I don't know how powerful a typical motherboard is, but considering some cheap portable amps can output five times that much power, I'd say it's possible. 114 dB isn't necessarily the headphone's limit, either, not sure why you think that. Some headphones can handle 130 dB without damage, at least for a short time. Distortion yeah, they'll cause distortion, but that doesn't matter.

 

matmal still shouldn't worry, though. It's hard to cause damage with headphones after only 3-4 seconds.

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