[mattcalf]

I had a slight ringing in my ears last night which can be attributed to some fairly intense flac listening last night. And that got me to thinking about the levels of quality in relation to damage to your ears.

I figure it would be ever so minute, but wouldn't listening to high end rips of our music; lossless even be more damaging to our ears then their lossy cousins. Providing the lossy tracks don't have any rogue artifacts/corruptions.
I only think this because in theory more frequencies should be getting through.

Again, this is probably so minute a difference it's not worth worrying about but I guess it'd be interesting to find out opinions of the quality-conscious inhabitants here.

 

[CDBacklash]

Depending on the file, I guess this could be the case because a lot of lossy compressions have a lowpass filter that rolls off the top end of the spectrum, so theres less "sound" invading your ear drum. That said, the chances of highs causing damage to you are pretty low and its probably got more to do with the volume and duration than anything.

 

[NiceCans]

Unless you are only listening to isolated frequencies (i.e. test tones), I think with music it has more to do with Spl and db levels.
Plus you are more likely to listen louder if it sounds better.

Besides, I do not expect the difference in lossless vs lossy would differ in frequency range to an extent that would cause a significant difference in hearing damage if exposure to both were at the same level and duration.

 

[Rempert]

I don't think it has anything to do with those extra frequencies from 16khz+ that you can barely hear. I think you were just listening too loud for too long, and could have done the same with mp3s just as easily.

 

[tjohnusa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiceCans /img/forum/go_quote.gif Unless you are only listening to isolated frequencies (i.e. test tones), I think with music it has more to do with Spl and db levels. Plus you are more likely to listen louder if it sounds better. Besides, I do not expect the difference in lossless vs lossy would differ in frequency range to an extent that would cause a significant difference in hearing damage if exposure to both were at the same level and duration.

Isn't SPL the same as DBL?.....I do wonder are lows more damaging than highs? In other words does the eardrum get damaged by intense modulation (highs) or lower frequency but more powerful modulation (bass)?

 

[dallan]

I don't know but i get way worse fatigue listening to lower quality file even at same level but i seem to go toward turning the lower quality up to get something more out of them. Higher quality have the fullness at a lower volume.

 

[iamoneagain]

I can't find the original article and the link in this post doesn't work but it sums up about possible damage lossy audio can have. Not sure I buy it though.

Lossy compression damaging hearing? - Hydrogenaudio Forums

Found it: http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/neur-sc...er/052969.html

 

[Acix]

Better quality better for your ears and your soul...the mp3 format it's just bad compression, and this day's you can used WAV format @ Minimum 16/44.1 on your mp3 player.

 

[NiceCans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjohnusa /img/forum/go_quote.gif Isn't SPL the same as DBL?

SPL is measured in decibels.


"Sound pressure level (SPL) or sound level Lp is a logarithmic measure of the rms sound pressure of a sound relative to a reference value. It is measured in decibels (dB)."
Wiki - Sound pressure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know, wiki . . .but hey it's the weekend, it's late, I took the easy way

 

[Uncle Erik]

It's the Decibels that damage hearing. A jet engine or the report from a gun will do it, too. Those have no audiophile qualities, either, except for maybe the 1812 Overture.

 

[gregorio]

Lower quality almost always also means more noise. If a signal contains more noise then the signal will have to be amplified more to decern the detail. So in general higher quality audio is better for your ears because the same enjoyment can be experienced at lower listening levels.

Generally, the most energy in a mix is in the lower frequencies. This is because the ear has a natural roll-off in the lower frequencies starting at around 200Hz and rolling off completely by 20-30Hz. Therefore, to make low frequency sound balance with higher frequency sound we have to dramatically boost the level of low frequency sounds. A sound @ 60Hz needs to be amplified by about 1,000 times to sound the same volume as a sound at 2,500Hz. So low frequency sounds in your music are the most damaging.

If you are getting ringing in your ears (tinnitus) this is your body's way of telling you that you are listening far too loud and hurting yourself!! You may be lucky but chances are you have already caused a very small amount of permanent hearing damage. Keep listening at those levels and you will definitely cause permanent hearing damage, most likely a loss of high frequency response. Best case scenario is that you may not notice anything much if you are young but when you're older you'll start having more difficulty understanding what people are saying than others of your age. Worst case scenario is a nice trendy pair of hearing aids just to enable you to communicate with your kids!!

G

 

[feckn_eejit]

I find the better the recording, the better the source equipment, the better the amplification, and the better the headphones, the easier it is to blast since it never sounds loud/painful, just like you're getting closer to the performance...

 

[haloxt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiceCans /img/forum/go_quote.gif Plus you are more likely to listen louder if it sounds better.

This is the most important factor. They shouldn't be passing laws and putting volume limits on ipods, they should just make ipods sound like complete crap at high volumes so people learn Pavlovian dog style to appreciate low volume music. Maybe they should even just make all headphones sound like crap so people use speakers with their superior spl/volume performance. Ok I'm just kidding! But if we're just talking about the same loud volume, I agree with mattcalf, more frequencies=more stress on the ear physically, but it pales in comparison to the evil tendency to subconsciously raise the volume not knowing when to stop.