[VeXun]

Does anyone have this issue? They enjoy their music at high levels that might be damaging to their hearing? I know I have lost my hearing at least a little bit because I used to be way into car audio and I had 2 Alpine Type R's each RMS 500 or 600 Watts being powered by a Fosgate amp, I had that in my infiniti for 4 years so I assume my hearing is at least a little bit damaged because I always listened to it max volume.
 
I just got a pair of Sennheiser HD 558's and they sound amazing at high levels as well as low but the bass is almost non existant until I turn it up past like 50% I am not using an amp right now, I would like some suggestions on amps under 100$ for my HD 558's that would make a significant difference in sound quality, I would use the line out on my ipod touch and also use my samsung galaxy player 5 when iPod was charging.
 
Anyway I tend to find myself enjoying my music a LOT more when it's loud, with no distortion or anything like that of course.. I just get into it more and notice the occasional flow of Dopamine when listening to my favorite songs but at low volume even with equipment that has all the frequencies evened out at lower volumes It's just not as good.
 
I am concerned about my hearing because I love this hobby and want to for many years to come but without proper hearing I don't see that happening.
 
Any feedback would be great. 
 
I know this post is totally random and unorganized sorry.
 
Thanks!

 

[Stochastic]

Whenever I have the urge to turn up the volume I actually turn it down a notch.  You can exploit the fact that human hearing range shifts by reducing playback volume to the absolute minimum you can still discern.  Listen at this level for a minute or so and you'll be surprised how much louder your music will sound when you turn it back up to a moderate level. 
 
And yeah, using an amp might help make the music sound fuller at a lower volume so definitely get one!  I don't know much about portable amps so I'll let more informed posters recommend some.  You'll probably have better luck posting in this forum: http://www.head-fi.org/f/105/portable-headphone-amps

 

[Young Spade]

Well yea, depending on what genre of music you're listening to it'll sound "better" or more enjoyable the louder it gets, mainly anything electronic or that has artificial sounds. 
 
For the more natural stuff (vocal oriented, acoustic, classical, etc.), I go as loud as I need to obtain a full bodied sound; using an amp allows you to get that full bodied sound at a lower volume threshold, for the safety of your ears of course.

 

[Willanhanyard]

Yes I do the same thing, but not to that degree. Exactly like Stochastic said, try turning it down instead of up. The music will eventually seem to become louder as your range shifts. I listen to my music at around 1-2% volume on my amp with my HD 555's.

 

[streetdragon]

its a good way to listen to music 'louder' without actually damaging your hearing, now i wish my phone had more than 13 increments of volume levels.... each level is such a big jump

 

[VeXun]

Quote:

its a good way to listen to music 'louder' without actually damaging your hearing, now i wish my phone had more than 13 increments of volume levels.... each level is such a big jump

 
I jailbroke my ipod touch 4 and there is a tweak you can download in Cydia called "volume step" where it lets you adjust a percentage of how much the volume goes up/down each time you press volume up or down, it goes down to 30% all the way up to 300% I think. If you have an android or ios device i'm sure you could find a solution for that.