[gsilver]

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Do you know how low (or high?) 55 dB is?
Most cars of today have a measured background noise inside, with the engine and car running, windows closed, at way more than 50 dB!
A sports car, like a not so very new Porsche 911 RS Sport, water cooled engine and a minimum of damping materials inside the body, have up around 80 to 90 dB of background noise inside the driver's compartment!
Only the pricier cars, limo's, and luxury cars have a measured inside background noise of below 50 dB.
So if you are listening at 55 dB, you must be in a quiet room to enjoy any music!

I usually keep my music at around 55-60dB, and yes, its in a quiet room.
 
Though, when talking about volumes and vehicles: I rode my motorcycle about 45 miles (freeway) yesterday without earplugs... I'm not doing that again.

 

[Omega17TheTrue]

Ambient noise are killing the dynamic,detail and music,sound like a soup, the same song played in a quiet environment with mind focus will sound way better but again its purely subjective and "crappy" is just my personal exaggerated opinion.
 
But i disagree you can't listen to headphone all day (and i know some head-fiers do so) as it can be very dangerous for hearing EVEN at low volume because of the nature of headphones the same measured SPL are more dangerous because the sound come directly to the ears and the 2 channels are artificially separated unless like speakers or other noises.
 
The same noise at the same SPL will seem louder and more dangerous in a room than out-dour because of the close nature of the room and reflections.
 
You cant rely just SPL numbers as it is far more complicated, for example when you are doing exercise the ears internal blood pressure lower and the ears become more sensible to sound that why using earphones when doing sports is even more dangerous for hearing.
 
But again everyone is free to do as they wish as long they know the risk, headphone may cause hearing loss like almost everything and should be used with great caution if you care about your hearing.
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Why does the sound become crappy just because there is ambient noise?  I wear my Grado SR60 outside walking around.  They're open headphones.  I'm not blasting the headphones to compensate for the outside traffic noise.  I can still hear the car traffic.  I can still hear people talking.  The music sounds fine.  I'm enjoying it.  It's not overly loud.  I don't consider it in any way to be a crappy experience just because there is background noise.  In fact I rather like using open headphones outside and still being able to hear my surroundings rather than using IEMs and becoming oblivious to what is around me.  The hyped clarity and sound of the Grado is actually nice in that situation.
 
Headphones aren't inherently dangerous to your hearing.  It's all in how you use them and being aware of the volume.  At a reasonable volume you can listen to headphones all day long, even closed headphones or IEMs.
 
You can use an SPL meter to measure the volume of full size around the ear headphones.  It's simple and a good thing to do so you can get a good reference for what 70 db, 80 dB, 90 dB and even 100 dB sound like on headphones.  It's different than listening to those volumes on speakers.  Speakers let you know when they are playing loud (you can feel the loud music in a way you don't feel with headphones).  So if you are relying on that sort of physical feedback to let you know when the headphones are too loud  you will be playing the headphones way way too loud.  Learn to realize that headphones get loud differently and you can learn to keep the volume reasonable and safe.
 
Listen to big speakers in a room that has lots of sound treatments on the walls, a carpeted floor, a comfy plush chair, and a "dead" sound (sound treatments absorb the reverb and extra bass vibration) and you'll find that you are listening to the speakers louder than you expect.  That doesn't mean that acoustically treated rooms and speakers are bad for your hearing.

 

[xnor]

The artificial separation can be fixed simply with crossfeed, but I don't see how this makes headphones more dangerous.
 
I also thought that the pinna's function is to collect and amplify sound, so a speaker's volume measured at the listening position will be louder than the same SPL measured from a headphone. No?

 

[Ouspensky]

I try to always listen at safe volume levels. That said, I was given advice by my doctor to use earplugs to sleep, even if I didn't need them. I tried it and every morning my ears feel very refreshed and alert. I'm 40 now and been listening to headphones for 20 years, my hearing loss is minimal compared to the average forty year old person, and my sister who is 2 years younger. And by the way my family has a history of hearing problems, so that is why I think you just have to be careful that`s all.

 

[aimlink]

I heartily propose that your hearing has been doing well since over the last 20yrs you've been giving your hearing above average attention.

 
Quote:

I try to always listen at safe volume levels. That said, I was given advice by my doctor to use earplugs to sleep, even if I didn't need them. I tried it and every morning my ears feel very refreshed and alert. I'm 40 now and been listening to headphones for 20 years, my hearing loss is minimal compared to the average forty year old person, and my sister who is 2 years younger. And by the way my family has a history of hearing problems, so that is why I think you just have to be careful that`s all.

 

[Ouspensky]

I know....resisting the temptation of cranking up the music is tough! especially when I'm a diehard metal freak

 

[Greeni]

My listening was made exclusively with speakers until recent years, when I switched to headphones out of circumstances. My own experience has been that my hearing has deterioated somewhat faster since then. I guess there are many variables involved in the issue. For certain phones they need to be cracked up to a certain level to get satisfactory viscal impact, details and for the dynamics to gallop. For example, the 701 was referred by some to have such characteristics. It is easy to get carried away and play it a little too loud. Also, certain phones exhibit peakiness in the mid treble region which is more susceptible to causing hearing loss. In my case I found it more difficult to handle certain Grados than some other cans.
 
 
 
 
 

 

[kite7]

Here's a little bump,
 
If I were to somehow measure my headphones playing at 80dB 10-15cm away from my eardrums and I measure speakers playing at 80dB from 2 meters from my ear drums, how does proximity relate to hearing damage? I'm perceiving 80dB regardless of proximity aren't I?

 

[xnor]

kite7, I know what you're trying to say but I guess it wouldn't work to measure that way.
 
Instead, you could get an in-ear microphone, measure SPL that arrives at your ear (1) with headphones on your head, (2) with speakers located a few meters away.
 
That way if you measure the same it should be the same.
With grado (just an example) headphones however, I think you'll have to turn down the volume because of treble peaks (or the treble power in general) in the frequency response. Speakers' treble response is rolled-off naturally.