Protect your Ears!!

minimal · Post by **minimal** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:02 pm

Since I'm working in an enterprise which builds hearing aids I did today a hearing loss test, as if I was the old man going to the audiologist in order to measure the hearing loss.
Shit.
I have prefect hear on the left, but on the right a light hearing loss in the 4-8K Hz, where the human voice is better heard, like -10 dB loss.
This is not a problem yet, but the guy told me if I don't protect my ears at parties and pay attention to the volume in studio in a couple of years I could have serious hearing loss expecialy in the 4-8 K frequency range.

So poeple, PROTECT YOUR EARS BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!

Ps. if someone needs some technical advices or other info feel free to PM me anytime.

All the best and stay groovy

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:13 pm

Yeah. I've got the same, though not as severe but on both ears. It's quite common, sadly.

In these days of MP3 players with 12h batteries, it's particularly important. The volumes that most mp3 players can produce are something you should be exposed to preferably less than one hour per week...

minimal · Post by **minimal** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:15 pm

noisetonepause wrote:Yeah. I've got the same, though not as severe but on both ears. It's quite common, sadly.

In these days of MP3 players with 12h batteries, it's particularly important. The volumes that most mp3 players can produce are something you should be exposed to preferably less than one hour per week...

yes, and what about clubs, bars, cinema (I don't go anymore to cinema due to f**** dolby surround whatever systems), always too loud.

And in these years of MP3, who cares if you lose the top and low end of your ears since the are not in the MP3 files???

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:53 pm

yeah, I think I read that the Ipod Shuffle could produce 130 dBs?

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 4:09 pm

my left ear makes noises at night , thanks to spending 7 years on stage next to a 'sidefill' IE fucking huge 1k ear killer.

I think we had an ear-death thread on here a while back, for the newbs the general idea is .. you aren't a real man unless at least one of your ears has stopped working!

I'm joking of course

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 4:12 pm

I think they're capped at about 100 dB (thank you France) like the other iPods, but I'm not sure... I have one and it doesn't get stupid loud like my old cd walkman thingy which could block out the sound of a screaming child on the seat behind you on the train... handy, but still..!!

I think a good idea is to use noise reducing headphones, or at least closed ones, if you're trying to block out city noise.

marsh240sx · Post by **marsh240sx** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 4:12 pm

w00t... one of my ears is almost there

Left side hears low freq better then my right ear for some reason. and then some random ringing in my right ear.. good stuff.. just walk it off BOY!

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 4:29 pm

Damaged hearing is gone. For good.

Tinnitus comes and doesn't go.

It's a shit deal, really.

Chris J · Post by **Chris J** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:17 pm

yes I'm a tinitus sufferer, with 30% down at 4000Hz on both ears, due to noise exposure, I've done lots of gigs in the past, the ones that killed me were when I was playing guitar with the amp at ear level.
The whistling in my ears is constant, but sometimes feels much louder depending if I'm exposed to loud noises, if I'm tired or stressed or if I've worked with Live ! because you can do so much stuff without stopping, you don't realize you've been hearing music non stop for a long while.
I also suffer from hyperacousy (might not be the right name) which makes even soft noises painful and creating a ring with a long decay. For instance putting a glass on a table, or dishes hitting each other.
At least I'm not deaf (yet?

)
Needless to say I used to feed on loud rehearsals, gigs, working with loud headphones.
Now I need earplugs to pass the hoover

elemental · Post by **elemental** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:17 pm

Yup

Got my first tinnitus shock a year ago. It dont go away, its not fun. I know one other person who has it much worse than me, she almost went crazy, but she seems ok now.

I wear pro moulded plugs wherever I go out - even in noisy bars.

I can deal with it now, but if i'd known 10 years ago about the dangers, well I might have ignored the advice but at least I would have known. We were never properly educated about the dangers of raving at school - but really, how were our teachers/parents to know when most of them did not grow up with the rave/club culture?

Bottom line - we must educate each other and esp the younger generation. Whenever u hear ringing after a club, it means your ears are a little (or a lot) more fucked than before, and its totally irreversible.

scottorlans · Post by **scottorlans** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:26 pm

This is an important topic, and I'm glad we're discussing it here. I have a pair of ER20 earplugs that I carry with me at all times to wear in high noise environments. They are designed with musicians in mind to attenuate frequencies evenly so that they don't mess with the tonal balance of the music, just reduce it by 20db. Of course the best solution is to go pro and get custom fitted plugs, but for the musician on a budjet or partygoers, the ER20 pair is about 15-20 bucks. As opposed to several hundred for a pro fitted pair. Either way, I spent a lot of time not thinking about my hearing, and luckily I have avoided severe damage this far, but I'm not taking chances any more. As a musician my ears are my greatest asset, my "eyes" into the music. That is worth preserving at all cost. Besides all of that, I actually PREFER wearing plugs at the club, you can still feel the power of the bass through your body, but you can really hear all of the parts much more clearly with reduced resonance, distortion, and muddyness. Even voices are easier to hear in the club environment due to the way these are designed, so don't worry about being to seperated from the people. Anyway, I've rambled enough, but yes, please everyone protect themselves!

clipperer · Post by **clipperer** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:02 pm

those are some serious things...
but what about headphones, anybody have some horror stories how headphones kill ears...
is it true that some hps prevent from hearing damage?

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:08 pm

"Engineers who damage their ears find themselves with short careers."

My favorite rhyme. Heh heh.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:47 pm

clipperer wrote:is it true that some hps prevent from hearing damage?

Yeah, the ones that don't go up to eleven

Seriously though, open headphones don't produce the same killer sound pressure as closed, so I'd start the search there.

clipperer · Post by **clipperer** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:56 pm

other way if youve got opened in noisy environment you will add some volume to heard sounds more detailed, with closed you would not need to add that volume. cause outside noise you wouldnt hear anyway if theyre rightly sealed.
but maybe im just creating illusions just to feel better cause i wanna buy closed headphones really soon.