[Kram Sacul]

I know that speakers and subwoofers can be damaged from movies with intense deep bass, like below 25hz, but are headphones at risk? I ask this because after watching Minority Report and other movies with intense bass extension yesterday I awoke to find my SR-60s disturbingly lacking their signature slam and bass. It was just flat and lifeless. I took everything apart and put it back together again and checked all connections. Later on in the day the SR-60s seemed to get back their slam and bass but I'm really paranoid if it's missing anything.

Do you think i really could've damaged them or my Gilmore Lite from watching a few bass heavy dvds, or does soda with a lot of artifical sweeteners have a terrible side effect of dulling your hearing?

 

[kramer5150]

Yes it can damage the cans, but typically you'll hear signs of distress before you suffer permanent damage.... they'll clip, "fart" or bottom out.

**edit**
Note that the human ear sensitivity changes through out the day...

Garrett

 

[White Fox]

I used to have similiar experiences listening through speakers (when I was into HT). Experience has taught me that my fears of equipment damage were probably unwarranted.

Besides human ear sensitivity changing through out the day, it's amazing how much your perception of sound can change from moment to moment, let alone from one day to the next (I find).

 

[Sinbios]

Er, it should be the amplititude of the wave (in dB) that does damage, not the frequency. Of course, in the extreme frequencies, the sound sounds a lot quieter compared to a mid-frequency sound (try this in adobe audition. generate a sine wave that sweeps from 20hz to 20khz at 0dB), so you could easily bump it to hearing damage levels (there's a chart with this somewhere... aha).

So no, bass will not cause hearing damage, really loud bass will.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sinbios So no, bass will not cause hearing damage, really loud bass will.

But what about speaker or headphone damage?

 

[Sinbios]

The speed at which the diaphram moves should do any damage at all. In fact, when it's moving slower, there's less chance of damage. However, when it's really low frequency (say, 5hz), you cease to hear it, and might turn the volume up so the amplitude of vibration goes past the limits of what the diaphram can do.

(Haha, silly me. It was late and I thought you guys were talking about hearing damage

)