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?
Showing 3 responses by mlsstl
@macg19 "However there is no way to actually measure the frequency of the tinnitus tone that I am aware of." Actually, I found it pretty simple. i sat down with a set of headphones, with the amp hooked to a signal generator. I simply adjusted the tone frequency in the headphones until it matched what was in my head. In my case, that was about 9 KHz. I've had tinnitus for 30+ years now. The ENT I saw told me it was likely ear damage dating back to the 1970s when I was a concert sound engineer. The follicles in the ear are each thought to be tied to an individual brain cell, and when the hairs are damaged, the brain cells end up disconnected and bored, and make their own noise, kind of like a bored kid drumming their fingers. No idea if that's actually the case, but it does make sense to me. I've got my noise constantly when I'm awake but have learned to live with it, just as I've adapted to all the other aches, pains and disfunction I've acquired as I've moved into my 70s. |
@emergingsoul -- you need to pay attention to what weighting scale your meter uses. A Z scale is flat and not common on the consumer meters or phone apps. Meanwhile, while the A scale most resembles the human ear's hearing at moderate levels. The sensitivity of the A scale drops off quite a bit in the low bass and high frequency range. The ear's "flatness" perception changes with volume, and the C scale is closer to the ear's frequency response sensitivity at higher volumes -- 100 dB or so. As such, if your meter can switch between C and A, the C setting will show as louder if the music contains more bass. (THis is also why some amps used to have a "loudness" button which boosted the bass at lower volumes.) OHSA standards are based on the A scale. Depending on the frequency range of what you are monitoring, there can be a considerable difference between what the A and C scales show. |