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Is the iPod Generation Going Deaf?
prozac79 writes "Ars Technica and Wired News are both running interesting articles on how personal music players are a major contributor [ArsTechnica] to early hearing loss [Wired]. According the ArsTechnica article, an increasing number of people are now living in "noisy" environments that is only made worse by blocking it out with even louder music. The article also suggests that listening to music for one hour a day is considered safe. So now you have a choice... go deaf early or go insane listening to your coworkers chatter."
I have a pair of Bose Quietcomfort headphones, and I wonder if the noise cancelling is actually damaging my hearing. What do you think?
Win win situation. Listen to music until you're deaf, and then never be able to here your chatty coworkers again!
Let the commencement BEGINULATE!
Is the Walkman Generation Going Deaf?
US News and World Report and Newsweek are both running interesting articles on how personal tape players are a major contributor [US News] to early hearing loss [Newsweek]. According the US News article, an increasing number of people are now living in "noisy" environments that is only made worse by blocking it out with even louder music. The article also suggests that listening to music for one hour a day is considered safe. So now you have a choice... go deaf early or go insane listening to your coworkers chatter."
Nothing new hear, we've been getting this since at least 1980. There are likely stories about how the photograph, motion picture "talkie", transister radio and lord knows whatelse cause problems.
Uhm... yes? If I can hear the music clearly from your earbuds across the room, your "coolness factor" (apparently consisting of making sure everyone can hear your really loud rap music) will not prevent hearing damage. I say let 'em. Common sense will prevail for the rest of us.
this is my sig
I find, when walking down the street - that I've got my iPod's volume up to the highest level. It's not because I really like the song, and want to hear it really loudly, but rather, I can't hear it if I turn it down at all. Simply because of the passing traffic is so noisy.
Had I kept the iPod down to a lower level, say at 0.75 or 0.5 - then I simply wouldn't be able to hear it - so, perhaps the problem is not the music players, but rather, an increase in noise from other locations? For example, traffic?
Is the world itself getting noisier?
Was this not a problem when the walkman was introduced or is our environment a lot noisier now? I'm just curious as it seems this would affect every generation since the walkman was introduced not just the "ipod generation". Then again, I admit I didn't rtfa.
go deaf early or go insane listening to your coworkers chatter.
Or wear ear plugs.
It'll be difficult for some people to stop wearing headsets. You get used to the "company", and become a bit nervous when there's silence.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Deafness is a useful adaption to the modern working environment. A touch of deafness blocks out the computer fans, the traffic noise, the endless airplanes flying overhead, the neighbour's kids, and the wife. The only problem is that it takes more and more volume to produce that "oh, yeah!"effect when listening to music. But that's someone else's problem.
Personally, I went partly deaf at the age of 16 from spending too much time on a firing range. But most of my peers went similarly deaf not from the iPod, but from the Sony Walkman.
This story is about 25 years too late. I guess each generation reinvents the "we went deaf because..." story.
My blog
I believe EU iPods have a volume limit anyway, but this is easily removed.
They block outside noise by 23db, so you don't have to turn the music up to drown out the noise. I sometimes leave them in even without listening to music. They are nearly as good as a pair of headphone style hearing protectors.
http://www.etymotic.com/
I followed the link to the Wired News article, and the ad on the side of the page was for the iPod nano.
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -- Winston Churchill
Didn't I read this same story about Walkman's 20 years ago? And didn't they decide the effects were negligable? Oh yeah I did. Abstract from a study in 1987: Krahenbuhl D, Arnold W, Fried R, Chuden H. Investigations on 50 high school students showed that this group had been using the "Walkman" only 1.5 h. per day during the last 14 months. A comparison of the audiometric results obtained with these 50 "Walkman" users, with those of 20 age-related non-"Walkman" users, showed no statistically significant differences. The investigation further revealed that to avoid hearing loss, an upper threshold level of 93 dB (A) should not be exceeded for a daily "Walkman" user time of two hours. PMID: 3613781 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Even if they are active, they will just cancel out the external sounds. I am not sure how to work it out, but I would expect the energy to transfer to heat or somethin'. I would think that noise cancelling headphones would reduce hearing loss, as you don't need as much sound.
I have freaks! I did something right...
I don't have an ipod, but I do listen to music through headphones. I'm a bit hard of hearing and for the past year or so when I listen to music I play it at the absolute lowest volume that I can hear it. Maybe it's just in my mind but I've noticed an improvement in my hearing. Not to mention it's less of a distraction to my development (and/or slashdot postings).
Consequently, this behavior makes me realize that I need a quieter PC case. I've got a home made hack job case too many fans. I think it's time to upgrade to a professionally built case that would be quieter but I'm still having a hard time justifying dumping $150-$300 on a case.
After that I've still got fish tanks that make a significant amount of noise. Not much I can do about that other than keep the water levels full or get rid of them alltogether.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Seriously: I was born 1969 and clearly are part of the walkman generation, using one (OK, cheap copycats) from the mid 80s till the early 90s. Then I exposed my ears to techno parties :-P
Whenever they check my hearing at the doctor or hospital they are surprised how good I hear considered my age.
So let me say:
Bah.
iPods don't make people deaf; really really loud sounds make people deaf.
It's not just mp3 players, it's car stereos (especially the 1000+ watt "boom cars") and loud exhausts. Some of the cars on the streets in my town can produce sound pressures that are actually painful -- from a distance of ten feet, in another car, with the windows up!!
Even base stereo systems these days are 60+ watts. That's enough to cause substantial hearing loss in a matter of weeks if listened to repeatedly, for an hour or more per day.
I can't even imagine how profound the boomcar boyz hearing loss must be. Not that I care... karma and all that.
Ever attended a rock concert? It's a near certainty that you did permanent damage toyour high frequency hearing.
Bring lawn tools into the equation (leaf blowers, lawn mowers, chainsaws, etc.) and that == more hearing loss.
However, it's not just the under-thirty crowd. Many of our fathers served time in the military, when hearing protection meant sticking your finger in your ear before the guy next to you threw a grenade or fired a 30.06. Hearing loss didn't mean shit when your biggest concern was not being shot on a beach landing. The difference is the genX'ers are *choosing* to damage their hearing.
If you are so anti-social that you feel that your coworkers' chatting is driving you insane
I don't know about you, but I find a twenty minute "chat" about the latest goings-on of Survivor or the some other reality show to be about all it takes to drive me nuts. Especially when the "chat" involves someone who hasn't done a 5 minute task I asked them to do three days ago but has found time to have numerous other "chats" in addition to lunch breaks, coffee breaks, etc.
Aye? what was that? SPEAK UP!
This is a similar comparison to the thoery that cell phones might give you some kind of brain cancer. It's still highly disputed and nobody can be too certain, there is logic to it but it's hard to prove either way when dealing with sublties of the human body (obviously this isn't always the case)
The real dangers lie with people inadvertantly exposing themselves to danger because they are effectively disabling an important sensory organ.
Take hiking/running in the desert with a music player on full blast, how the world are you going to hear a rattle snake or other really pissed-off animal or reptile. conversely how can anyone tell if a car has just ramped on the sidewalk behind you while jogging in manhattan?
You've essentially reduced yourself to someone who is deaf. Although...when compared to listening to my coworkers....gimme the friggin thing on full blast.
Noise cancelling headphones if correctly implemented are rather more complex than just inserting an inverted signal. For the record, I am deaf (artillery and large engines, as if you care) and because of the strange hole in my hearing response I use a digital hearing aid. The configuration screen for programming this runs to a number of pages, and I can have it set to include or exclude things like refrigerator and fan noise. In fact, I have one program that does optimised noise cancelling to get the best speech response, and another that does no noise cancelling which is useful for music and for checking that things like HDDs are making the right noises.
Noise cancelling technology is already used in professional telephone headsets, and I am surprised that it is missing from iPods and the like. It would be easy enough to have a button which switched between cancelling and not cancelling external noise sources and which, like my hearing aid, has a setting which allows through a sudden loud noise when in N/C mode, as a safety factor in traffic. This would mean the ability to listen at lower volume levels in noisy conditions.
I have a local inductive loopset (one of the few good things to come out of Nokia in my view) which allows me to use the cell phone and to inject another sound source. With the hearing aid switched to inductive pickup only, and to block external sound, I can make a phone call in noisy conditions without difficulty.
Conclusion: the technology exists to fix these problems and enable people to listen at lower volumes, manufacturers just can't be bothered.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Noise cancelling or isolating headphones.
Etymotic, Shure and Koss all make noise isolating headphones, which are generally cheaper and have higher quality sound than noise cancelling gimmicks like the Bose headsets.
Basically, you put in a set of these ear-canal plugs, you hear nothing but the music, and therefore can listen to your music at far lower levels in noisy environments than you would be able to with normal open or closed can style headphones.
The isolation from the Etymotic ER-4p/s for example, is 44 decibels, which is phenomenal. I own a pair of Er-4ps myself, and have used them a lot while travelling, and have to say that spending 300 euro on a set of headphones does not look like a waste of cash once you get up to 30,000 feet in a packed Airbus.
The isolation is so complete that it's shocking to hear the noise levels that everyone else is being exposed to once you pull the headphones out after a period of use.
Not to mention the fantastic sound quality.
I was born with hearing impediment so I have to wear a bone conduction hearing aid since I cannot hear well. Let's just say you would have to yell at me just to talk to me. I can hear music from loud concerts, loud movie theaters, loud churches, etc.
:) I could have a surgery to regain hearing but I think I will use my partial deafness as an advantage. Turn it off, and poof. Less audio to hear for me.
Anyways, I can always turn off my hearing aid if things get too loud.
Although wearing hearing aid can be annoying (e.g., changing batteries, fall off if I shake my head, hurt a lot if wearing too much, my head gets itchy, etc.).
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
IS THE IPOD GENERATION GOING DEAF?
(by the way, the lameness filter can't take a joke.)
Temporary or permanent hearing loss can happen if: a) sound above 85 decibels - the louder, the more damage (got meter?). b) 85 decibels one hour or more in duration - the longer the more damage. c) and if the maximum output is forced into the 4000 Hz range - that does the maximum damage (like the Hollywood idiots boost sound during trailers - dumb and dummer). d) smoking cigarettes causes permament hearing loss. e) drinking alcohol cause temporary hearing loss. f) worse case scenario - guy who smokes and drinks and has been running sound boards at concerts for several years (dumb and dummer) - likely 50% hearing loss. g) notion is that if someone beside you can hear what's playing on your earphones/buds - you are having a hearing loss happening.
The only way to reduce this to limit the exposure time your ears endure. Hearing loss is a fact of life for anyone who wear's headphones for an extended period at high decibel levels, whether it's an iPod, Walkman or whatever. Check the link.
m l
http://www.hearnet.com/at_risk/risk_aboutloss.sht
From someone in the music industry, I cannot recommend noise cancelling phones or buds enough for someone who loves music and values their hearing. They are worth every penny and more. For the frequent concert goer or clubber, see an audiologist and get professional earplugs made. You won't sacrifice any sound quality and you'll preserve your hearing for future concerts and the rest of your life. It's one of the best investments you'll ever make.
Can someone suggest some good hearing aid companies to invest in? Should be quite a growth industry in the future.
All those boomers that didn't listen to their parents telling them to turn the music down... they're getting up to retirement age now.
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People will look at you funny, but earplugs with headphones is the right answer. You can eliminate all the background noise, and play the music at a level that (after passing through the earplugs) is safe. Foam earplugs are available at drugstores - 20 - 30 pairs for about 6 dollars. To really do it right, get a nice pair of circumaural headphones like Sennheisers.
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I've been thinking about this for years, in a minor way off and on, and I'm still waiting for someone to invent a good feedback system for hearing level. If the music can be heard clearly at 80-85db, thenit is probably safe, right? However, all the studies I've seen measure db in the environment, not the energy approaching the ear. And if you're wearing earphones, how do you prevent hearing loss when you don't know what you are delivering to your ear?
Reactive noise-cancelling earphones would seem to be a good idea, especially if they can reduce the ambient noise to 50 or 60db and alow music to be heard at less than 85db. In fact, without music, I would be relieved sometimes to have noise-cancelling headphones to simply provide some near-silence. It would be a worthy project for competent technicians to come up with an inexpensive (less than $20) noise-cancelling headphone with signal contrast (outside noise less than 50db to inside noise less than 85db), easy equalization, and galvanic skin response sensors to indicate when the music was causing discomfort. (GSR might not be sufficient. Many recent studies showed that the type of music listened to can produce a variety of emotional and chemical responses ranging from peaceful, healthy, joyful to irritated, angry and unhealthy. Here's a a different question: If you knew loud rap and metallic rock were as bad for your system over the long run as cigarettes, would you quit listening to it?) An article written in layman's terms with good references can be found here: http://www.headwize.com/articles/hearing_art.htm.
Although the general consensus is that much hearing loss is irrepairable, I have heard rumors of people recovering some hearing ability by listening to specific music. (I think I first saw this in a book called "Superlearning 2000", and have heard subjective reports since then, but I haven't noticed any scientific papers.) Also, if high-frequency loss is a problem to you, I've heard good things about Echophone.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
The main worry is the noise on the bus PLUS the extra level of noise you have to insert if you want to hear it clearly.
You shouldn't have to crank up the sound level if you get yourself some proper headphones. I use shure e2c headphones that are buds that completely close off the ear - following a design that was originally intented for use as a 'monitor' for live performances so that artists could hear what they were playing and block out 90% the external sound from the rest of the band. The key thing is that I use the same volume level if I'm on a bus or in a quiet room. I wouldn't wear them (in both ears at least) if I'm crossing the street however - I'd be worried that since I was so deaf I'd be run over.
(additionaly note for audiophiles: Yes, I know the e2cs don't have the best sound in the world, but they're truely exellent for listening to audiobooks or the cricket and what everyone agrees with is that they're good at blocking external sound.)
-- Sorry, I can't think of anything funny to say here.
As a proud owner of a Rio Karma, I wanted to get the most out of that player's superior sound quality (take that, iPod!), so I picked up a pair of Etymotic ER-6 earplugs. They provide about 35 dB of sound isolation, and the sound quality is utterly amazing. I've never had to pump the volume on my Karma past 20% while using them - and when I'm listening to music with them, I can't hear the phone ring three feet away (another huge benefit).
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
by their inevitable disdain of mid-high quality but mainstream XYZ products.
Whether we are talking about speakers, wine, chocolate, cars, or golf clubs, there is nothing the aficionado hates more than anything in his or her realm of expertise that is pretty good and reasonably priced, as it undermines the value of their hard-earned knowledge.
Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital determined that listening to a portable music player with headphones at 60 percent of its potential volume for one hour a day is relatively safe.
60%! I would have thought it was bloody obvious that going over 60% of an iPod's volume was a danger area. I just tried mine at around that volume with the normal headphones and found it uncomfortably loud. Apart from anything else, I could tell which song was playing from the other side of the room, so anyone listening that loud on public transport deserves to go deaf.
I had always assumed that the only reason it went so loud was for powering external speakers etc.
The plural of anecdote is not data.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
I have tinnitus, "ringing in the ears". I hear a constant sound, like a high-pitched squeal, all the time. It's worse when the ambient noise is low, but I barely notice it when there's noise around. In a very quiet place the sound I perceive can be very intense.
It comes from damage to degeneration of the nerves in the inner ear, or so I've been told.
Any constant, low-level sound tends to "mask" the ringing, so I can ignore it. Riding in a car with the windows down or in an airplane I don't notice the sound at all.
Noise cancelling headphones are an ironic sort of hell for me. The sound is a lot better, but in the breaks between songs I hear the tinnitus sound, like a freight train braking for a herd of violin-screeching crickets in my head.
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
You do not want to exceed 95 dB, ever: EVER!
Take it from a deaf person whose hearing loss is averaged as 64 dB at 20Hz down to 95 @ 8 KHz. That is the surveyed threshold for a lifelong usage of a hearing aid without losing ones remaining hearing (thus rendering such hearing useless).
Hearings is not recoverable as the many tiny cilia hair nerves gets shortened at greater than 95 dB due to excessive POUNDING of the noise whipping these reed-like cilia back and forth (tearing or cutting off blood flows) as amplified by your middle ear bones and outer ear's ear drum.
Protect your ears, take it from a deaf person. It is career threatening in your mid-life. No need to get another cow during your mid-life crisis.
Cholear implant (CI) is a proven technology, but a bothersome hinderance to those late-deafened teens and adult as they did not grow up accustomed to these CI outfits. (Doable, but takes longer to get accustomed to these CI). CI is not a perfect replacement as you would get 32 channels (more later) spread across the sound spectrum but with GAPS in between. Computer/signal processors back-fills in these inter-channel gaps (not pleasant to a true classic music afficiandos).
Keep it down... It might save your life.
Don't get hit by a bus because you're IPODing. (interesting tidbits: 422 deaf people were killed by bus.)
I believe (though trying to find it on www.eu.int looks tricky !) that the EU has statutory maximum volume limits on audio devices where headphones can be attached (but I could be wrong on this). Mind you, I just bought a new MP3 player that is "comfortable" volume in the 15-25 range, but it can go to ear-bleeding "40", which I suspect is way above the EU limits. Strange, though, because I have another player that the same site sells and that's got a much lower maximum volume.
http://www.shurestore.com/earphones/eseries_e5c.ht ml - Its all in the name of good health, right?
But seriously, I had mine for about 6 months now and I have to say the isolation is incredible. Baby screaming at the DVLA? no problem. Construction and train noises are also easily blocked out. The London Underground is a good test because its *very* loud - you cant hold a conversation screaming at the top of your lungs there. Here the isolation isnt enough, but all you hear is a faint windy sort of noise, which is fine.
are locked to a maximum "safe" volume. You can unlock them if you want but I've never felt the need myself. I suppose its American-libertarian to let you deafen yourself when you damn well want to be deafened or something.
Plays violent online games as: Nerfherder76
I have mild hearing damage in my left ear, unrelated to headphones. In my case, it has to do with years of practicing the violin without an earplug in my left ear (which is most vulnerable to damage in violinists).
:)
Nevertheless, I think the iPod generation is in luck, because they are also one of the first generations where genetic therapy is not purely science fiction. In the past couple of years, researchers discovered that the production of a protein (Rb1) was responsible for the behaviour shared by the inner ear hair cells of all mammals, or more to the point... the reason the hair cells do not divide and hearing does not regenerate. Recently scientists discovered the gene that was responsible for producing this protein in mice. Given 5 to 10 years, I am optimistic the naive iPod generation, senior citizens and even I will be eligible for gene therapy to reverse the effects of hearing loss.
It is important to protect your hearing, but damage is inevitable no matter how careful you are. Luckily, for musicians and the ignorant iPod generation, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon
Both of these responses are exactly the things that XYZ-philes always say.
That doesn't make them untrue. This isn't painting-the-edges-of-a-CD audiophile nonsense, it's verifiable through simple means.
That 'niche at the upper end of the mainstream' is occupied by companies like Denon, Onkyo and Marantz, not Bose.
Have you ever tried comparing a Bose system with anything else? You know, actually do listening tests?
I've spent 6 years as an infantry soldier and I can say that I do have hearing damage from it. The little yellow foamies that are given to us like candy do nothing for percussive sounds. (Riffle and machine gun fire, explosives like grenades, firing mortars, etc...) It even comes with a warning on the packages. The only thing that really works would be a combination of the foamies and the full sized earmuffs. Now, you cannot wear earmuffs with a helmet. So we wear the foamies when we can.
The problem there is that the "good" sound gets attenuated just as much as the "bad" sound. Instead of drowning out background noise by brute force, try using headphone-style noise reducers over on- or in-ear headphones. Better signal-to-noise ratio that way, so the sound oughta be cleaner.
I read the same thing in the newspaper and it said listening to your muisc at sixty percent volume is safe for one hour not what the person wrote.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
And you know what is really sad? If, after some years (or decades, if you're lucky) you find that your hearing has suffered irreversible, non-repairable damage, that a big (if not the biggest) part of it was inflicted upon yourself, by yourself. Say what?
You turn the volume up to 'overpower' the background noise, right? In order for that to work, the volume will have to be at least equally strong as the background noise. It helps that you use earphones (which greatly reduce the background noise), but from the sound that enters your ears, most was produced by yourself. And so will any hearing damage that results from it.
To avoid long-term hearing damage, there's only 1 way: reduce that background level. And you don't have to be kind to the ones causing it - it's your health and well-being (and that of many others) they are damaging. Maybe not as bad, but no different from someone pouring a container with poison into a local park.
Is the world itself getting noisier?
I'd argue not (see subject). It's more that people are making lots of noise wherever they go. The noisiest places are often the same as those with large concentrations of people (big cities, pop concerts). And mostly there's little you can do about it. You want peace and quiet? Then put some distance between yourself and your fellow human beings.I hate ipod people. There is nothing worse than being on the London Underground, full stop, Unless you are stood 2 meters away from a person and able to hear their music.
I've also had the joy of being able to over hear their music over my own.
9 time out of 10 you when you look up to find who it is, they'll have the little white ear buds half hanging out.
If you love music so much, why use the crap cheap earphone that comes with the thing?
Go buy a decent pair, ones that other people don't have to listen to.
Last year when I went to Japan it had become socially unacceptable to listen to music which was audible to other people.
This came about as a result of the offending people being smacked in the face. I'm all for this remedy.
Be a have-a-go hero and smack an ipod user in the face. You'll be able to hear them coming and they have no social awareness so they won't notice you at all.
Your headphones are crap and I hate you!
This is very real threat. Headphone induced hearing loss happened to me. And I did not even have flash player or walkman.
When I was 35 I noticed that I often do not understand what people say, especially in noisy environments, while all other people around me understood each other. Medical exam revealed 30% hearing loss. Doctor questioned me about my history and we soon pinpointed it: between 15 and 25 I often listened to music via headphones at top volume for 2 or more hours at a time.
Now doctors recommend that I should wear hearing aid. I wish it did not happen. But such hearin loss cannot be cured at all. It can only get worse.
Doctors told me that if I do not start to wear hearing aid now, my hearing will worsen because the brain will pay less attention to a sense that is degraded, and that a sense of hearing, if not used, will fail as a result. And they pitched expensive hearing aid products.
I got suspicious and asked a friend who happens to be an ORL specialist. He said that these claims are false, aimed at selling the hearing aid products... and that my unassisted hearing would get somewhat worse if I started to wear hearing aid, but I would hear more thanks to the hearing aid. So I decided not to buy the aid. And I found that I can enjoy quiet music just like loud music. And subjectively my hearing improved somewhat.
I don't understand why the noise cancellation headphones are so popular. They just reduce the background, making the cellphone shouters more clearly audible.
I use gray noise - equalized pink noise (See the Wiki). It covers up everything with an even background that you forget you're even hearing. Turns a busy office into an acoustic oasis. Even better is to pop in some plugs on top of that.
Well, if I remember correctly, it was because they are exposed to very little noise, and then very loud firecrackers. It seems the constant and loud background of cities conditions the ears somehow.
So this sounds like a complex problem...
Have you ever tried comparing a Bose system with anything else? You know, actually do listening tests?
I have. I worked in the Audio department for about a year at Best Buy.
For starters, bose dictated sale prices to best buy - best buy couldn't just choose to put them on sale; they had to put them on sale when Bose corporate said to, which is why the circulars always said "All Speakers Onsale*" *except bose.
And the no highs, no lows, must be Bose does hold true. I am by no means an audiophile, but even my damn-near deaf due to rock concerts ears can tell they suck. I mean, the 201's and 301's aren't terrible speakers, but they are a bit muddy and much more expensive than, say, a pair of JBL bookshelfs that sound better.
The crux of the matter is the Lifestyles systems, though. The bass tube with the little cubes? Ugh. You're not going to get good bass out of a 6.5" woofer, especially if it's the unpowered one. If you do a sound sweep from like 50 hz to 50 khz, you're going to hear huge dropoff points all over the place. They just sound bad. Which would be acceptable for consumer electronics, if they were cheap, but they're upwards of $1000! The one with the dual cubes and the powered sub was $1300 when I worked there, and I bet it hasn't gotten cheaper. Give me $1300, and I'll get you some relatively inexpensive Sony tower speakers for front and rear, and a JBL center channel and 10" sub, and give you $400 back, and it'll sound vastly better (just going off of the brands that were there when I worked there). I know that sony and JBL aren't excellent names in home theater, but jesus, they're a far cry better than Bose.
It's not an audiophile thing. It's a listen to it and say ugh thing.
~Will
sig?
Oh, and I don't need any sympathy. The truth is, I am not a lot more deaf than many people of my age. I'm just willing to admit it and get it fixed. My mother wouldn't admit it till she was 82, and it caused her a lot of problems. I get a lot less inconvenience from the hearing aid than the glasses I use for driving. Looking at other people fiddling about with Bluetooth headsets, iPod earpieces and so on, I basically plug in in the morning, put my phone in my top pocket with its loopset, and then the most complicated thing I do all day is switch to noise cancelling mode if the phone rings in the office. If manufacturers were really interested in a clever product, they would make devices with the same functionality as in the ear hearing aids which similarly communicated with phones, iPods and the like. Hands free, cable free, but I do get looked at as if I'm mad as I walk round making a phone call with no visible phone, no bluetooth headset...it's only a downside if you don't like people giving you extra room on the sidewalk.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
hearing loss is caused by high frequency sound
Hearing loss is caused by a number of factors; yes, loud sound can do it, but high_volume != high_frequency. Where did you unearth this particular piece of mis-information??
According to the the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association there are at least seven causes of hearing loss in adults. PS, "high frequency sound" is not on the list.
Neither is "marriage", but that's a topic for another time...
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
As for you complaints about the Lifestyles system, you're obviously not the target audience. Take for example my Mother. She thinks they're cute and really likes that she can hide the speakers amongst all her nic-nacs. To be honest, I don't blame her. I'm not to familiar with all the available "micro" systems but Bose is the one of the few manufacturers that I've seen in brick and mortar stores. On a side note, I have a pair of my Dad's old 901's and they still kick ass after all these years (almost 20!!). Pair them with a sub and I have been perfectly happy. Although, IAMNAAudiophile.
I'm a DJ and in addition to my shows, I frequently go out to clubs to hear other DJs. I had similar experiences with ringing ears for days after a loud show. I tried foam earplugs, but they made everything sound terrible. I finally broke down and got custom "musician's" earplugs. Mine are Westone ES49. I've never been happier! These things keep the sound quality almost the same, just reduce the volume (mine have 15db filters in them).
This story is about 25 years too late.
;-)
Too late? It's a record! 25 years between dupes? They'll never top that!
You can't take the sky from me...
Most /. readers already had to worry about making themselves go blind... now they have to worry about going deaf as well????
Take a course in biology and you'll learn that high-frequency noises are indeed related to loss of hearing.
The cochlea (inner ear) uses tiny "hair cells" to "catch" sounds (vibrations) and transform them into a signal that the auditory nerve can get to the brain. Different lengths of hair cells catch different wavelength of sound. Higher frequency noises (shorter wavelength) are caught by the shorter hair cells.
Those cells being shorter (thus smaller), they are somehow more fragile than their longer counterparts, so they are the first ones to die with age / hearing of loud noises.
Loss of hearing happens usually with the higher-frequency noises first, because of the reason stated above. This is the reason why old people have a hard time understanding what women say (higher-pitched voice) while being able to hear men much better (lower-pitched voice, higher chance that hair-cells for that frequency are still alive).
High-frequency noises will always be the firsts to go when going partially deaf. They all go eventually though. Higher wave amplitude (volume) will make that happen sooner. Canceling out low and mid frequency noises will keep some hair cells from being hurt, but if the high-frequency sounds still go through, short hair cells still get hurt.
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I have worked several jobs wehre there was EXTREME loud noise at the jobsite(within 10 feet of unmuffled generators and a carousel pipe organ that could be heard 2 miles away). I always wore earplugs, the simple wax or foam ones from the drugstore. I was the only guy on the job that did. Whenever i had to listen to something, i would remove the right earphone, I always kept the left one in. Additionally, when out walking around, i only use the right headphone of my walkman. I can notice a diffrence in the hearin on the right and left sides of my own head from the minor damage over the years. The hearing in my left ear is much more acute overall, and can hear frequencies that the right one cant.
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Simple noise cancellation works by taking the inverse of the 'noise' signal. This can be done with simple analogue circuits, there's no need to analyze the noise in any way. This doesn't care about any details about the signal, so persistent noises are cancelled just as well as sudden ones.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
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