[blse59]

I notice with brighter headphones it sometimes feels like the treble energy is digging a hole in my ear drums.

 

[jodgey4]

Yep... that's why bassheads can listen so loud! I think frequencies past 20kHz can also do lots of damage as well, yay being a drummer.

 

[kramer5150]

Spiky / peakey treble thats boosted over the upper mids triggers mild tinnitus with me.   Its the same sound as clinching your jaw really hard.  So cans like the DT880 are off my list (unfortunately).  I have trained myself to be a very low volume listener... pretty much out of necessity.  My amps are used more as attenuators and impedance matching.  They really serve no purpose as far as signal gain/boost goes.

 

[billybob_jcv]

I'm not sure if the higher frequencies cause more damage. I'm wondering if it could be related to the "equal loudness contours" that show that humans hear sounds in the range of the human voice better than at other frequencies. I wonder if that means that since we do not hear very high frequencies and very low frequencies as well, we tend to turn the volume up to hear those frequencies, which would increase our chance of hearing damage from those frequencies, since the SPL will be higher. Or, I could be looking at this completely wrong...

More info:
http://american-hearing.org/disorders/noise-induced-hearing-loss/#frequency

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I notice with brighter headphones it sometimes feels like the treble energy is digging a hole in my ear drums.

 
Not necessarily, you just notice it more - it's more of your brain than the resonant frequency of your ear drums. Same thing when someone scratches a blackboard - a treble squeak at 85dB is generally more painful than a bass hit at 88dB.

 

[davidsh]

Higher frequencies are more harmful to our hearing, though that's not necessarily the only reason that bright headphones can seem unpleasant to listen to. See above response for example.
Yet this is generally not problematic I think, as most often the sound pressure falls with frequency on most recordings.