Safe volume to listen to music???
Dec 3, 2012 at 6:18 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 23
Saleri

Saleri

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Hi I'm an eighteen year old male and was wondering what are safe volumes to listen to. I currently use a windows laptop and usually listen to classical pieces including symphonies, quartets, sonatas, and etc. I use my akg k240 MKII headphones and on the laptop I always have the volume at 25. Is that too high or should I go lower. Cause sometimes I do feel sharp bits of pain in my ears after an hour. After I take off the headphone for a second it goes away instantly.
 
Dec 4, 2012 at 5:12 AM Post #7 of 23
Readings on an SPL meter will vary widely depending on exactly where you position it, and since you're not going to position it inside your ear, the results will be meaningless. Generally short climaxes in classical music will be less harmful than the relentless banging of young folks' music, but I would agree that 'so loud it hurts' is unlikely to be wise.
 
 
Dec 4, 2012 at 9:16 AM Post #8 of 23
Quote:
parall3l said:
You have to buy one. They're about $40 for a cheap one. Downloaded software have guarantee on their accuracy
Click to expand...

because of the makeshift way to test the listening volume on your headphones (cutting out a piece of cardboard and all that), i knew i wasnt gonna get a very accurate measurement, but still, this is going to far:

yea, i got one of those cheap 40$ spl meters and its terrible. not even worth the money. according to the meter i got, i listen to music at 110 db, which is roughly the same volume as a chainsaw... it also measured my dads voice at 75 db, and he wasnt talking loudly at all. 
 
so i thought, ok, this is a cheapy meter, cant expect it to be that good, ill just try and be sensible about the volumes i listen to, but at least i can volume match my gear to see the differences between them. so i turn on sinegen in order to produce a single note without volume veriations and the meter just goes about measuring different levels with like, 15db differences.
i tried none the less to quickly estimate an average and try to volume match my e11 and my cmoy but i just couldnt do it. i tried several times and the volumes are always noticeably different.
 
if your getting an spl meter, get a good one. and if you still want to try out a cheap one, stay away from this one:
http://www.amazon.com/SCOSCHE-SPL1000F-DECIBLE-READER-VOLT-CAR/dp/B004TOILOA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354630488&sr=8-2&keywords=scosche+spl+meter
 
Dec 4, 2012 at 10:23 AM Post #9 of 23
I'm just really confused about all this. I never thought I listened to music very loud. And all my friends think that i listen to my music really quietly. So why would my ears have sharp bits of pain then?
 
Dec 4, 2012 at 10:53 AM Post #10 of 23
Quote:
saleri said:
I'm just really confused about all this. I never thought I listened to music very loud. And all my friends think that i listen to my music really quietly. So why would my ears have sharp bits of pain then?
Click to expand...


What headphones are you using? Some headphones have a large amount of treble which can cause pain.
 
Dec 4, 2012 at 9:24 PM Post #11 of 23
Quote:
saleri said:
I'm just really confused about all this. I never thought I listened to music very loud. And all my friends think that i listen to my music really quietly. So why would my ears have sharp bits of pain then?
Click to expand...

 
Your friends are probably deaf 
redface.gif

 
Dec 4, 2012 at 9:43 PM Post #12 of 23
Quote:
adamlr said:
because of the makeshift way to test the listening volume on your headphones (cutting out a piece of cardboard and all that), i knew i wasnt gonna get a very accurate measurement, but still, this is going to far:

yea, i got one of those cheap 40$ spl meters and its terrible. not even worth the money. according to the meter i got, i listen to music at 110 db, which is roughly the same volume as a chainsaw... it also measured my dads voice at 75 db, and he wasnt talking loudly at all. 
 
so i thought, ok, this is a cheapy meter, cant expect it to be that good, ill just try and be sensible about the volumes i listen to, but at least i can volume match my gear to see the differences between them. so i turn on sinegen in order to produce a single note without volume veriations and the meter just goes about measuring different levels with like, 15db differences.
i tried none the less to quickly estimate an average and try to volume match my e11 and my cmoy but i just couldnt do it. i tried several times and the volumes are always noticeably different.
 
if your getting an spl meter, get a good one. and if you still want to try out a cheap one, stay away from this one:
http://www.amazon.com/SCOSCHE-SPL1000F-DECIBLE-READER-VOLT-CAR/dp/B004TOILOA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354630488&sr=8-2&keywords=scosche+spl+meter
Click to expand...

 
 
Remember that the decibel scale is a log scale.  Human voice is around 70 decibels. Over 110 decibels can be physically painful.
 
http://www.kodachrome.org/salt/sunderst.htm
 
Dec 4, 2012 at 10:38 PM Post #13 of 23
Hi so I use AKG K240 MKII to listen to classical Muisc. I don't know why I get pain. I normally never listen for longer than an hour before I take an half-hour break. The headphones has a resistance of 55ohms. and thecourier most of my friends played in orchestra and choir with me..... so they probably aren't deaf.
 
Dec 4, 2012 at 10:51 PM Post #14 of 23
Quote:
saleri said:
Hi so I use AKG K240 MKII to listen to classical Muisc. I don't know why I get pain. I normally never listen for longer than an hour before I take an half-hour break. The headphones has a resistance of 55ohms. and thecourier most of my friends played in orchestra and choir with me..... so they probably aren't deaf.
Click to expand...

 
I was kidding obviously 
tongue.gif

 
the K240 MKII are known to be bright and fatiguing headphones, thats probably a reason why you have pain? 
 
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