Don't hurt your ears!

This topic is necessarily didactic so I approach it as a set of tips. I've had more than my fair share of exposure to loud sounds, from using chainsaws and other loud power tools, firearms, and piloting small airplanes just to name a few. Yet I've managed to preserve my hearing. Part of that is simple good luck, since I've found loud sounds quite painful ever since I was a kid, so I always avoided them. Many hearing charts say pain begins around 120 dB, but for me, distortion kicks in around 100 dB and pain around 106. I believe this lower threshold for hearing loudness pain was a primary contributing factor to the preservation of my hearing. Avoiding that pain got me wearing earplugs while mowing the lawn, shooting firearms, attending rock concerts, while playing piccolo, and pretty much anything else that was loud enough to hurt my ears.

Summary of Tips

  • Keep average levels below 85 dB (dynamic peaks can be louder)
  • Use the lowest listening volume that gives full spectrum sound
  • Use listening fatigue as a signal to turn it down: you should be wanting more, not less
  • Be especially careful with headphones because it's so easy to get too loud

    • Tip 1: Loudness Guidelines

    Hearing damage is a combination of loudness and time. The louder a sound is, the less time it takes before it can damage your hearing. Here are some rough safe guidelines:

  • 85 dB: city traffic, noisy restaurant: 8 hours
  • 90 dB: blender, hair dryer: 3 hours
  • 95 dB: motorcycle, power tools: 30 mins
  • 100 dB: dance club, factory machinery: 15 mins

    • Tip 2: Loudness and Timbre

    As an amateur musician and audiophile participating in double blind tests, I've learned the skill of critical listening. As early as age 11 when I started playing the flute, I noticed how the frequency response of the human ear changes with volume level. The exact same sound, played softer or louder doesn't just sound softer or louder, but its timbre, voicing or tonal balance also changes.

    Use this to your advantage: when the timbre changes you know it's getting too loud.

    Start with a very quiet volume, then incrementally increase in small steps. At each step, listen carefully to the timbre or voicing. At some point you'll reach a medium-quiet volume where the lowest bass and highest treble just begin to become audible. Subtle cues in the music on high quality acoustic recordings, like musicians breathing or a light fingernail strike on a piano key, will be just barely audible, almost buried in yet just above the noise floor. Subjectively for me, and according to my SPL meter, this happens when the music level in decibels is in the mid to high 70s. This is the ideal listening volume - it's just barely loud enough to hear everything, but not loud enough to hurt your ears.

    If you turn it up past that point, the timbre or voicing will change again. At first this will sound "better": the bass will become more prominent and you can start to feel it. The subtle details will jump out at you instead of you having to listen carefully for them. Subjectively for me, this happens in the mid 80s to 90 dB. When you hear this, you know the music is too loud.

    Tip 3: Listening Fatigue

    A safe volume level is one you can listen to for hours with no fatigue. If you find your ears or brain feeling tired as you listen, it's too loud. Listen at a volume that has you not quite satisfied but wanting a little more... If you turn it up until you're satisfied, chances are it's too loud. With natural acoustic sounds in the real world, the deepest bass and subtle details of the music don't jump out at you - you have to listen for them. The same should be true when you listen on your stereo.

    Tip 4: Headphones are Dangerous

    Headphones usually have better sound quality than speakers. And headphones eliminate some of the loudness clues that speakers provide - you'll never feel the headphone bass no matter how loud you play it. Also it takes so little power to drive most headphones it's easy for them to go loud. For all these reasons, it's common for people to listen to headphones far louder than they would listen to speakers. Keep this in mind as set your volume level when listening with headphones.