[Ampl1tude]

I've been encountering alot of children lately who are soo ignorent and shallow.

One example:

Some unfortunate boy's parent brought him to my clinic telling me that their son might have a hearing problem. I first interviewed him and it struck me on how rude and "cool" he was. He tells me he "loves" music and listens to it for awhile. I told him i loved it too and wanted to know how loud he listens to it. (He was using iPod headphones(no muffler) on some no name equipment, listens to top fourty hip-hop songs.
He gave me his headphones, blasting FULL VOLUME, (the only thing i heard when i put them on was similar to a static atomic bomb) I told him that it was way too high and that he could(obviously did) damage his hearing if he continued to listen to it like this.

Like a "gangsta" he is, he tells me off and that he ain't a sissy and that he's a man so he can handle the "flo" of the "beatzzz" **what the hell?** I asked him why he listened to it soo loud, and he told me he does because everyone else listens to it that way. I checked his ear's afterwards and he has extreme cases of tinnus, and moderate hearing loss.

I called him in a couple weeks later after the results were in and told him, and asked him to level his music down and to muffle his ipod headphones (Muffles on them reduces extensive frequency and ultrasonic rebound inside your ear). He told me that the muffles are for sissy's, and that he didn't need them because they make the music sound like ****.

He left my clinic without any progression in his issue.

Like this case, I have encountered many, many other cases similar to this one. And they are becoming more frequent and scary.

My question to all you:

Has society turned it's cheek on "music quality" and advertising harmful hearing habits? I think so.
Many ad's these days view music to be played "Loud and auditable 100 miles away". Many audio stores i visit all have one major sell point, "These are loud!"

And whats the deal on muffles on earphones? When did they become "sissy"? **Most of the kids I reviewed had this opinion(95%)**

We need to seriously put an end to this "epidemic" before it becomes a major issue. I suggest major consumer companies (Sony, Phillips, Apple, etc.) To make a bold statement on this deal. And prosumer companies to greatly increase public awareness (Many of them only get to their customers, not the general public). Also, we need to be aware and our youths need to be also.

I have gotten some schools involved in a awareness program and got some public programs for people who want to take action.

This is just my two cents. It's an issue, but its major enough for me to write something about it on a forum

Thanks for reading guys.

 

[azncookiecutter]

I have a feeling that it's going to be kids that are too stupid to turn down the volume on their mp3 players that are going to cause every mp3 player to be volume-restricted, just becasue they can't use their own common sense to do so.

 

[XxATOLxX]

I see hundreds of these types every day I go to school. My friend turns the treble up to +10 on some cheap sony earbuds and listens to it on max volume. Its just flat out dumb.

The sad thing about it is that they don't listen to anyone. The reason for listening to it at extremely loud volume is "I can feel the music" when all they can really hear is static.

 

[saturnine]

Seems like a good time to get into the hearing aid biz

Seriously, most kids these days just don't seem to listen/care. I've given up on them

 

[androgeny]

I listened to my headphones loudly when I was in high school, but it seems music and "music culture" are being pushed on kids even earlier than ever now. How many songs out there have the words "turn it up" in them? Or "play it loud"? Hell, wasn't "Play it loud" a tagline for some company at one point? The Memorex guy getting physically blown away by his music.. Don't even get me started about how loud movie theaters have become..

Unfortunately, the music industry (both artists and equipment manufacturers) seem to be too busy "fighting piracy" to bother with making hearing protection a priority, even if they wanted to.

I think the ultimate solution has already been mentioned - volume limiting is the only real option. Kids are going to turn it up all the way regardless of what you tell them or even who says it.

 

[Ampl1tude]

true.. true.

If they wanna feel the music, they mind as well strap a 12' subwoffer onto their heads and crank it up lol.

But hey, if they get hearing aids, its fine with me

more money for me, and more for the companies.

People often judge products on their output impendence also. its sad...

 

[granodemostasa]

ummm.... i believe it. i see it all the time.
brief story:
after spending a week with my IEM's ive come to realize how loud the world is. seriously, whenever i take them off the noise increases 5-10 fold, the subway, the cars, the construction. we live in a noisy world.
today at the school where i tutor after school they had a valentine's day dance (strange idea for third graders, but they had fun), the DJ had the music well over 100db, i couldn't tell how loud it was but it was loud enought for everyone to rock out to the static. even with the iem's on i had to leave...it was unbearable. i spent the rest of the day tutoring the few kids who decided not to go to the dance.
for the record, i usually listen to music enought to hear what's going on-meaning not very loud.

 

[Jasper994]

What about "smart" gear? What if your gear could tell what headphone you plugged in, and then instead of giving you volume on a scale from 1 to whatever, it gave you a decible rating letting you know how loud you are listening. Instead of regulating the max power output then, they could regulate the max volume output over a period of time, or at least allow parental control that would do this. With all of our technology, this shouldn't be that difficult or expensive to do. It would require some cooperation and standardization, but if done right, might be worth it.

 

[blip]

It's definitely something to be concerned about... Since the early days of recorded music people (mostly teenagers, but not exclusively) have listened too loud... By bringing a bigger market to headphones and thus allowing even louder sound reproduction the problem has just gotten a bit worse. But I'm not convinced that this is really a new phenomena (except in the sense that recorded music is a new phenomena)... Though that doesn't make it any less problematic.

In general, however, I think that hearing protection needs to be taken beyond music... Modern life is rather damaging to hearing in general. Case in point, riding back from a concert (which I had unfortunately forgotten to bring my earplugs to. That's not a mistake I'll make again!) on the L in Chicago it struck me that the shreek of the train was louder than the concert! Now I've never seen an SPL measurement for it but I'd guess that it is well inside the danger range... And that's just one example... I'll bet that with a little thought we could come up with all sorts of similar threats.... Grano has a couple of good suggestions already.

On a related note, I wonder whether hearing problems are historically more common today or less common? I wonder if, especially in the cities, we actually live in a relatively quiet and safe period. As far as I know there haven't been any recreations done to simulate the SPL of, say, a 19th century mill. The sound of those early industrial era devices must have been deafening... In both a literal and figurative sense.

 

[cire]

from what i see at my school, its usually the wannabe-punk-hardcore-badass white kids who do it (not making race the issue here, it just happens to be that demographic). with the type of music they listen to, they don't deserve good hearing. it doesn't bother me that idiots are getting deaf, a new type of evolution.

 

[becomethemould]

could be with them trying to show off the crap music they are listening to. i reckon there should be a trend to have strap on speakers. sort of like a fly-boys in their cars, but only walking

 

[felixkrull6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jasper994 What about "smart" gear? What if your gear could tell what headphone you plugged in, and then instead of giving you volume on a scale from 1 to whatever, it gave you a decible rating letting you know how loud you are listening. Instead of regulating the max power output then, they could regulate the max volume output over a period of time, or at least allow parental control that would do this. With all of our technology, this shouldn't be that difficult or expensive to do. It would require some cooperation and standardization, but if done right, might be worth it.

I wish there was "smart" gear to tell you what decibel level that you're listening at. Headroom lists a warning about your hearing on their stuff and they have something on there that says, "As a general rule, sound pressure levels under 80 decibels will not damage hearing, even if experienced continually. On the other hand, anything over 100 decibels may cause permanent damage very quickly." I'm glad they put this info in but I have no idea what's 80 decibels and what's 100 decibels.

Having said that, common sense will usually tell me what is comfortable for my ears but the technology would certainly help people trying to explain to kids the effect that the volume of their music is having on their hearing.

In no way though do I want this regulated. Companies should put a warning on their devices, like Headroom and almost all others do and leave it that. People should take responsibility for their own actions. For children under 18 that would be up to their parents.

 

[ojnihs]

The whole problem with kids listening to their music too loud seems to be a rampant issue these days. Even when I'm walking back and forth from class here at Northwestern University, I see kids walk by with the white iPod ear plugs blasting music. I just can't understand how loud the music must be for the music coming out of earbuds to be audible to others as we're walking down a busy main road in Evanston.

It's definitely a problem, and it's especially interesting that our school published an research article on this exact issue. It was even printed in our daily school newspaper. It's either ignorance or sheer disinterest in the damage that insane listening levels can cause to our ears that motivates even some of the brightest kids in the nation to turn it up.

 

[Ampl1tude]

I know Hi-End receives displays its' output by displaying the dB's. But this hasen't been forwarded onto DAP's. I think DAP's should have a system of displaying these numbers. It's been inherited by the sterophiles for quiet awhile now, we should move it onto DAP's.

There are warnings on boxes, etc. but no one reads them. The only real solution for this problem is to directly communicate with these kids via. media, music, entertainment.

 

[7even]

I never listen loud enough to drown out the outside world (with non-isolating headphones), and I often get left with the upper-midrange and the high tones in my music on my commute to school daily. Sad thing is, there is usually someone sitting on the other side of the car with their headphones so loud I can actually tell what they're listening to without even turning down my music

I wouldn't mind having a dB output level on my iPod or such.. Even though I know I dont really listen to my music loud (in a quiet library, I use the same volume, and if I take my headphones off they still make no sound), it'd still be interesting...