29-Oct-2023, 21:34
In my "misspent youth" around 50 years ago, I went to a live John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra concert one night. The sound was so loud I had ringing in one ear until around midday the next day.
20 years later I found myself working in occupational health and safety and having to learn about noise induced hearing loss amongst many other things. That ringing/buzzing in your ears is a sign that the volume you were listening at is way over the level which, with repeated exposure over time, can cause permanent hearing loss.
Like I think most people, before I had to start to learn about noise induced hearing loss, I had the wrong idea about it. I thought that what you would lose is your hearing in the extremely low and the extremely high frequency ranges but what happens is the opposite of that. The frequency range that goes first is in the mid-range, between say 1000 and 4000 Hz, where our hearing is most sensitive and the first thing people with noise induced hearing notice is that they have difficulty understanding what others are saying to them and as it progresses they become deaf in the vocal frequency range which not only means that you can't enjoy good times with your friends and family the way you used to because you can't understand what they're saying and join in group conversations, you also lose your ability to enjoy music.
I'm 76 and my hearing is about average for a person of my age but that John McLaughlin concert is one of only 2 times in my life I'v'e had ringing in my ears after exposure to noise loud enough to injure my ears because that buzzing/ringing is a sign of injury. The ear can recover from the injury caused by loud noise but if you keep repeating the injury by listening to music at excessively high levels of long periods on a regular basis you will incur permanent hearing damage. I'm lucky that even before I started to find out about noise exposure and hearing loss I tended to prefer listening to music at moderate than at loud to extremely loud levels.
The maximum daily sound exposure level recommended for hearing protection purposes varies a bit from country to country (some countries care more about the health of their workers than others do when it comes to imposing obligations/liabilities on employers) but here in Australia where I am the level at which hearing protection is required is set at an exposure to an average level of 85 dBA for 8 hours. That exposure time is reduced by half for each 3 dBA increase above 85 dBA so the permitted unprotected exposure at 88 dBA would be 4 hours, at 94 dBA its down to 1 hour, and at 100 dBA it's down to 15 minutes a day and at 106 dBA it's down to a bit under 4 minutes a day. Repeated exposure to sound at those levels is known to cause permanent hearing damage.
@Jean-Marie makes the point above that music varies in level and that the level of classical music can vary buy 15 to 20 db, actually in live performance it can vary more than that and the sound level to which the musicians in a symphony orchestra are exposed during a performance can exceed the level at which hearing protection would be required if the performance continued for longer than the normal 2 hour or so duration of a concert performance. Rehearsals result in longer exposures on a day and many orchestras now use sound absorbing baffles between musicians during rehearsals in order to limit the level of noise the musicians are exposed to on a regular basis.
The wider the dynamic range of the music the lower the average noise level is going to be. @Jean-Marie mentioned a 15-20 dB dynamic range and listening at a peak level of 102 dB (I assume he is referring to an A weighted level). It's probable that the average level of a piece of classical music with that dynamic range and peak level would be below 90 dBA, loud climaxes in classical music tend to relatively brief and the music is significantly lower in volume a lot of the time. With pop/rock music the dynamic range of the music is lower and the music is often significantly louder because of amplification. A 4 person rock band can easily play louder than a symphony orchestra at its maximum level. I've heard occasional mention of classical musicians with significant hearing loss but I've heard more stories to rock musicians with significant hearing loss. When it comes to music some sorts of music are more prone to causing damage than others because the dynamic range of the music is lower, the musical peaks are louder, and that means the average level of the music can be higher for one sort of music than another even though the peak level the music reaches is identical.
@Pim mentions using big subwoofers. The hearing protection level uses an A weighted measurement so you see the level shown as "dBA". A weighted levels take into account the sensitivity of the ear at different frequencies and our ears are less sensitive at extremely high and extremely low frequencies and an A weighted measurement will give a lower result than the normal C weighted measurement because the more damage occurs at the frequencies where the ear is most sensitive than at the frequencies where it is least sensitive.
So my advice would be that if you're playing things loud enough to get buzzing in your ears then start listening at lower levels. If the buzzing is persisting for more than an hour or two, especially if it's for more than a day as you report for one occasion, then you really are putting your hearing at extreme risk. If you enjoy music then I assume you'd like to continue enjoying it for the rest of your life and you'd like that life to be long. Listening to overly loud music won't shorten your life but it can mean that you can end up enjoying it for decades less than the length of your life and not only will you not be enjoying music if you damage your hearing badly, you won't be able to enjoy normal conversations with your friends and family either.
If you enjoy music then look after your ears so you can continue to enjoy it. Dial the volume down so that you don't get buzzing in your ears.
BTW, I have't mentioned the fact that in some countries playing music loud enough to annoy the neighbours can result in you getting fined and in some cases even having your audio equipment confiscated. You can pay fines, you can buy more gear, but once your hearing is gone you can't get it back.
20 years later I found myself working in occupational health and safety and having to learn about noise induced hearing loss amongst many other things. That ringing/buzzing in your ears is a sign that the volume you were listening at is way over the level which, with repeated exposure over time, can cause permanent hearing loss.
Like I think most people, before I had to start to learn about noise induced hearing loss, I had the wrong idea about it. I thought that what you would lose is your hearing in the extremely low and the extremely high frequency ranges but what happens is the opposite of that. The frequency range that goes first is in the mid-range, between say 1000 and 4000 Hz, where our hearing is most sensitive and the first thing people with noise induced hearing notice is that they have difficulty understanding what others are saying to them and as it progresses they become deaf in the vocal frequency range which not only means that you can't enjoy good times with your friends and family the way you used to because you can't understand what they're saying and join in group conversations, you also lose your ability to enjoy music.
I'm 76 and my hearing is about average for a person of my age but that John McLaughlin concert is one of only 2 times in my life I'v'e had ringing in my ears after exposure to noise loud enough to injure my ears because that buzzing/ringing is a sign of injury. The ear can recover from the injury caused by loud noise but if you keep repeating the injury by listening to music at excessively high levels of long periods on a regular basis you will incur permanent hearing damage. I'm lucky that even before I started to find out about noise exposure and hearing loss I tended to prefer listening to music at moderate than at loud to extremely loud levels.
The maximum daily sound exposure level recommended for hearing protection purposes varies a bit from country to country (some countries care more about the health of their workers than others do when it comes to imposing obligations/liabilities on employers) but here in Australia where I am the level at which hearing protection is required is set at an exposure to an average level of 85 dBA for 8 hours. That exposure time is reduced by half for each 3 dBA increase above 85 dBA so the permitted unprotected exposure at 88 dBA would be 4 hours, at 94 dBA its down to 1 hour, and at 100 dBA it's down to 15 minutes a day and at 106 dBA it's down to a bit under 4 minutes a day. Repeated exposure to sound at those levels is known to cause permanent hearing damage.
@Jean-Marie makes the point above that music varies in level and that the level of classical music can vary buy 15 to 20 db, actually in live performance it can vary more than that and the sound level to which the musicians in a symphony orchestra are exposed during a performance can exceed the level at which hearing protection would be required if the performance continued for longer than the normal 2 hour or so duration of a concert performance. Rehearsals result in longer exposures on a day and many orchestras now use sound absorbing baffles between musicians during rehearsals in order to limit the level of noise the musicians are exposed to on a regular basis.
The wider the dynamic range of the music the lower the average noise level is going to be. @Jean-Marie mentioned a 15-20 dB dynamic range and listening at a peak level of 102 dB (I assume he is referring to an A weighted level). It's probable that the average level of a piece of classical music with that dynamic range and peak level would be below 90 dBA, loud climaxes in classical music tend to relatively brief and the music is significantly lower in volume a lot of the time. With pop/rock music the dynamic range of the music is lower and the music is often significantly louder because of amplification. A 4 person rock band can easily play louder than a symphony orchestra at its maximum level. I've heard occasional mention of classical musicians with significant hearing loss but I've heard more stories to rock musicians with significant hearing loss. When it comes to music some sorts of music are more prone to causing damage than others because the dynamic range of the music is lower, the musical peaks are louder, and that means the average level of the music can be higher for one sort of music than another even though the peak level the music reaches is identical.
@Pim mentions using big subwoofers. The hearing protection level uses an A weighted measurement so you see the level shown as "dBA". A weighted levels take into account the sensitivity of the ear at different frequencies and our ears are less sensitive at extremely high and extremely low frequencies and an A weighted measurement will give a lower result than the normal C weighted measurement because the more damage occurs at the frequencies where the ear is most sensitive than at the frequencies where it is least sensitive.
So my advice would be that if you're playing things loud enough to get buzzing in your ears then start listening at lower levels. If the buzzing is persisting for more than an hour or two, especially if it's for more than a day as you report for one occasion, then you really are putting your hearing at extreme risk. If you enjoy music then I assume you'd like to continue enjoying it for the rest of your life and you'd like that life to be long. Listening to overly loud music won't shorten your life but it can mean that you can end up enjoying it for decades less than the length of your life and not only will you not be enjoying music if you damage your hearing badly, you won't be able to enjoy normal conversations with your friends and family either.
If you enjoy music then look after your ears so you can continue to enjoy it. Dial the volume down so that you don't get buzzing in your ears.
BTW, I have't mentioned the fact that in some countries playing music loud enough to annoy the neighbours can result in you getting fined and in some cases even having your audio equipment confiscated. You can pay fines, you can buy more gear, but once your hearing is gone you can't get it back.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
