Can a very short exposure to loud music coming from earphones cause permanent damage?
Feb 6, 2015 at 10:00 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 9
An00bis

An00bis

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I read that you need to listen 8 hours to 85dB before damage is done but what does that really mean? Is it like running rapidly on hot coal or moving your hand fast through fire without feeling anything, or does sound energy work in a very different way compared to heat and loud music causes immediate damage to occur regardless of the duration of exposure? 
 
I'm asking this because I had my earphones on when I was tweaking some settings in my Android phone. I wanted to turn my ringtone/notification volume to max and my phone started blasting my very loud ringtone through its speakers and through my earphones. It was about 90-95dB loud which I hear can cause permanent damage after 30mins-2hours. I plugged them out in like 2 seconds but did they manage to do any damage to my ears in that very short period?
 
 
 
 I wonder why Google's idiotic software engineers thought doing this was a wise choice. You dared to turn your ringtone volume to 100%? You deserve to be punished with 95dB!
 
Feb 6, 2015 at 11:09 AM Post #2 of 9
an00bis said:
  I read that you need to listen 8 hours to 85dB before damage is done but what does that really mean? Is it like running rapidly on hot coal or moving your hand fast through fire without feeling anything, or does sound energy work in a very different way compared to heat and loud music causes immediate damage to occur regardless of the duration of exposure? 
 
I'm asking this because I had my earphones on when I was tweaking some settings in my Android phone. I wanted to turn my ringtone/notification volume to max and my phone started blasting my very loud ringtone through its speakers and through my earphones. It was about 90-95dB loud which I hear can cause permanent damage after 30mins-2hours. I plugged them out in like 2 seconds but did they manage to do any damage to my ears in that very short period?
 
 
 
 I wonder why Google's idiotic software engineers thought doing this was a wise choice. You dared to turn your ringtone volume to 100%? You deserve to be punished with 95dB!
Click to expand...

 
I wouldn't worry too much about it, because I'm sure that's happened to a lot of people.  It's happened to me more than a couple of times and I suffered no permanent damage (have my hearing tested almost every year due to my work).  Of course, everyone is different as is their hearing, but it's always been my understanding that long-term exposure to loud noise is what causes hearing damage.
 
Feb 7, 2015 at 11:01 AM Post #4 of 9
http://www.dangerousdecibels.org/education/information-center/decibel-exposure-time-guidelines/
Unless you still have a ringing in your ears you should be fine.
In school our music teacher once asked how many have had ringing ears/tinnitus after they went to a club: 17 of 22 raised their hand.
 
Let me guess, you are a first time Android user, because unless you are using a phone which has Nexus in it's name, it isn't Google's fault, but your manufacturer (HTC, Samsung, Sony, ...)
 
Feb 7, 2015 at 12:42 PM Post #5 of 9
Nope, I'm an Android user since 2013 and I'm not that big of a noob. Until now I just didn't think about adjusting the volume while I had my earphones on. I'm using a Moto G and even though it's not a Nexus it has the stock Android ROM on it. The only difference between this and a Nexus is that it has a faster file system (f2fs) and like 2-3 extra apps. So, yeah, it is Google's fault. If you have speakers you're going to leave the volume at max anyway and there's no situation that I can think of in which you'd want to listen to your phone's ringtone at >90dB on your earphones. But I'm not working for Google so I wouldn't know...
 
Thanks to everyone who posted in this thread! I had no ringing in my ears and I didn't feel any pain by the way. I guess a few seconds of 90-95dB isn't something to worry about.
 
Feb 8, 2015 at 3:55 PM Post #6 of 9
an00bis said:
Nope, I'm an Android user since 2013 and I'm not that big of a noob. Until now I just didn't think about adjusting the volume while I had my earphones on. I'm using a Moto G and even though it's not a Nexus it has the stock Android ROM on it. The only difference between this and a Nexus is that it has a faster file system (f2fs) and like 2-3 extra apps. So, yeah, it is Google's fault. If you have speakers you're going to leave the volume at max anyway and there's no situation that I can think of in which you'd want to listen to your phone's ringtone at >90dB on your earphones. But I'm not working for Google so I wouldn't know...

Thanks to everyone who posted in this thread! I had no ringing in my ears and I didn't feel any pain by the way. I guess a few seconds of 90-95dB isn't something to worry about.
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I run a Moto G as well and have this issue all the time. I find if you don't stop your music or audio program YouTube, etc.) prior to unplugging you iems, it always maxes out the volume. Sometimes it just happens anyways. It's a serious pain.

It happens on my Nexus S too, but not as often.
 
Feb 8, 2015 at 7:21 PM Post #7 of 9
b9scrambler said:
I run a Moto G as well and have this issue all the time. I find if you don't stop your music or audio program YouTube, etc.) prior to unplugging you iems, it always maxes out the volume. Sometimes it just happens anyways. It's a serious pain.

It happens on my Nexus S too, but not as often.
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By the way, does your phone also have that annoying white noise in the background whenever the phone makes a sound (playing music, pressing a button, etc.)? It's really annoying, it makes any headphone, no matter how good it is, sound like mediocre crap. Using a portable DAC solves this problem for me but that's a pain in the ass.
 
I'm still running 4.4.4 since I haven't received any updates for my model. I read somewhere that it may be fixed in Lollipop.
 
Feb 8, 2015 at 9:14 PM Post #8 of 9
an00bis said:
By the way, does your phone also have that annoying white noise in the background whenever the phone makes a sound (playing music, pressing a button, etc.)? It's really annoying, it makes any headphone, no matter how good it is, sound like mediocre crap. Using a portable DAC solves this problem for me but that's a pain in the ass.

I'm still running 4.4.4 since I haven't received any updates for my model. I read somewhere that it may be fixed in Lollipop.
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Only with my Sony XB50. And yeah, its really annoying, lol.

We should be getting Lollipop within the next few weeks I think. I received a heads up notification from Motorola the other day to watch for it. Hopefully that fixes it for you!
 
Feb 9, 2015 at 8:56 PM Post #9 of 9
b9scrambler said:
Only with my Sony XB50. And yeah, its really annoying, lol.

We should be getting Lollipop within the next few weeks I think. I received a heads up notification from Motorola the other day to watch for it. Hopefully that fixes it for you!
Click to expand...


Yeah, let's hope the update will arrive that soon. Thanks for telling me!
 
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