Ear Damage

here is an idea, DONT PLAY THE MUSIC SO LOUD AND UR HEAD WONT HURT

jammybstard wrote:

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Could it be that a system with a wider frequency range is either better (Less worse) for your hearing than a basic car stereo thats been cranked up?

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To compensate for the lack of lows you were probably cranking your mids and highs.  You were probably clipping whatever amplifier you have and hitting some awful distorted peaks.  This would give anyone a headache. 

Now that you have some bass filling out the frequency spectrum, you're probably not playing the highs as loud, not clipping the highs as much, and your head doesn't hurt as much.

Pick up a rat shack SPL meter if you're really concerned about your hearing.  Try not to listen at 90db+ for longer than an hour. 

Velocity Motors has been in this field for a long time and I'm just a rookie, but I haven't heard that it was the high freqs that do the damage.  My impression from what I've read is that it is pure SPL, whatever freqs that sound pressure contains.  They could be lows or highs or pink noise or a bomb blast.  The sound pressure damages the hairs that line the ear canal and cause them to be bent, like an old crippled man.  They just don't get upright again.  Sound waves that hit those hairs become crippled, too, and the difference in sound becomes apparent when listening to high frequencies, like the 'sss' sound when a word is spoken in plural.  The 'sss' is hard to hear.

About 10 years ago I was in this local nightclub, standing close to one of the bands rear speaker setups.  The band was one of my wife's and my favorite bands, but there would come a time in the set when the three lady vocalists would get together and belt out some Pointer Sisters kinda stuff together...and I was standing at the wrong place.  That shrieking sound went right through my head.  Soon after that, everything and everyone started sounding like The Chipmunks.

Things cleared up the next day and I thought I was hearing normally again.  A day or two later, I was driving up the highway, in silence, enjoying the sounds of the summer crickets and cicadas.  Ah, the sounds of summer, I thought. 

Then It suddenly occurred to me that it was early March and my windows were all the way up.  I had ringing in my ears.  The ringing is still there today and there's nothing I can do about it.  And it sounds remarkably like summer crickets and cicadas with some electronic noise mixed in.  And oh,  it's in stereo!

I know it was high freqs from those girl singers, but I also know it was high decibels because of where I was standing.  What I don't know is which one of the two factors caused the partial hearing loss in my right ear.  I just know it sucks.  You just have to adapt.  But realize it can happen at any time...which should be a warning to be aware at all times.

I put a hole in my ear drum about 9 years ago back when i had my dually with 12 15s. doctor said its just a pin hole but i can no longer race my dirtbikes and mountian bikes like i used to. my balance is terrible and my ears ring all the time.I listen to alot of systems with earplugs when i test them now, Even my three little tens when i show it off to friends and customers.   point is take care of your ears or your spending all that money on equip for nothing if u cant here it

forbidden wrote:

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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.

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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.