Please Share Your Hearing Impact Experience

[metalheadjoe 10+ year member]

Hey all, new member @razorblade prompted me to make my own thread regarding hearing damage. Unfortunately, hearing damage is a harsh reality that comes with the territory, but I'd like to know everyone's personal experience on how the bass life has impacted your hearing.

I haven't had a hearing test since separation from the service, and they were awful enough that I won't subject myself to another unless I'm REALLY concerned. Having said that, I find myself asking people to repeat themself more frequently since my stereo has gotten louder, and my right ear aches for a day after I listen to my stereo at high volumes for a while. I'd estimate I run around 138db regularly and up to ~145db when I'm in the mood, though I rarely run my meter when I'm not testing. I usually listen to high quality recordings.

Have you noticed any effects to your hearing from listening to loud music? What symptoms do you experience? What are your listening habits? Do you wear hearing protection when necessary, and how do you decide when it's necessary?

Thanks for your feedback.
- Joe

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[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I actually hear better after loud bass, because I have clogged up ears, and the pressure helps my eardrums equalize. I haven't noticed any severe hearing damage from having my system. The damage comes more from the higher frequencies than bass; that's where your hearing loss comes from. The hair structures in the ear that pick up higher frequencies are smaller, and when those break, you lose bits of your hearing, depending on what frequency hairs you damage. These hairs are called cilia:

Your mids and highs being super loud is where you'll notice or actually get hearing damage the most, because that's almost all of the sound you hear, and low frequency cilia hairs are thicker and more durable than higher frequency ones. Loud bass isn't anywhere as problematic, by itself.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

When I barely went to college for like a month, my audio engineering teacher told us about his mad loud guitar playing days, and that he had his ear like x-ray'd or something, and he said you could see the "dip" in his ear cilia hair, in the frequency range of the hair that resonated to the frequencies of the very loud guitar he was playing. Breaking those means less physical vibration from the hairs, which means basically less voltage to your brain at those frequencies.

That's one reason why I like silk-dome tweeters. Harsh tweeters, IMO, cause worse hearing damage than smooth tweeters. I never liked a ton of tweeter, just clear tweeter sounds.

 

[SlugButter]

With mids and highs that can keep up with some of these guys who run 5000 watts to 2 15s, I’m not surprised they’d have hearing damage. It’s not the subs, it’s the music up front to keep up with subs that kills your ears. Other than for pure show or listening to music outside the vehicle, I’ve never seen the point of having some of these insane super tweeters and door modifications up front just for driving around listening to music. I think my tweeters are probably seeing maybe 15 watts at full tilt, and they’re loud. My mids are seeing about 100 watts and my sub is around 800. I just don’t get these retarded 300 watt super tweeters I see people get. That’s insane inside a vehicle.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I like it loud and almost ear peircing on some of my music, and chest banging substage, especially when cruising down the highway. over the years my hearing has deminished from loud machinery from work more than anything. i can be standing right in front of you and not even hear you if i hear music in the background. My ears tune towards music for some reason?? Its that saying.. I can see your lips moving , but I cant hear what you are saying. Ive been able to read lips the majority of the time. I hear better out of the left side than the right. Sometimes i can hear far away that most do not?? Kind of crazy. I have ringing almost all day though

 

[SlugButter]

I like it loud and almost ear peircing on some of my music, and chest banging substage, especially when cruising down the highway. over the years my hearing has deminished from loud machinery from work more than anything. i can be standing right in front of you and not even hear you if i hear music in the background. My ears tune towards music for some reason?? Its that saying.. I can see your lips moving , but I cant hear what you are saying. Ive been able to read lips the majority of the time. I hear better out of the left side than the right. Sometimes i can hear far away that most do not?? Kind of crazy. I have ringing almost all day though

That’s a hearing disorder you’re describing. More than one.

 

[SlugButter]

My father has tinnitus and another disorder I can’t remember the name of. He can’t focus on a conversation in any type of crowd. It’s from all his years as a young kid through his 20s on farm equipment.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

That’s a hearing disorder you’re describing. More than one.

Man ..Im sure it is..LOL. Its like right now. I am listening to Fleetwood Mac on the home stereo and I can hear the ringing/ buzzing going on, but i can hear the fridge too. LOL. I can usually hear the hissing from a tweeter before most can.I usually tune by ear majority of the time. a preamp EQ helps out alot

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

It blows getting old.. What can I say??

 

[SlugButter]

Man ..Im sure it is..LOL. Its like right now. I am listening to Fleetwood Mac on the home stereo and I can hear the ringing/ buzzing going on, but i can hear the fridge too. LOL. I can usually hear the hissing from a tweeter before most can.I usually tune by ear majority of the time. a preamp EQ helps out alot

When I started to run active I realized how loud a tweeter actually is. I bought 40 watt rms tweeters, but even 20 rms watts is way too much. I’m probably running 12 watts to it at full tilt when I tuned it all to match the other components.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

When I started to run active I realized how loud a tweeter actually is. I bought 40 watt rms tweeters, but even 20 rms watts is way too much. I’m probably running 12 watts to it at full tilt when I tuned it all to match the other components.

Ill run 30-100 depending on what I have installed. At the moment Ive ripped everything out in the truck except a set of older polk DB 6.5s and a set of Hertz 6.5s on an Exacution Audio 60.4 and a set of CDT tweets about to put them on theyre own amp. Prob a Hifonics VIII Pluto for now. PPI Phantom 1k on those Audio Legion tens, but going put my XFL 12back in for now.

 

[metalheadjoe 10+ year member]

With mids and highs that can keep up with some of these guys who run 5000 watts to 2 15s, I’m not surprised they’d have hearing damage. It’s not the subs, it’s the music up front to keep up with subs that kills your ears. Other than for pure show or listening to music outside the vehicle, I’ve never seen the point of having some of these insane super tweeters and door modifications up front just for driving around listening to music. I think my tweeters are probably seeing maybe 15 watts at full tilt, and they’re loud. My mids are seeing about 100 watts and my sub is around 800. I just don’t get these retarded 300 watt super tweeters I see people get. That’s insane inside a vehicle.

I've also never understood the point of huge mids/highs besides appearance. Loud mids/highs make my ears physically hurt long before loud bass, and i'm only running an Alpine Powerpak on my coax speakers, which I think is plenty to run with my 5kw's of subs.

 

[metalheadjoe 10+ year member]

It blows getting old.. What can I say??

It has its ups and downs.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

It has its ups and downs.

For sure. No Doubt man. On the Daily. LOL

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

I got hearing test every year for work. It was required due to working around loud machinery. My boss and safety officer would always joke about me failing the hearing test because of my stereos and coming into work with broken windshields but I passed the hearing test every time. They gave pretty detailed results but I always threw them away after looking them over. But nothing stood out over normal.

When I had 4 horn drivers it would 100% hurt my ears. When I had my 4 10" mids on a 3k it would hurt my ears if I cranked it.

I would pull subwoofers and only have mids and tweeters in my car until a new setup I would notice it bothered my ears more. I think the worst time was I was shooting guns and didn't put my ear plugs in. Good 2 days of ringing.