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Headphones are Dangerous

I find my Beyerdynamic DT880s not fatiguing with plenty of detail and SQ. I find open cans seem to reduce pressure on the ears.
 
Ultrasone also makes a 'Low EMF radiation' can, but I am almost positive that the level of electromagnetic radiation from a set of headphones is a moot point, and not much of a concern at all. Hearing damage however is all too real. :thumbsdn:
 
So your saying wearing head phones and turning them way up can be damaging for your hearing?


Get outta here !
 
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Mark W. said:
So your saying wearing head phones and turning them way up can be damaging for tour hearing?


Get outta here !
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:scratch2:

I read this entire thread and my thought was, just turn down the volume. Hearing damage from loud noises is cumulative over time. If you want to preserve your hearing into middle and old age, keep these loud listening sessions, both with speakers and headphones to a minimum.
 
I've worn headphones for work for over 40 years now, and a lonnnnng time ago developed the habit of only having them on when the mike was on. Pound the monitor speakers all I want...use the headphones minimally. Plenty of my contemporaries ran their Pro4As at about 11 and are paying for it now.
 
Koss has included a printed warning about hte potential for hearing damage from excessive volume levels for decades. Unfortunately for them, it appears that Chief Financial Officers are more dangerous.
 
My thought is this: A high quality headphone of any type should be able to reproduce a very broad frequency range that allows you to hear everything without turning the volume up to the point of damaging your ears. Cheap ones (especially the free ones from Apple) will tempt the user to turn it up in an attempt to drown out external sounds so you can hear more of the music. A good pair of isolation type phones will do that better at a lower volume level with far less chance of hearing loss.
 
mrt2 said:
:scratch2:

I read this entire thread and my thought was, just turn down the volume. Hearing damage from loud noises is cumulative over time. If you want to preserve your hearing into middle and old age, keep these loud listening sessions, both with speakers and headphones to a minimum.
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Right on.
 
shstrang said:
They may not be to your liking but the Grado model sr80s sound very detailed at very low levels. I can listen to them for hours without fatigue. I'm sure the sr 220's and up probably sound correspondingly better as their price increases.

I worked in commercial radio for years (as a jock on chr and country formats) and I had to constantly remind myself to turn my 'phones down. I used a variety of models ranging from akg 240 to Sony mdr v6/mdr 7506's.

Never play headphones too loud.

I'd hate to damage my hearing; I still want to buy a $50k stereo when I hit the jackpot ;-)
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I've worked in radio for over 25 years, so I use headphones every day. Sony 7506's. I have never understood why so many of my coworkers play their headphones so loud. To the point where if they take them off near an open mic it'll cause feedback. The only reason we use them is to hear what's going on when the monitors are muted because the mics are on - so just how much do they love the sound of their own voice?
When we talk about hearing damage, we're talking about nerve damage. I've got some. It manifests as a dip in my "frequency response", if you will, at around 5kHz. Prolonged high SPL's are your enemy. For me the cuplrit seems to be not only the hundreds of live music shows I've been to & the bands I've played in, but also a couple of jobs I had when I was young - and we all should have used hearing protection.
Now I have some very nice custom plugs, fitted by an Audiologist at my ENT's office. They have a 15 dB filter, but don't kill all the highs like regular earplugs. I never practice without 'em...
 
niklasthedol said:
I read somewhere that the closer or the higher pressure on the inner ear, the worse.
meaning that ear plugs are the worst, closed earphones next worst, normal open ear phones third worst and hanging ear speakers the least damaging of the bunch.

"dolph"
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This is absolutely true. You'll notice the phrase used is "sound pressure levels", rather than "loudness". How do you get PRESSURE on the eardrum? Obviously, a small, enclosed space like the ear canal being compressed at one end by a driver, will tend to give higher pressure at the eardrum end, than a speaker cone that is working across a large room (possibly with open windows or doors) will. It's obvious which one will be "hammering" the hardest on those sensitive tiny cilia of the organ of corti.

Sometimes I would LIKE to turn up the volume on my headphones, but usually fight the urge, simply because I want to retain my hearing ability!

I started being a lot more careful about exposing myself to loud noises back in my twenties, when I learned I had "supernormal" hearing, and realized I had something worth protecting. Over the years since, I've become even more protective. For the past 10-15 years, I've started wearing earplugs fairly often, when traveling around this fairly noisy city. It clearly makes a difference, not only with keeping hearing more acute, but also lowering stress levels. You don't usually realize it at the time, but even less loud noise levels, if chronic, can cause stress.

Sometimes I even where earplugs when sleeping, even though my home is quiet. I think it makes for an even deeper, more restorative sleep. But it isn't good to wear them all the time, as that could interfere too much with the natural cleansing function of earwax (which carries dust/debris that gets into the ear canal out with it, as it slowly moves towards and then out of the entrance to the ear canal).

Hidden in this experience is a tip: When you wear earplugs for hours and then remove them, everything seems much LOUDER. If you then listen to earphones, you can have the volume setting set much lower, and still feel that the music is loud enough. But because the actual volume setting is lower, the SPLs are lower, and less damage is being done. So if you have the chance, put those earplugs in well in advance of your listening sessions!

A second tip is this: Listen for shorter periods. The ear (brain) "adapts" to certain volume levels after a while, and then wants a higher level, just to maintain the same percieved volume. So the tendency is to keep turning the volume up, repeatedly over the course of a longer listening session. If you break up a longer session into more but shorter ones, with decent breaks between them, you'll be much less tempted to crank that volume know up too far.

You can listen to loud, pounding noise for the stimulation it brings, or you can retain good hearing well into an older age, but you cannot do both. Sad but true: it is a choice we all have to make. I'd rather keep my hearing longer, and live with lower volume levels. The above two techniques are major "weapons" (alongside simple willpower) that I use to do this. I hope they help someone.
 
I've used Ultrasones exclusively for about five years (as a recording musician, not for recreational listening). Before that I generally used Sony 7506's, which I always liked. The Ultrasones really do have their own thing going on, with more space, depth and detail. If several singers are recording around one mic, give them Ultrasones and each can distinguish his/her own part more clearly, resulting in better pitch control. It's uncanny, really (no pun intended).

And they do seem less fatiguing.
:music:
 
Arkay said:
You'll notice the phrase used is "sound pressure levels", rather than "loudness". How do you get PRESSURE on the eardrum? Obviously, a small, enclosed space like the ear canal being compressed at one end by a driver, will tend to give higher pressure at the eardrum end, than a speaker cone that is working across a large room (possibly with open windows or doors) will. It's obvious which one will be "hammering" the hardest on those sensitive tiny cilia of the organ of corti.
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A very important point: It does not take much to create HIGH PRESSURE in such a small chamber. That is why I do not use headphones.
 
2 months after I bought my 1st portable MP3 player with ear buds I developed tinnitus. I've been dealing with it for over a year now.
I knew the correlation right away. Now, on the rare occasion that I use it, I make sure to keep the volume down.
 
Ultrasone is a German Headphone company that did some research on this. The whole point of their "S-Logic" is that it decentralizes driver positioning and reflects the sound "off the surface of the outer ear in different directions before it enters the inner ear". I have never liked earbuds, so that seemed like a good place to start. Bottom line: they sound magnificent and my ears are fine.
As to the ULE (ultra Low Emissions): I don't think think the science is in, but they are magnetically shielded, and the German guy I met at their NAMM Booth said it is important to the European market and really costs them very little once in production. Anyhow, headphones are very subjective. I think that Ultrasone cans deserve our attention for sound, and if they help with lower SPL's, that is a great side benefit.
 
I found that the same SPL level (on speakers and headphones) is perceived to be much lower on headphones. So when you think you are playing just as loud as speakers you are actually playing much louder.

To test, play music at a comfortable level, simultaneously in both speakers and headphones, adjust the headphones to match the speakers by removing the headphones on and off. Now, listen to the speakers alone, then to the headphones alone... This test probably works on sealed cans only, but it proves my point.

I want to stay healthy so I listen to my headphones at a level matched to my speakers, it may initially feel very low, but eventually it feels like if the sound is coming out of the speakers in front of me.
 
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