Protecting your hearing

[Sleeper256]

I've heard, typically, that prolonged exposure to 100-130+ decibels causes hearing loss. 100 is around concert level, while 60 is around conversation level, I know.

But on a laptop, more specifically, a Macbook Pro 15 or 17 (I forget), what are the decibels?

All I have when I hit the volume up button is a little line of 16 dots. I usually have it 6, 7, or 8 dots, while listening through headphones (around 50%, depending on how much I'm feeling the song) the headphones are eH 150 Sennheiser.

How many decibels would that be? I can't find a measure anywhere, and I was wondering if anyone here knew. On the official website, I THINK it says 1 dot = 10db, but I can't be sure, because it said 1b = 1db, and I have no idea what that means.

Thanks

[Earwax69]

In my book, any prolongated high volume can cause ear loss. As anyone have different treshold, There is no definite answer. If you feel ear fatigue after a session, your overstretching yourself. Lower the volume or live with the consequence. I have loss quite a bit of earing when I was teenager, playing in a stupid punk band with stupid people. Now I can feel fatique after 20min of mixing. I keep my volume to a reasonnable 10% on my PC.

[Sleeper256]

In my book, any prolongated high volume can cause ear loss. As anyone have different treshold, There is no definite answer. If you feel ear fatigue after a session, your overstretching yourself. Lower the volume or live with the consequence. I have loss quite a bit of earing when I was teenager, playing in a stupid punk band with stupid people. Now I can feel fatique after 20min of mixing. I keep my volume to a reasonnable 10% on my PC.

Ear fatigue...what does that feel like? If I feel like something is beating on my ears and hurts, I turn it down a few. I'm 21, play guitar and sometimes I feel like my hearing is getting bad, because I can never hear exactly what people say the first time they say it. On the other hand I've taken various online hearing loss tests and nothing seems wrong. Every so often one of my ears will just seem to stop for a couple of minutes, and I want to make sure that doesn't happen for good.

[Der_Makrophag]

Estimating the actual volume while playing music is impossible.
If you think you might get to loud after some time, just turn it off and get yourself some silence (while no changing the volume). Then you can restart playback when you've relaxed a little (often some minutes is enough). If you NOW think the sound is really loud, then it problably is! Turn down the volume and keep the setting until you feel the need to turn it up again. THis would be called ear fatigue I think...

If the sound after the silence is fine, then I won't bother. I also had some very minor hearing loss due to standing in front of the speakers during rave But this was already around the border of pain.

Also, to protect your ears, you might want to get some speakers rather than headphones. The worst thing are - of course - earplugs. I have a pair of them but I am really carefull with the volume (never using the full volume of my MP3 player for example).

[WooDz]

A good source of information for you all.

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html

If I'm listening to audio on a MacBook with headphones I don't push the level above 4 dots.
Headphones can be very deceiving with regard to sound level and the problem is, that as your ears start to protect themselves you will turn the volume higher to keep that same perceived level of exposure.

However at 90dB hearing loss starts to occur.
When Djing I really try to to keep the noise level down and wait for someone to ask me to turn the volume up. I do so for that song and then on the next track I'll lower the levels again.

According to EU regulations, Night clubs should at around 95dB at a 20m range from the speakers. If they are above that level it means that after just 3 hours of exposure without protection you will sustain permanent damage. This may result in hearing loss, balance disorder and Tinnitus.
At 95dB damage occurs after 4 hours of exposure but at 90dB which is still pretty loud we can sustain as much as 8 hours.
Tinnitus is usually that high pitched ringing you get in your ears after going to a club or hearing loud noises. Usually after a period of hours it goes away as the ear relaxes but in most cases damage has already been done even if only minutely. Not allowing the time for your ears to readjust will result in the permanent onset of Tinnitus. This is where the tiny hairs in our ears which normally vibrate stay in their protective state. This causes our brain to simulate the frequencies those hairs should be transmitting and the high pitch ringing never goes away. Tinnitus is NOT curable, you will live it for the rest of your life. Tinnitus can result in sleeping disorder, headaches and fatigue.

Yes I have Tinnitus and its F-ing annoying.

[invol]

It is not impossible to estimate the volume, on the contrary, it is very, very easy. Just buy an SPL meter - you can get them at Radio Shack or on Ebay. Also, the levels and durations mentioned above are not accurate either. See link below.

OSHA has specific guidelines for noise levels and duration in the workplace - check them out here - http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp ... &p_id=9735