Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EU Recommends Noise Limits On MP3 Players

Posted by Soulskill on from the protecting-you-from-yourself dept.

A story at the BBC notes increasing pressure from the European Commission to set standards that would limit the maximum volume on portable MP3 players. Their reasoning is that it would protect users from damaging their hearing after listening to loud music for extended periods. Quoting: "This follows a report last year warning that up to 10m people in the EU face permanent hearing loss from listening to loud music for prolonged periods. EU experts want the default maximum setting to be 85 decibels, according to BBC One's Politics Show. Users would be able to override this setting to reach a top limit of 100 decibels. ... Some personal players examined in testing facilities have been found to reach 120 decibels, the equivalent of a jet taking off, and no safety default level currently applies, although manufacturers are obliged to print information about risks in the instruction manuals. Modern personal players are seen as more dangerous than stationary players or old-fashioned cassette or disk players because they can store hours of music and are often listened to while in traffic with the volume very high to drown out outside noise."

7 of 360 comments (clear)

  1. But how to do that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But how to do that?
    The effect used to play at 85db is not the same across all headphones.
    The small tiny ones that comes with the player normaly need less effect to reach 85db then if you get some nice big headphones with better sound.

    1. Re:But how to do that? by BrokenHalo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      While all our governments are in a nanny-state frame of mind, they might turn their attention more usefully to the kind of amplification given to bands in pubs and clubs, where the dimensions of the places are often small enough to hear the sound of a mouse fart from one side of the room to another, but the bands turn up the volume as high as they can anyway. Or at least in a mathematically inverse ratio to their musical ability.

      It's common to see musicians playing with plugs stuck in their ears so they don't drive themselves stone deaf, while they obviously consider it perfectly OK for them to obliterate the hearing of customers frequenting the place.

      I realise I'm probably a tedious old fart, but I've long been forced to recognise that my hearing is far from what it was when I was a teenager or even in my twenties, and I hold many of these crappy bands to blame.

    2. Re:But how to do that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because you couldn't possibly be responsible for your own behavior.

      Funny how telling someone to take responsibility for his own behavior has now become the best way to avoid taking responsibility for one's own actions.

  2. Do what we say, not what we do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hearing loss is bad if it is caused by MP3 players, but it's okay when it's caused by police using crowd control devices against innocent civilians.

  3. Wrong approach entirely by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    A technical problem requires a technical solution.

    Instead of forcing media player manufacturers to implement a volume limiter, just force them to include a jamming frequency and allow third parties to sell jammers. When a person feels that someone's music is intruding on their personal space (in a bus, on a train, or anywhere that people are in close contact), a single button press could send a piercing squeal right through whatever audio the earbud guy had playing.

    This has two benefits. First, if there are multiple people around and it is difficult to determine who is listening loudly, this gets all of them in one shot. Second, if a person's earbuds are so loud that the sound is invading someone else's personal space, the brief tone should be enough to put their eardrums out permanently.

  4. Forget disabled users... by Manip · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have very bad hearing, have done since I was a kid (even had surgery to correct it). I listen to music roughly 10-15% louder than most of my peers. In a noisy room louder still. If they limit volume on my MP3 player will I have to hack it in order to listen to it at a reasonable volume for me?

  5. +1, funny? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    SkullCandy? Really guys? Do yourself a favor and go pick up a pair of Sennheiser CX-300 II's. They will blow what you have away and only cost ~$35. SkullCandy is overpriced trash.