[concordus]

Hi there
 
Is there a long term research on health of ears under effect of headphones, and sound overall?
 
Could you please share your own experience of listening headphones for long time? Have you had hearing problems? Why do you think they happened? 
 
What should be the very best way to listen to music with headphones? What type of headphone is most healthy or least damaging? What should be recommended sound levels?
 
Do in ear headphone has a different impact?
 
Looking forward to your opinions.

 

[AKG240mkII]

There are plenty of workplace and other studies on loud sound/noise and the way it DOES harm your hearing .
http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2012/august/earphones-potentially-as-dangerous-as-noise-from-jet-engines-according-to-new-university-of-leicester-study
 
However, there are no studies I can find dealing ONLY with headphones !
Back when the Sony Walkman was 'invented' the media was full of concerned doctors and general doh-gooders who warned of all kinds of ill-effects,
from complete deafness to increased road-deaths as a result .
However, in those +30 years, the percentage of adolescents with some kind of hearing-disorder has only increased from 3 to 5%
and in my country road-deaths have dropped from 1200 pr year to just over 200 !!
 
http://www.personal.psu.edu/afr3/blogs/siowfa12/2012/10/hearing-loss-from-headphones.html
(That doctor really cracks me up : The 60/60 rule .. 60% 'of maximum volume' . This is why medical doctors don't design amplifiers !)
Also, at least in my country, a whole new private industry, offering hearing-tests and hearing-aids to correct the faults they find, has sprung up .
That could easily explain the 2 percentage-point increase . These guys even sell hearing-aids for Tinnitus !!
For comparison :
 
Quote:

An estimated 1 in 88 children in the U.S. is on the autism spectrum – a 78 percent increase in six years that is only partly explained by improved diagnosis.
http://www.autismspeaks.org/about-us/press-releases/dramatic-rise-autism-prevalence-parallels-research-explosion

 
 
I guess watching cartoons or playing videogames makes you violent and masturbating makes you go blind !!
 
The fact is, I believe, that most people simply can't stand listening loud enough, for long enough time, for it to be as bad as they would have you believe ..
I'm not saying you can't harm your hearing with to loud music, clearly you can,
but most of us in 'the walkman generation' still hear fine .. For our age that is  
 
EDIT :
Comparing a jet-engine with music ??
Whatever, doctor-dude ....
 
EDIT 2 :
There is plenty evidence that 'organic solvents' harm your hearing :
http://ec.europa.eu/health/opinions/en/hearing-loss-personal-music-player-mp3/l-3/6-diagnosis-treatment.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2078137/
 
I don't know about The States, but in my country studies 'suggest' that teenagers start to drink alcohol earlier ..
And drink more of it ! 

 

[ukon16]

 Becuase headphones are portable(people listen longer) and many people crank it! That's my belief...not many folks sit for 3-4 hours in a room like the maxwell guy in front of loud speakers.
 
Ultrasone made something called S-logic that claims to be healthier for ears by simulating speakers. I have a pair and they definately had a different "soundstage" for lack of a better word....you got used to it(for good or worse; some hate it I think).
 
 
 
 

The fact is, I believe, that most people simply can't stand listening loud enough, for long enough time, for it to be as bad as they would have you believe ..
I'm not saying you can't harm your hearing with to loud music, clearly you can,
but most of us in 'the walkman generation' still hear fine .. For our age that is  

 
Some people even like to climb into speakers!! Alcohol and some drugs can make percieved music sound much lower than it really is(hence clubs cranking the music to crazy levels)
 
I've worked at alot of concerts and clubs as a Photographer; I still wonder if every club bouncer, rock band, bartender, and owner goes deth by age 50. Alot of people(myself included) have permenant tinitus(it sucks) and other minor hearing damage: It's subtle but there.

 

[Strangelove424]

Quote:

 Becuase headphones are portable(people listen longer) and many people crank it! That's my belief...not many folks sit for 3-4 hours in a room like the maxwell guy in front of loud speakers.

Maxell, not Maxwell. And for any age-impaired members out there who have no idea what ukon is referring to:
 

 
 
I never thought I'd look back at the 80's and think to myself "damn, we had our priorities straight back then"... but here I am...

 

[imawesom674]

When I first started listening to music on nice headphones I couldn't take them off and I would end up listening to them 7 hours a day every day for a while. After I took a hearing test (my parents thought I was going deaf from listening to loud) I realized I couldn't hear past 17khz which was the hearing of a 25 year old. And I'm only 15! I started taking it easy on loud music and I didn't wear them for top long at a time. Personally headphones did affect my hearing.

 

[imawesom674]

I also have been told by my uncle that if you have white noise like static from your headphones at a lie volume it will still damage your ears if you don't take them off for a long time. Hope I helped.

 

[liamstrain]

Quote:

When I first started listening to music on nice headphones I couldn't take them off and I would end up listening to them 7 hours a day every day for a while. After I took a hearing test (my parents thought I was going deaf from listening to loud) I realized I couldn't hear past 17khz which was the hearing of a 25 year old. And I'm only 15! I started taking it easy on loud music and I didn't wear them for top long at a time. Personally headphones did affect my hearing.

 
Did you have a hearing test before to compare your results? Maybe you were not able to hear above 17khz already for other reasons... and listening too loud is a problem regardless of headphones versus speakers. It's not the headphones that are the problem, it's the volume. 

 

[concordus]

I myself just recently listened too loud for about 5 hours during one week.
 
And my ears were done for now. Just simple illness (more as cold) but ears are affected too, they sometimes hurt. Now I avoid loud noises.  
 
I guess loud noises make some of the impact to overall body condition.
 
(You know those sheep's that listen to calm music, so that they grow best wool).
 
 
 
Just would love to hear more experience. 
 
Very interesting replays.

 

[squallkiercosa]

The main concern is the volume. We are surrounded by noise all the time and I still hear... Try always listening on low volume. 
IMO The best options will be IEMs to listen, or closed headphones.

 

[proton007]

I may be wrong, but more than headphones, sometimes its the background noise that we never really notice.
For those staying in cities, the average sound level of a typical street is usually > 70db. And we're exposed to it 12+ hours a day, if we keep the windows open. Headphone usage for most users is a fraction of that amount.
 
And having done a hearing test recently, the most common and easiest excuse for doctors is to blame it on headphones and IEMs.

 

[imawesom674]

I wasn't listening too loud. It was about 40-50% volume most of the time. Constant noise, like proton said, is also a big factor when you are exposed to it a long time.

 

[liamstrain]

Quote:

I wasn't listening too loud. It was about 40-50% volume most of the time. Constant noise, like proton said, is also a big factor when you are exposed to it a long time.

 
Still - you have not provided enough useful data about your hearing before, your other listening experiences (rock concerts, firecrackers, motorcycles, construction sites) or really, anything which would let us draw a direct line between your current hearing test results, and your headphone use. 
 
*shrug*

 

[proton007]

Quote:

 
Still - you have not provided enough useful data about your hearing before, your other listening experiences (rock concerts, firecrackers, motorcycles, construction sites) or really, anything which would let us draw a direct line between your current hearing test results, and your headphone use. 
 
*shrug*

Well, hearing loss at higher frequencies is generally a symptom of NIHL, but its still not as high as 17kHz. And I'm not sure audiogram tests even test frequencies that high. Mine went to 8kHz.

 

[ClieOS]

If you want to read more research papers on music vs. hearing lost, click the link in my signature to the Basic Guide to IEM, then go to the reference section. Most of those articles can be found online for free, just google.

 

[proton007]

I think a common problem is that its hard to tell the actual volume. Sliders and dials are all source based, there's no actual way to tell the dB value being produced at the headphone/IEM for a normal user.