Ear Damage

The high frequencies are the more prevalent tones that will cause hearing damage. However, it also needs to have enough amplitude to do so. Ringing ears caused by music are a dead giveaway that you are indeed permanently damaging your hearing. It is not necessarily the highs that do all the damage however, lows are almost as bad for you. They generally have far more amplitude and push on the timpanic membrane of the ear with far greater force. As a person with bad hearing, this was also my biggest obstacle to my career change to law enforcement. I have substantial hearing loss from 500hz to 7500hz. This was caused not by car audio, but by ear infections created by collapsed eaustachian tubes when I was a young dog. Today the old dog is paying for it. I am highly supseptible to ear infections and when I do get one, my hearing on those frequency ranges dips to about -40db wheras a normal persons hearing is up around -15db. This is a monster difference. For me the cutoff on my application is -30db in both ears in this frequency range. So if I had an infection, I was hooped. I took my test, had an infection and that was it I thought. Then the doctor had a look in the old ears, pronounced them the most scarred battleground that he had ever seen (ruptured eardrums etc.) and said to me, "can you hear me right now". he was amazed that I could. It took me 4 months for my ears to stabilize and a pass mark of about -20 db was achieved. End result, you will never ever get your hearing back once you damage it. You have the rest of your life to look forward to. Turn down the darn music, enjoy it , don't piss in the wind and protect your hearing as best as you can. To this day I will not sit in most of the vehicle I work on for people, while they sure sound good, they are too darn loud.Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.

Here is a table that will help you determine noise exposure levels in durations permissible before hearing loss is evident:______________________________________________________________                           |  Duration per day, hours  | Sound level dBA slow response____________________________|_________________________________                           |8...........................|                    906...........................|                    924...........................|                    953...........................|                    972...........................|                   1001 1/2 ......................|                   1021...........................|                   1051/2 ........................|                   1101/4  or less................|                   115Jeff

Velocity Custom Home Theater

Mobile Audio/Video Specialist

Morden, Manitoba CANADA

forbidden wrote: The high frequencies are the more prevalent tones that will cause hearing damage. However, it also needs to have enough amplitude to do so. Ringing ears caused by music are a dead giveaway that you are indeed permanently damaging your hearing. It is not necessarily the highs that do all the damage however, lows are almost as bad for you. They generally have far more amplitude and push on the timpanic membrane of the ear with far greater force. As a person with bad hearing, this was also my biggest obstacle to my career change to law enforcement. I have substantial hearing loss from 500hz to 7500hz. This was caused not by car audio, but by ear infections created by collapsed eaustachian tubes when I was a young dog. Today the old dog is paying for it. I am highly supseptible to ear infections and when I do get one, my hearing on those frequency ranges dips to about -40db wheras a normal persons hearing is up around -15db. This is a monster difference. For me the cutoff on my application is -30db in both ears in this frequency range. So if I had an infection, I was hooped. I took my test, had an infection and that was it I thought. Then the doctor had a look in the old ears, pronounced them the most scarred battleground that he had ever seen (ruptured eardrums etc.) and said to me, "can you hear me right now". he was amazed that I could. It took me 4 months for my ears to stabilize and a pass mark of about -20 db was achieved. End result, you will never ever get your hearing back once you damage it. You have the rest of your life to look forward to. Turn down the darn music, enjoy it , don't piss in the wind and protect your hearing as best as you can. To this day I will not sit in most of the vehicle I work on for people, while they sure sound good, they are too darn loud.

Amen to that, brutha! My hearing is still pretty good, but it really sucks (and is quite depressing at times) laying in bed at night, trying to fall asleep in a quiet house and you can hear the ringing in your ears, keeping you awake. It may seem "cool" to play the stereo loud and stand right next to or in front of the speakers to show off to your buddies, but you'll pay for it later in life (that's not my situation, but just an example. I too, have had ear infections and ruptured eardrums). Be good to your ears people! You'll be glad you did.

VEHICLE: 2002 GMC Sonoma ZR2

Alpine CDA-7940

AudioControl EQT x2

JL Audio 1000/1

JL Audio 10W6 (originals) x3

Kicker ZR120

Kicker ZR460

Polk GXR-6 x4

Polk GXR-4 x2

I forgot to mention - wear hearing protection whenever possible, too. I wear ear plugs when mowing the lawn, just to protect what hearing I have left. Hopefully I won't need hearing aides later in life. Gotta start now to prevent for later VEHICLE: 2002 GMC Sonoma ZR2

Alpine CDA-7940

AudioControl EQT x2

JL Audio 1000/1

JL Audio 10W6 (originals) x3

Kicker ZR120

Kicker ZR460

Polk GXR-6 x4

Polk GXR-4 x2