hearing loss from compressed music


I found this article on n mp3 website about digital compression for sound cusing possible ear damage. This might be enough for me to completly abandone mp3 which i have been using in place of radio for background music. Wht do you think?
http://www.informatik.fh-hamburg.de/%7Ewindle_c/Logologie/MP3-Gefahr/MP3-risk.html
sailor720

Showing 3 responses by hearhere

Regardless of the storage format, what comes out of the speakers/headphones is analog (or at least it is down to quantum levels), just as much so from an MP3 as any pristine Sheffield Labs LP. Claiming that "until VERY recently, every sound perceived by human beings since the beginning of time was analog" is misleading.

If there's a hearing loss, it comes from decibels, as mentioned by Calvin1.
Albertporter, I did not say that your comment was inaccurate, just quite misleading. When you say ". . . until VERY recently . . .", you are clearly implying that some sounds perceived now are not analog in nature.

I'd really love to know of some examples of these sounds which are not analog. And before you say MP3s, CDs or some other digitally-STORED format, anything derived from those formats is pure 100% analog after passing through the DAC. In a very real sense, the signals are analog before the DAC as well.
Albert -

We're really just arguing semantics here, not a big deal.

Our views of digital technology are, as you say, pretty far apart. However, in the broader world - including much of the world of audio - I suspect that there is actually a great deal upon which we'd agree. If you're going to be at CES this week, perhaps we could find out over a drink or two?