User Guides MusicPlayer Risks and Ear Safety !!

This guide is to help you and provide you some tips and for your knowledge and Not To Create A Fear :)

Increasing Popularity, Great number of choices :hap2: , Small, Easy, Good and Fall in Prices :hap2: and the Coolness factor of having one factors have made us to buy one of the Portable Media Players

They let you listen to the music on the go and give hours of battery life and easily charge back again in no time from your laptops.
And They have lots of other features that you know geeks know them much better then a layman out there !

One of the most neglected factor by people is the hearing problems that these MP3 players bring with themselves. This will now be proved .

Presented will the research done by scientists and noise experts to prove the point !!!

The damage to your ears is depends both on the noise level and time of exposure

Sound levels is measured in A-weighted decibel (dBA) units its on a logarithmic scale

which means 2dBA is 10 times 1dBA !! Note This Point !!


Noise level Table
How loud is too loud?

Decibel level What we hear

10 dB Normal breathing
20 dB Rustling leaves, mosquito
30 dB Whisper
40 dB Stream, refrigerator humming
50-60 dB Quiet office
50-65 dB Normal conversation
60-65 dB Laughter Every day Conversation
70 dB Vacuum cleaner, hair dryer Restaurant
75 dB Dishwasher
78 dB Washing machine, High Class Room without a teacher
80 dB Garbage disposal, city traffic noise

Prolonged exposure to any noise above 85 dB can cause gradual hearing loss.

84 dB Diesel truck
70-90 dB Recreational vehicle
88 dB Subway, motorcycle
85-90 dB Lawnmower
100 dB Train, garbage truck
97 dB Newspaper press
98 dB Farm tractor​

Regular exposure of more than 1 minute risks permanent hearing loss.

103 dB Jet flyover at 100 feet
105 dB Snowmobile
110 dB Jackhammer, power saw, symphony orchestra
120 dB Thunderclap, discotheque/boom box
110-125 dB Stereo Rock Music
110-140 dB Rock concerts
130 dB Jet takeoff, shotgun firing
145 dB Boom cars

A Flash Based Meter with Noise
Music dBA levels

60-70 dB normal piano practice
70 dB fortissimo singer 3 ft. away
75-85 dB chamber music in small auditorium
84-103 dB violin
85-111 dB flute
85-114 dB trombone
106 dB timpani & bass drum rolls
120-137 dB symphonic music peak
150 dB rock music peak

Safe levels beyond which u face risk

80 dBA 8hrs ( but note 80dBA is Considered risky in the long term )
90 dbA 8 hrs
92 dbA 6 hrs
95 dbA 4 hrs ( This is the level @ which people listen to in heavy traffic )
97 dbA 3 hrs
100 dbA 2 hrs
102 dbA 1.5 hrs
105 dbA 1 hr
110 dbA 0.5 hr
115 dbA 0.25 hr or le

So the sound level at a normal conversation is 60dBA and if your mom calls you or some one says something to you when you are listening to music and you can't hear then it means you are listening to music @ 80dBA
Sound Levels about 80 dBA are considered dangerous !! That that's also the sound level of city traffic !! Now If you are listening to music in city traffic then the output of your music player will be certainly more then the ambient sound of 80dbA and will be around 90dBA which is very dangerous when exposure time is long !!

If you think you have "gotten used to" the noise you are routinely exposed to, then most likely you have already suffered damage and have acquired a permanent hearing loss. Don't be fooled by thinking your ears are "tough" or that you have the ability to "tune it out"! Noise induced hearing loss is usually gradual and painless, but, unfortunately, permanent. Once destroyed, the hearing nerve and its sensory nerve cells do not regenerate!

Noise hearing loss usually starts with high frequencies !!
High frequency sound ringtones are used by students in USA in classrooms !!
Simply Put the Younger Students can hear the high frequencies well but the teacher can't and hence small kids use these ringtones in the middle of classroom to go unnoticed !!

Getting Back to Sound Levels by Music Players these charts make it clear !

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So you can clearly see that volume levels of 60-70 % is risky !!
All combinations of headphones/earphones and MP3 players generate potentially harmful sound levels !

It will take from 12 minutes (at 102 dBA) to seven hours (at 86 dBA) to exceed the occupational noise limit noted above. You will exceed the limit in just one minute if you played heavy metal or pop music at full volume levels of 114 dBA. At this sound level, exposure for longer durations can pose a risk of immediate, serious and permanent hearing loss. !!!
The Bottom Line Is Your MP3 Player Will Damage Your Ears Any Way !!!

Bose that's why came up noise cancellation headphones for airlines.....remember the ad ??

So when there is lots of ambient noise just shut your music player and save your ears !!

Compiled from various sources !!

Regards Akshay :) :hap2:
 
Click to expand...
actually IEM's and NC headphones are safer then supra aural, as for a given volume , their percieved volume is greater :), and hence you will tend to listen at lower levels than with regular earphones
 
broar94 said:
Yes... the time to taken to reach the ear is longer with headphone , so damage is not much compared to an ear phone
Click to expand...

Sorry to disappoint You......if you are exposed to these sound levels in any way either headphones or Earphones or Your Computer Speakers the damage is the same !!

And loss caused by headphones degrades the hair inside your ears which detect the sound faster then other sources
 
its a proven fact that extreme noise does damage ears.

right now in hurry so expect a detailed post tomorrow.
 
Good post there akshay, something the kiddies need to be aware about. I stopped using earphones long time back cause the ears started to ache with the *BOOM BOOM* inherent in club music.

Another quick indication of over exposure is tinnitis or that ringing sound. If you hear ringing in your ears in a quiet room, its time to reduce how loud & for how long you listen to your music.
 
good post there... i had this topic in my mind but for discussion.. too lazy to compile to one.. so good work there...

waiting for medpal doc's reply...

and can we discuss in practical terms rather than dBA terms... say in sony ericsson walkman phones,or in nokia nseries its easy to find the volume, by counting the square blocks... so how much is the safe usage volume in those terms...
 
Wow this scared me a bit, I listen to music EXTENSIVELY throughout the day at a fairly high volume, Ill try and reduce the time now after reading this guide, thanks for the info.
 
bluediamond said:
and can we discuss in practical terms rather than dBA terms... say in sony ericsson walkman phones,or in nokia nseries its easy to find the volume, by counting the square blocks... so how much is the safe usage volume in those terms...
Click to expand...
Umm you can't really compare volume in blocks BD since it is a purely relative indication. However, what you can do is find the volume percentage using the blocks, for which he already has given a chart.
 
Yes all the facts are proved facts !! u can get the research data from other websites using google search !!

Another quick indication of over exposure is tinnitis or that ringing sound. If you hear ringing in your ears in a quiet room, its time to reduce how loud & for how long you listen to your music.
Click to expand...

True !! this if 1st signs of your ears being pushed to limits !

what this means is listen to music but at low volumes (< 40%) and only for 2-3 hrs in a day!
Click to expand...

No Not really u can listen to any no of hours at 20-30 % volume !!

basically listen to music at night 12...u will find that 20-30 % is itself loud and u can hear crystal clear...try this !! even 40-50 % is safe

but 60-70 % is not safe for more then 2 hrs a day !! though u exceed the OSHA limits after 6-8 hrs.....but why go till then !!
 
I guess the best way out is to use a pair of good noise cancelling IEM's and keep the volume low.

Cause most of the times when we are using earbuds, we tend to increase the volume just to cancel ambient noise.

What say Akshay?
 
Anish said:
I guess the best way out is to use a pair of good noise cancelling IEM's and keep the volume low.
Cause most of the times when we are using earbuds, we tend to increase the volume just to cancel ambient noise.
What say Akshay?
Click to expand...

Absolutely right !! Noise Cancellation Headphones were just invented to to safegaurd ears !! everywhere from air fighters to noisy factory to rock stars !!

And now finally for us to listen to music safely when there is lot of ambient noise !! Since all airlines now offer mid flight entertainment and the sound being risky Bose engineered those headphones for airlines and got into the competition with other research firms already providing such solutions now all airlines (business class) use such headphones well atleast in US if not in India !!

they kill the ambient sound and reduce the noise and u can listen to music carefree !!
 
^ Yep, to start with you can pickup Sennheiser's PX-Series with active noise cancellation for about 7k.

If your on a tighter budget, something like even the EP-630's are good, other splurge about $70-100 and get the Shure E2C/Etymotic ER-6i or maybe even the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3 ;)
 
so now for those who would like to check if they have incurred hearing loss (a lil bit) how can they do so?

is there any kind of sound level meter available that clearly detects the dbA level of ambient/particular sounds. so that we can check if we are able to hear those sounds clearly.
 
^ Easiest way is to sit in a quite room and check if your ears are ringing or tingling when listening to music.

The ringing happens to me occasionally :yeek:
 
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