stereos and hearing loss...

[Eighty2Regal]

Is it the bass or the treble that messes up your hearing worse and how much sound in your car can mess up your hearing?

 

[mcss383]

well, any level of sound can damage ur ears if exposed to it long enough.

As far as which is worse....they are prob about the same.

140db is the threshold. If exposed to that for any length of time can cause damage.

 

[salvageV6]

Huh?

 

[mcss383]

see, we have a demonstrator of what extended exposure to high db can do. lol

 

[Rollin]

This is one of the reasons I phased out of the car audio market. When somebody got in my car there first words were "man its bright in here" holding there ears from screaming dB 6K and up.
Seriously your hearing is like brain cells it doesn't come back. You just get use to hearing what you hear over time or should I say what you don't hear.

 

[Audiowizard]

Ouch!!!

Technically hearing damage can occur at 100 db for an extended period of time. In the early '90s, my Fosgate truck was hitting a little over 143 db with 4 Punch 18s and 1,145 watts and I have suffered hearing loss from the db levels but I was young and invincable (yeah right!!!).

I do wished that I would have practiced "safe hearing" back then but the sound pressure was awesome!! .

I did build a Monte Carlo with 4 Kicker 18s and 4 Linear 5002s attached and it beat my SPL record at 147.1 db and his hearing loss now is way worse than mine is and now he is regretting it too .

 

[Eighty2Regal]

i mean how many watts going to subs can really screw u up. I have 2 fosgate 10 inchs and have 400 peak going to each one and thats 200 watts rms to each speaker. I can bury my head units volume to max since i put my treble and bass at 0 and put it on vocal eq. It sounds so clear. Now listening at high volume gonna damage my ears? what volume is "SAFE".

 

[mcss383]

if it hurts your ears or after listening for a while your ears begin to get "tired" then its too loud. Turn it down a little.

No way to tell you how loud to take your head to....if it hurts its too loud...

 

[Audiowizard]

If you paid attention to any of our replies, any noise level above 90 or 100 db for an extended period of time can and will cause hearing damage. It doesnt matter if it is bass or treble, its the "noise" level.

A factory installed basic sound system at full volume does excede the 90 to 100 db levels so you can still get hearing damage from a stock system for an extended period of time but is far worse with an amplified system that excedes above and beyond those levels. If you want to see what level your system is at, go to a reputable shop and see if they will meter it for you then you will know what is a safe level to play at.

Like mcss383 said, if it is starting to hurt your ears then it is way too loud.

I have to go to the nurses station at my job once a year to have a hearing test done to see how my hearing is doing to the fact that we have to wear hearing protection because of the 90db + noise levels that we experience and the noise is all high pitched because of the compressed air that we use.

 

[Rollin]

The first thing you'll notice is a audible loss of sense in the mid range ie female voices and upper mid ranges, SO...if you can feel it it's probably to loud, if you clothes are moving on your body, if TV screens roll when you drive by, if you set off street lights, its prob too LOUD

 

[Audiowizard]

Funny that you mention about TV screens rolling, I would pull up to the Blockbuster Video store and adjust the control on my Epicenter unit and shake the glass and make all the TVs in the store start to roll. I wasnt popular with the manager after that .

 

[Red Regal T]

Hey, what's a little brain or ear damage......You're only young once!

 

[MassBoost]

If ya get that ringing sensation after you turn your stereo down, it might be to loud! ;-) I think distortion also plays a little factor in it too.