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Remove iPod European Volume Cap
bsodmike writes "This is a complete how-to for removing the EU Cap in the new iPods allowing 104dB bliss! Thanks to everyone @ #eucap including UnixMonkey, Keaner, Silvacow, m@rk et al." Some countries have an upper limit of 100dB for consumer devices, so the European version of the iPod is "crippled."
If you listen to your iPod at 100+ dB for a prolonged period of time, you might find yourself with hearing loss. Broken iPods can be fixed or replaced, but unfortunately your eardrums are permanent, and non replaceable.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
Why the fuck do people bother with that crap? Do they really think that they have cunningly found a legal loophole that every lawyer in the world has missed? Do they not realise that if they trotted out that defence in any court in the world the judge would just laugh at them?
Gah.
An increase of 3dB is equivalent to doubling the power output. 4dB is quite significant.
It said "140db" cap! Hot damn! If it did that, I'd buy 2 for my car and drive around like a hoodlem.
Seriously, who thought that people needed to be protected from a portable music player? How much money was spent in the House of Reps. and Senate debating, drafting, and approving this bill? If you want to make a device that plays 125dB through headphones, fine. If people want to listen to it at that level, fine. If a year from now, that person is deaf, too bad. Don't listen to music that loud, dumbass. Can't we just get to government to quit trying to protect us from ourselves?
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
Not if it's soft notes in classical music.
Gay Paris, indeed.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
Decibels are logarithmic. Thats 4 orders of maginitude.
Why not fork?
It's not just European units. It seems to be all iPods outside of the United States.
I know that personally, my first generation 10GB model iPod was volume dropped, and I'm in Australia.
will be branded assholes.
Think you are being polite wearing earphones in a computer lab or library? Think no one can hear you? You are wrong!!!
Only those full-size aircraft-or-studio-style headsets can attenuate the sound enough for other people to be oblivious to the crap-rap within.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
This has nothing to do with DRM, the DCMA, or whatever the hell you think you're talking about. Not everything defined limit on technology in the world is.
e n/ artikel.asp?lngCategoryId=1312&lngArticleId=26 33
In fact, this is legislation that defines appropriate maximum volumes for noise-emitting consumer devices in public or workplace areas in different countries in the EU.
http://www.econsumer.konsumentverket.se/mallar/
It's a little different than being told by some protecting-its-assets company what you can and can't do with the product you bought (like Microsoft stepping on Xbox modding, and using the widely abused DMCA to do it). If you use a stereo in public in some EU countries, and you crank it up over 100dB, you are breaking the law. They don't really care about your possessions and what you want to do with it, and they have no reason to.
I LOVE this, actually, and wish they'd implement it where I live (Virginia). I'm trying to watch a movie in my house, for example, with my girlfriend, and we want to sit and enjoy the movie. We DON'T want some asshat sitting at the stop light with his BIG FAT SPEAKERS going insane and making our drinks ripple from a hundred feet away.
Do a little reading next time, please.
Mikey-San
Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
This will increase the amount of sound reaching your ears by 4dB.
--- Jason Olshefsky
Karma: Poser (mostly affected by adding this line long after everyone else did)
Absolutely. My (Australian) iPod is far too loud to listen to at full volume. My cousin however, complains about its lack of volume. He's 22 and made a habit of listening to SHOCKINGLY LOUD MUSIC CONSTANTLY for the last 4 years.
Of course like most people who've fucked their hearing so early he denies he's hurt anything. Sucks to be him I suppose.
I find my iPod (I bought it in the US) is generally pretty low in volume, as are some others I've listened to. Dropping the volume down even more sounds nonsensical to me. I've tried editing & normalizing the mp3 files themselves to get maximum volume from them in case there was a problem with the inbuilt iPods normalizing, but that didn't help any.
(and no my hearing is fine)
Before everyone starts going off on 104db being too loud for people to listen to without hearing loss (oops, too slow everybodys started already), people might like to consider a totally valid reason for this patch: the SPL of 104db is only generated when utilising the supplied headphones with the iPOD. If you choose to use better quality yet less sensitive headphones then you will need a higher output to generate the same SPL. However, you are not currently permitted by the powers that be to do this. Also, some people may be listening to non-normalised sound files which have an average volume considerably lower than your average normalised recording. The peaks in non-normalised recordings will be much more likely to be transients which are much less likely to cause problems, but are you "permitted" to raise the average output level up to a reasonable level? I think not...
The only Good System is a Sound System
Not really, 4 orders of magnitude is increasing it a thousand times (10^4).
"bels" are factors of 10, whic most people mean when they speak of orders of magnitude. decibels are one-tenth of a bel, hence the prefix. 4 dB is 4/10 of a factor of 10, or something like a factor of 2.5.
1 dB is is a factor of 1.26, i.e. a 25% increase.
Further complicating the situation is that most people don't listen to their music with an acoustic power meter. Psychoacoustically, there is a non-linear relationship between perceived loudness and acoustic power. The commonly quoted "10 dB is twice as loud" is not an exact relationship, but is rather close at low sound levels.
Ah, I meant 10000 times...
ok, I was wrong...mod the guy who explained the bel vs. decibel thing up instead of me.
Why not fork?
...than your hearing! We're all used to thinking of ourselves as immortal, especially when we are young. When I was a teenager I used to listen to a Sony walkman fully crankin'. Now I have well over a decade of suffeing with tinnitus. Anything over 90db is damaging to the ear. One hearing specialist said that listening to headphones is akin to jamming a pair of firehoses into both ears and turning the water on full blast in terms of the damage it'll do to your hearing. It may sound like hyperbole, but it probably isn't that far from the truth!
Tinnitus can cause depression, sleeplessness and a host of other psychic and physical maladies. From a personal perspective, if you hear a loud noise that annoys the hell out of you you have two choices. 1)Walk out of the room where you hear the offending noise 2) Turn the sound down! If you have tinnitus, you can't do either of those things. You just have to live with it. There is no cure and by the time you realize that the ringing in your ears isn't going away that's about it. You will hear that sound for the rest of your life! Unless, of course nanomedicine can provide a cure, but don't hold your breath or hang your hopes on that one!
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
104 dB is (10^0.4) = 2.51188643150958 times louder than 100 dB.
2B = 10 times louder than 1B
2dB = 10^0.1 times louder than 1dB
got it?
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Anyone remember the Sup 'R' Mod, the little RF modulator that cost, IIRC, $29.95 and allowed you to use your Apple ][ with an ordinary television receiver instead of a monitor? In those days, a dinky little green-screen monitor cost $150 or so, and few people invested in color monitors. All Apple stores carried them, they were as automatic a part of the sale as the camera store selling you a roll of film with your new camera.
The supposed story is that this was the actual modulator Apple had PLANNED to build into every Apple ][, but this was about the time the new FCC regs came into effect and, with the modulator, it didn't meet them. So they quickly set up a deal with the company that became Sup 'R' Mod. It was illegal for Apple to sell an Apple ][ with the modulator IN it, but perfectly OK for a company to sell the modulator by itself, and OK for an end user to PUT the modulator in.
I remember thinking at the time that the modulator fit so nicely and installed so easily, almost as if it were MADE to go there.
OK, mod this down as off-topic... it would only be a good parallel (and hence on-topic) if Apple had assisted with and winked at the defeat of the volume limitation, and I don't think they did.
Except that they aren't.
Eardrum repair is actually fairly common, and I'd know. I currently sport a 31-year old eardrum and a 7-month old eardrum. And before anyone goes off about it being the Tympanic bones that get damaged, rather than the drum itself, they can give you prostetic bones, as well.
I tried to talk my Dr. into giving me bionic bones/membranes, but he wasn't too into the idea.
A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself.
It's not your eardrums that are damaged, but the cilia in your cochlea. These are fine hairs that are vibrated as sound waves travel past them, and stimulate the nerves to which they are attached.
These hairs do not recover from damage. Once the hair is killed, you have lost the ability to hear the frequency that hair was "tuned" for.
You will experience permanent, irreversible hearing damage at 104dB within five minutes.
Decibel Exposure Time Guidelines
Accepted standards for recommended permissible exposure time for continuous time weighted average noise, according to NIOSH and CDC, 2002. For every 3 dBs over 85dB, the permissible exposure time before possible damage can occur is cut in half.
Continuous dB Permissible Exposure Time
85 db 8 hours
88 dB 4 hours
91 db 2 hours
94 db 1 hour
97 db 30 minutes
100 db 15 minutes
103 db 7.5 minutes
106 dB 3.75 min (< 4min)
109 dB 1.875 min (< 2min)
112 dB .9375 min (about 1 min)
115 dB .46875 min (about 30 sec)
Don't fuck with loud sounds. It's just not worth it.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
These hairs do not recover from damage.
Are you saying loud music is a major cause of baldness?
Mom: "That there rock noise is evil and will make you sick!"
Shoulda listened Mom...
I cranked my pc's sound up to 104dBs and then turned on text-to-speech. Now all I hear is the piercing sound of CmdrTaco telling me that I'm an insensitive clod and the neighbors have called the cops! Thanks, thanks a lot guys.
Thanks to all who pointed out that it's a European regulation. Guess I spent too much time listening to music at 125dB and scrambled my brains.
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
IIRC, Apple did this because France complained about the 104dB Max volume. iPod sale was banned in France for a short while over this. Blame the French ! :)
Whoa, a direct link from Slashdot to a page describing how to break the law in Europe. Cue the scary music. Can we expect links to 0-day warez anytime soon?
Care to be asshole buddies?
The parent deserve to be modded up. It's funny!
And no, *hand-comb my forehead* I don't listen to music anymore...
Wait, you meant to tell me that 3.75 is less than 4, and that 0.9375 is about 1? Get outta here!
There are no tiger attacks in my area and it's all because this rock I'm holding keeps the tigers away.
...the idiots who played their iPods too loud in the first place?
Seriously, do you actually like this paternalistic, babysitter mentality coming from most governments nowadays? Whatever happened to being responsible for your own actions?
This is not intended as flamebait; this is an honest question.
Not in acoustic dB. In acoustic dB (at least as used in my college physics classes), an increase of 10dB is 10 times the power whereas with REAL dBs, an increase of 10 dB is 10.079... times the power. I know that the two were different in my class because I used real dBs and got bunches of questions on the computer-graded homework wrong. Stuff like "An increase of 30 dB is an increase of how many times in power?" I answered 1024 (2^(30/3)) because that's the answer that it would have been if that had been antenna gain, but the answer that the computer wanted was 1000 (10^(30/10)). Because we didn't get feedback as we answered questions, I got almost every single one of those problems wrong.
Does that mean I will be deaf in 316,452 years even if I only listen to absolute silence? =)
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
No, statistically, you will probably become permanently deaf around 78 years of age.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Why did you install 1.2.4 iPod update if you _now_ want to get away the European volume control software update?
I am european, and never bothered to install that (1.2.4) update to my iPod so I don't have to wonder how to undo it.
If you did not install it there, it is not there, period.
I can see how you got the 10.079 figure by extrapolating from "+3 dB is twice the power," but that statement is wrong. There's no difference between "acoustic" and "real" dB. +10 dB is ten times the power, no matter what dB scale you're using. People just say "3 dB is twice the power" because it's easier to remember than "3.0103 dB is twice the power" which is actually true.
I have a positive modifier on Troll. When I mod someone Troll their karma should go UP!
This assumes, of course, that they're talking about 100+ dB of sound pressure (SPL).
But that's completely ludicrous. The SPL levels are a function of the speaker/headphone design and proximity to your ears in addition to the power output of the amplifier.
A dB is a unit of ratio between a given level (power, pressure, whatever) and a reference level.
In this particular case, they're probably talking about dBu or dBV or dBm or some other ratio involving output voltage/power levels.
104dBu is not the same as 104dBV which is not the same as 104dBm. Either one can translate into high SPL levels, low SPL levels, or anything in between, depending on what kind of speakers, headphones or other amplifiers are attached.
According to Apple the iPod can put out up to 30mw of RMS power per channel. This is about 29 dBm (20 log(30) ),so it's obviously not what the original article is talking about.
I'm actually rather curious now to know what that unqualified "104 dB" figure is referring to, since every different brand/model of headphones you use will have a different SPL for any given power level.
How absurd.
The iPod does not get that loud... or, at least mine never will. The loudness has to do with the size of the earphones, and if you use regular sized earphones with your iPod you find that the current it provides isn't enough to drive the larger magnets at a high volume.
Thus, my problem is more often that he iPod is too quiet, not too loud, especially in noisy environments.
This is just another example of the idiot state deciding it knows what's best for people and ignoring not only the fact people should have human rights (like self determination) but also the laws of physics!
The loudness of a device without builtin speakers is dependant on the size of the speakers its asked to drive! In this case, even my unrestricted US iPod is too quiet with my prefered headphones.
Government is a disease masquarading as its own cure.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
0 dB SPL is not the same as absolute silence. So no--it would take an infinite amount of time, I guess. (What's 1/0?)
:-)
HTH
WM
P.S. If you already knew that...sorry for the useless post.
Yeah bionic hearing is cool and all, but it sucks having to hear "doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo" every time you try to listen to something.
- Steve Austin
Just look at Pete Townsend.
Nope, i got one up for all that are interested:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze32583/index.html
Visit and d/l quick, as the other mirrors were shut down due to weirdo stuff.
Not one comment actually discussing the article and how to do it. In fact, the article no longer exists. So slashdotters, no mirrors? No karmawhoring?
How do we remove that volume cap? I have my ipod in my car and the extra input volume makes a big diference into my stereo
Well, this is the method apparently:
--
Solution to the EU Volume Limitation!
E.U. iPod sound limitation here's the solution
OK guys, here's the ultimate solution to your European iPod sound limitation problem. It worked sweetly on mine, only 5 minutes ago.
Go to TinkerTool (a small utility u can download at download.com) and tell it to display hidden files and folders.
Double click the iPod icon on the desktop.
Go to folder (iPod_control->device)
There you'll find a file named "Limit".
Send it to trash, and empty trash.
Unmount the iPod and voila, no more worries. Just watch for your ears coz now you'll get the maximum ur baby can give.
not to hear music at deafening volume is the point, but to be able to jack the ipod into the stereo without having to ramp up the volume on the amplifier...
...and the next time switching back to radio having instantly the neighbor knocking at the door...
unsig
Looking at thread, you all speaking on some "LOUDNESS" addition by 4 dB. I think it's total miss.
;)
As I haven't seen that EU law text itself, I assume that it is not about health, but about some kind of DRM.
Look: they (EU rules) are speaking not of LEVEL OF LOUDNESS itself - it is affected not only by output power, but by far more parameters - sensitivity of earphones, for example. In reality nobody can measure LOUDNESS level IN YOUR EAR.
They (EU rules) are about DYNAMIC RANGE, for sure. Range between loudest and quietest sounds thet device can reproduce.
Look: "upper limit of 100dB for consumer devices" guaranteed that sound passed thru analog output will be worser, than Audio CD digital source.
That's it.
PS Don't bother with it - to utilise 100 dB dynamic range you have to play at 100 dB OVER SURROUNDING NOISE, that will be 130-150 dB (as my estimate), and will scare you!
Does anyone have a link to a mirror of the page, or the same information elsewhere? Regardless of the uninformed witterings over a 100db cap on iPod output, I'd still like to de-cap mine; it gets used via an Autocom system in my motorbike helmet, and the volume's a bit low when you're playing it out of helmet-mounted speakers through earplugs.
...yeah
but Apple SUPPLIES earphones with the iPod, so i think we can safely assume that it's the efficiency of those that we're talking about.
That was classic intercourse!
"The loudness of a device without builtin speakers is dependant on the size of the speakers its asked to drive!"
No it isn't, it's dependent on the EFFICIENCY of the 'speakers its asked to drive. Large 'speakers are often more efficient than smaller ones.
That was classic intercourse!
It is possible to replace the cochlea via a cochlea implant, which involves inserting electrodes inside the cochlea. A speech processor, either worn around your waist or around your ear like a hearing aid picks up sound and converts them into electrical signals. These are sent through your skull by means of a small pad, which also powers the electrodes. However, you can only fit a finite number of electrodes inside the cochlea. This means only a certain number of nerves can be stimulated, meaning everything you hear sounds very "robotic". On early processors human speech would sound almost like a Dalek, but the quality of sound is now vastly improved.
The drawbacks - they cost around $20,000, and your insurer / health provider won't pay up if your deafness is a result of listening to loud music.
Where I can get FULL specs on iPod?r t_Area/M anuals/specs/hardware/L16749C_EN.pdf
Can somebody point me to something other (deeper) than Apples link?:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/Apple_Suppo
I want to tell that I can't find ANY info on iPod SNR ratio, distortions, dynamic range.
Only thing about 104 dB there is about sensitivity of earphones on 1mW of output power and this is surely nothing to deal with by hacking.
Where that 104 dB of output (range?) come from?
Actually, that choice is up to the manufacturer. Your choice is whether or not you want to buy it.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Erm, No.The whole point of the story is that it is not the manufacturers choice but it is being imposed onto the manufacturer by the powers that be.
The only Good System is a Sound System
They likely are talking about dB SPL. Remember, pressure is force divided by area, and pressure is scaler. The headphone speaker diaphragm puts out a force. When you hold the headphone out in the open air, that force is divided by an (effectively) infinite area, and the resulting SPL is very low.
But when you put that speaker diaphragm into your ear, the total interior area of your ear canal is very small. Divide the diaphragm force by the small ear canal area, and you have a large pressure. Voila! High SPL.
Have you ever seen an acoustic calibrator or pistonphone? This is exactly how those devices work. They usually output 94 dB or 114 dB SPL. If you listen to them in the open air, you barely hear the signal, but if you put them against your ear, you could blow an eardrum.
You should get a Xin super-mini headphone amp from fixup.net.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
My eardrums are already damaged, you insensitive clod. I need to be able to turn it up.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
She should sue them for damages. It's negligent of them to play the sound dangerously loud.
I say this not because I like lawyers or want them to make more money, but because I'm sick of the ridiculous state of play that bands turn the volume up way too loud and expect everyone to wear earplugs. Of the last three live shows I've been to, two of them were ruined by the sound system being turned up way too high... one was painful even *with* earplugs.
#1: Autechre. The whole appeal of Autechre is the delicate intricacy of their music. Live, however, it was like being on the beach at D-Day, operating a jackhammer, while someone on the horizon fiddled with a shortwave radio.
#2: Wire. Seminal band, incredible poetic lyrics. Which were totally inaudible. Bruce Gilbert stormed off the stage in disgust at the end.
I've almost given up going to live shows, but every now and again someone like Negativland or Royksopp does it right.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
No need to hack the iPod, just use more efficient headphones.
Duh.
BTW, The site's gone, thanks to Apple.
Nothing to see here; Move along.
> Don't fuck with loud sounds. It's just not worth it.
I have to disagree.
Fucking with loud sounds is so much better than doing it silently.
I'm not sure if anyone else has said this (people were bitching about the EU at post 100, so...), but the site's been pulled.
That explains alot. I don't only use my iPod with headphones, I very often use it with external (unpowered) speakers. And guess what? It's damn soft! I have to turn off Sound Check to get the last few % of volume. :-@
:-(
And my left headphone bud is starting to rattle...
C'mon, don't be hooked by word.9 9.html
...The l6-bit wordlength of CD allowed an unshaded dynamic range of about 94dB, although DVD-Audio supports word-lengths up to 24-bits, or a dynamic range of about 142dB if this could be realised in the production chain."
i ng2.PDF :" ... we have no problem measurind (and hearing) signals of -110 dB in a well-designed 16-bit channel... "
There exists DVD-Audio, SACD, etc.
Look at this:
http://www.aes.org/sections/uk/meetings/04
British section of audio engeneering society
"Peter Eastty, Chief Consultant Engineer of Sony Broadcast Europe, described the fundamentals... [skip]... of the SACD....
[skip]
By the way, take a look at this, for example:
Coding High Quality Digital Audio by Bob Stuart
http://www.meridian-audio.com/w_paper/Cod
Where stated that
This is Meridian, and similar tecniques are used almost by all high-q CDDA players from noticeable labels (Sony is one of them, meaning wide spread of such CD players)
Eh, that moderator will burn with M2...
Is this dB just on the European styles or is it on the iPods sold in America as well? Just want to find out because I don't want to risk any hearing loss.
I've been to over one hundred concerts that were a few hours long. Loud.
I go to the dragstrip weekly. Me and my friend drive cars with no mufflers.
I work landscaping/construction. Ear protection?
I ride a Harley, as do many of my friends.
I can hear fine. I passed with flying colors at the occupational health testing place.
These hairs do not recover from damage. Once the hair is killed, you have lost the ability to hear the frequency that hair was "tuned" for.
Actually this is not quite true, for most people they grow back within a couple of days.
There are certain times when this doesn't happen but in general a week should be sufficent to give you your hearing back.
Michael
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
Same here, actually it worked quite nicely until I did a firmware upgrade to 1.3 and all of the sudden my iPod was a lot more quiet. I noticed because now sometimes the truck rumbling by is louder than my music :(
M.
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
Uh, is a basic understanding of electronics too much to ask for slashdot posters?
You have a larger magnet in a larger speaker, thus it takes more current to move it... the iPod maxes out at a given current, and thus the volume is less.
Just get some regular cover-the-ear headphones and compare them to the ipod buds and you'll see.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
Actually, dental care in the UK is still free if you:
And I can find no data on poorer people preferring to spend on cigarettes etc. than on health care for their children. Do you have any data to back up your assertion?