Being exposed to 140dB of bass...

[Weister42]

Well I was referring to my car, I know this should be in the carreview section but I wanna know what you home theater people think. My ears still feels funny after a minute or so of my car stereo in full tilt earlier today, and I find myself asking "is this really a good thing?"

[skeptic]

Those sound levels are far beyond what is considered dangerous. You risk permanent damage to your hearing including profound deafness. In fact you may have damaged it already. And you will suffer that damage for the rest of your life. Was it worth it? Listening to what you call music will be the least of your problems. Just hearing what people are saying to you will be your primary concern. So far apparantly you haven't listened to warnings from anyone with common sense or even the warnings of your own body. If you don't want to go through life in a world of perpetual silence or even worse, with a constant ringing in your head that will never go away, stop now BEFORE it is too late.

You are also utterly inconsiderate of other people. I'm amazed every time I pull up at a light with my windows closed and I hear boom boom boom from another car which also has its windows up. I can't imagine what it must be like in there. I live in a rural area and my bedroom is about 150 feet from a road. Sometimes late at night, I will hear a boom boom boom breaking the peace and silence I live there for. It only lasts a few moments getting louder and softer. I console myself in the fact that the inconsiderate SOB in the car will soon be able to throw his stereo away because even that noise will be beyond his ability to hear it.

[vivisimonvi]

Owning a pair of high effeciency and wattage speakers myself (and sub), I tend to listen to music RARELY at volumes at around 120 dBs for a short amount of time. One question I have in mind is this... do frequency levels matter in terms of decibels in correlation to hearing loss? Are listening levels at 120 dBs at let's say 30Hz or over 10kHz different than 120 dB's between 1kHz to 3000 Hz?

I find that rock music sounds considerably LOUDER at 120 dBs compared to low bass frequencies measured at the same pressure or even the highs in other sound sources.

[Resident Loser]

...but I coulcn't have said it better...

jimHJJ(...well...maybe, but...I agree...)

[skeptic]

When I was a freshman in college, everybody noticed one day that one of our classmates no longer showed up for class. The previous weekend, he had taken up someone's challenge to prove that he could drink 10 shots of whiskey in 10 minutes. That's the night he died of alcohol poisoning. If you are looking to see what the physical limits that your body can stand are before something snaps, I promise you that you will find it.

OSHA considers long term exposure of 85 decibels to be the danger limit for hearing loss and requires hearing protection for employees at that level and above. 100 db is 36 times as loud. 120 decibels is 3600 times as loud. 140 decibels is 360,000 times as loud.

There are other medical consequences to exposure to loud noise as well especially low frequency rhythmic pounding. The only low frequency beat your body recognizes as "self" is the beat of your own heart. Other sounds of that type, especially very loud ones for prolonged periods will stress your immune system among other things.

Frankly nobody really cares if you kill yourself except maybe your parents. But after enough noise from your sound system to stress them out too, they might not care either. In fact, after a time, they might welcome it.

[topspeed]

Well I was referring to my car, I know this should be in the carreview section but I wanna know what you home theater people think. My ears still feels funny after a minute or so of my car stereo in full tilt earlier today, and I find myself asking "is this really a good thing?"

Crank it dude!

Don't listen to the others, this is a good thing.

Don't listen to the old codgers, you're only young once.

Don't listen to your body, the ringing will stop and you can handle it.

Keep it up and hey, you won't have to worry about ever listening to anyone again.

How cool is that?

[N. Abstentia]

What? Did somebody say something?

[WmAx]

Yes, different frequencies have differing levels of effects. The low bass frequencies at high SPL, while definatly not recommended, are not anywhere near as harmful as for example, 1khz at 140db. You would have likely already lost most of your hearing after a few minutes of 1khz at 140dB.

Here is some basic information of hearing loss and prevention:

http://www.roger-russell.com/hearing/hearing.htm

-Chris


Owning a pair of high effeciency and wattage speakers myself (and sub), I tend to listen to music RARELY at volumes at around 120 dBs for a short amount of time. One question I have in mind is this... do frequency levels matter in terms of decibels in correlation to hearing loss? Are listening levels at 120 dBs at let's say 30Hz or over 10kHz different than 120 dB's between 1kHz to 3000 Hz?

I find that rock music sounds considerably LOUDER at 120 dBs compared to low bass frequencies measured at the same pressure or even the highs in other sound sources.

[poneal]

***nm***

[Woochifer]

Better question is WHY?

[92135011]

I wonder, can you still hear anything above 100Hz? or is it just all bass?
I sat in a few buddies car's who have put audio systems in their cars. One buddy of mine spend more than 3 large on his set-up...which I would rather spend on a home setup since the time spent at home is less than time spent in a car, but everyone has different priorities. Anyways, sometimes I sit in the back seat and its so freakin loud it hurts. The guy in the front doesnt hear it as loud as I do since subs are always in the back. Funny that he has to keep his alternator running or else the amp drains the battery in 10 minutes. He prides his 600 watt or whatever power while he says to me "what? 10 watts? thats nothing"

I'm off topic, I know

[agtpunx40]

I can't believe someone would listen to music that loud. I like to listen to music loud, you don't get the same feel from many types of music when it's quiet. You need to feel some bass, and it just gets you more into the music. But 140 db is completely unreasonable. There is no point whatsoever to listen to something that loud. I don't know what your car system is, but unless you have spent huge amounts of money, it couldn't possibly sound good at that level. Not only would a sub and amp have to be pretty damn good to get to that level, not to mention getting the mids and highs to sound good at that level, and finally, the car must be buzzing like hell. I never got that. When people drive by with the car buzzing with every bass thump. I like it loud (reasonably) but it still has to sound good. I just don't believe that someone would have that much money, and not enough common sense to not listen at that level. But I guess I could be wrong, there are alot of stupid rich people.

[vivisimonvi]

There are other medical consequences to exposure to loud noise as well especially low frequency rhythmic pounding. The only low frequency beat your body recognizes as "self" is the beat of your own heart. Other sounds of that type, especially very loud ones for prolonged periods will stress your immune system among other things.


I've read somewhere that tinnitis (ringing of the ears) is known to cause anxiety. I don't think my hearing is too bad although I'm not too content sometimes being in TOTAL silence (when all you hear is the ringing). I should mention my place of work is probably louder than when I listen to my 'loudspeaker' system (some things you just can't avoid).

Another strange article I read some time back mentioned severe dizziness in relation to your ears (not sure if it was exposure to loud noise). I remember taking ear drops one time and the stuff got stuck in my ear. I got up for a moment and I COULD NOT walk straight. My mind felt highly unfocused and bodily imbalanced. Of course once you get the stuff out you feel fine again. There's tons of interesting things to find about ears in general.

[skeptic]

It's not just your ears that react to loud music especially deep bass. Your entire body senses the vibrations through your nervous system. Even if you are deaf, the effect is highly stressful. Your body senses an outside presence and marshals its defenses meaning the entire panaply from secretion of hormones to activation of antibodies.

Anything which affects the function of the inner ear will cause dizziness, disorientation, and nausea. I know someone who is constantly on Antivert, a drug used to alleviate the symptoms. He has almost no hearing in one ear and problems with his inner ear due to a childhood infection. You can get a ringing in your ear from many causes. And you can have it even when you are completely deaf. And for some people it never goes away and there often isn't much medical science can do about it. Now what about cranking that amp?

[vivisimonvi]

It's not just your ears that react to loud music especially deep bass. Your entire body senses the vibrations through your nervous system. Even if you are deaf, the effect is highly stressful. Your body senses an outside presence and marshals its defenses meaning the entire panaply from secretion of hormones to activation of antibodies.


What about adrenaline? I think the situation would be different if the mind reacted to such vibrations as something to be pleasing than for someone who perceives it as stressful. I may not have the education of a doctor but I sense there's a coorelation between the mind and body that reacts in different ways to how own perceives it. Not instigating a debate here but just something to take into thought.

I do get a little stressed when I hear very loud claps of thunder outside right now... Don't think I'll be cranking up the amp tonight.

[Wireworm5]

I usually play my stereo around 95 to 100 db peaks 'C' weighted fast response on the spl meter. Its at this level the instruments sound true to tone and the bass has slam. If I restrain myself to lower levels all the time, then I would never have invested in a hi-fi system or mid-fi by todays standards. I don't experience ringing in the ears at these levels. But when using headphones I almost always have ringing ears afterwards.I am concerned that maybe I'll go deaf prematurely. My mother is practically deaf since she was 12 so I know firsthand what its like to go through life when you can't hear. But I like it loud.
However when not listening to my home system I let my ears rest as much as possible. I drive my car with the radio off. Sit in silence and generally dislike anything loud.

[skeptic]

I like listening to music fairly loud as well especially when the music calls for it. But when it becomes deafening, I know I have put my hearing at risk I have enough sense to turn it down. Besides, at that point I no longer enjoy it. I am lucky to live an a rural area where my nearest neighbors are far enough away not to be bothered by my sound system or even hear it at all, but I also have to be considerate of other people in my house. One of the occupational hazards for even classical musicians, especially orchestra conductors is hearing loss due to exposure to high sound levels. I think that brief exposures to very high levels can be more damaging that long exposure to just "loud" levels. Just my own opinion. I will probably go for a hearing test myself within the next few months. Nothing of concern but it's been a very long time since the last one.

Classical music recorded digitally on cds can be the biggest problem for me. Other types of music have an inherently limited dynamic range so once you set the volume control, you can be fairly certian that it won't get too much louder but with some classical music, soft is very soft and loud is deafening in the same music.

It seems to me that it's a contradiction when people worry about every last nuance in their sound systems that they go to extremes to pick out every component with extreme care, even the cables, and then play music so loud you wander what they can actually hear at those levels.

BTW, IMO, once you become accostomed to the luxury of escaping the stress of noise of the city and the suburbs and live in the peace and quiet of the country, going back seems unthinkable. Some of the sweetest music comes from the quiet sounds of birds chirping, the wind, and the neighbor's kids splashing around in their swimming pool. Even the occasional private plane or a power lawnmower becomes an intrusion. And boy do they ever mow their lawns around here.

[vivisimonvi]

I remember a time when my hearing was quite good, or more sensitive I should say. I'm not really sure what defines "good" hearing now that I think about it.

In 7th grade I took a shop class and one day our teacher decided to talk about psychic abilities (not sure I remember what sparked this topic in the classroom, it was long ago). When the machinery wasn't running everything is really quiet while we're doing our drafts and diagrams. The class did a little experiment where several students sit in front of the classroom, facing the chalkboard. A student in the back of the room would write down a number from 1 to 10 and the person sitting in front would try to guess that number correctly. Of everyone that went up, nobody could guess the right number. Then the moment I was chosen to sit up front, I guessed most of the numbers correctly and shocked nearly everyone, my teacher included. It was then they started trying letters instead of numbers and I didn't guess them, although the letters I chose did rhyme with the actual ones that part I didn't get. I remember my teacher commenting, "you communicate somehow through sound"

What he said was in fact correct, but didn't realize I was really listening to the pressure of the pencil on the paper. If a number "1" was written for instance, you will hear a solid unchanging sound tone (pardon the lack of proper sound terms in telling this story). If you listen closely you can guess, through sound, how something is written without even looking at it. A number 3 would have two exact (but changing) different sounds together. A number 4 written down will typically have 3 solid nearly identical sounds together. It gets a little complicated when you compare a 2 to a 9. Not everyone writes the number 2 the same (or 8 for that matter). When it comes to letters, it gets a little more complicated naturally. I admit feeling a bit bad at the time in fooling everyone I had real psychic abilities, but then again the smarter more skeptical ones had something to think and figure out.

[Weister42]

the car stereo I was referring to in my car consists a MTX Pro504 and JBL component mains, Crossfire CFA1000D and 2 12" Premier SPL2000, and this is a pretty modest steup when compared to those show cars and custom/expensive installations in big SUVs. Yeah I was going to compete in SPL competitions, but college expenses doesn't allow me to upgrade very fast. I tuned the mids/highs so that they won't exceed their maximum output before distortion, so obviouosly the subs are way overpowering the main speakers. The sub box I have is not designed to have good SQ, just pure output instead. I spent a few hundred dollars on this whole setup, and now I don't exactly know what to do with it besides use it like what it was designed for...

What about those people with a few 18" subs and a few thousand watts in their car and hitting over 160dB?

BOOOM BOOOOM