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Are your listening levels healthy? Doing damage?

Do you know decibel levels when listening to your system, and how loud do you go?

Since upgrading my system, again, I find my listening levels have tended to increase. Not because I'm slowly going deaf but because it's more enjoyable.

I measured the decibel level with a few iPad Apps, and there was lots of disparity. Plus or minus 25 dB. 

Certainly if it's too loud I sense things are not healthy but I'd really like to know how loud things are since Google tells me prolonged listening above 70 dB could be damaging my hearing.

The apps on an iPad are clearly unreliable and now I have to contemplate spending several hundred dollars for a sound meter as well as a calibration device so I can know what my limits are and so I can be in compliance with Google.

Anyone know a good sound meter, and do most serious listeners get one of these things?

 

emergingsoul
curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,288 posts
 

Most of my current listening is at 60-75 dbs with peaks to maybe 85 dbs.  How ever when I went to concerts as a yout, I came home with my ears ringing!

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,949 posts
 

I always use a SPL meter as long as your peaks are not sustained over 90 db 

then you are ok which I keep my rock at most 85 db steady and 95 db peaks 

but not often 

terry9
2,259 posts
 

I find that I can enjoy low levels just as much as high levels. Actually, low level requires more attention, and I get further into the music.

wolf_garcia
6,642 posts
 

When I'm slightly or more than slightly drunk I pay my system louder. If I plug in a small guitar amp I leave in my listening space to play along with something on a pretty Les Paul I leave out (because it's so pretty...all my acoustics guitars stay in their cases, as do my other electrics) things can get louder...this has been going on for decades as has live gigging, so don't ask about my hearing as I'm defensive and get testy...

moonwatcher
372 posts
 

@macg19 

Yes, tinnitus is "associated" with hearing loss, but there are other schools of thought as well. My hearing is typical for most 65 year olds, rolling off at 12KHz. Yet, like many, my tinnitus seems to manifest itself as a continuous sine wave at 8KHz. Why is unknown. 

I can only tell you that from day to day my intake of coffee and alcohol is usually the same every week, yet my perception of the volume level fluctuates considerably. My otolaryngologist, Angelia Natili, MD, FAAOA, was the one who told me that stress can indeed affect the perceived levels you hear. 

The competing school of thought regarding tinnitus suggest that it has absolutely nothing to do with hearing loss and instead is a brain/nervous system interaction wherein the brain "hears" the nervous system. Still, why it manifests itself at 8KHz is a mystery. 

Currently there are no legitimate therapeutic treatments. The main thing being offered are "masker hearing aids" that provide a "sssshhh" sound to cover up the tinnitus. I've decided to not go that route. There are also lots of "snake oil" treatments out there (just do a search on YouTube and you'll find a bunch of them). 

More research is needed for this. There are millions of sufferers around the world who could benefit. Just in the U.S. alone, 15% (50 million people) have it. 

There are a very few actual treatments going through the clinical trials. I've already asked my otolaryngologist to let me know if and when they participate in such trials. I want to be in on them. 
 

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