see, some of the confusion here is pretty simple.
our ears are sensitive to a frequency area.
and if you attack that sensitivity, you will cause damage at an alarming rate.
but
dont be fooled by all bass, because each 30hz can have a different octave.
lower octaves are usually not the ones to cause pain.. but the sound pressure usually jumps up quite high with these lower octaves.
the sound pressure can push on the ear drum with more force, and that can cause a loss of hearing.
probably use your best judgement when determining if the sound is safe or harmful.
the only thing i would suggest, if you havent ever heard the difference between harmful and harmless.. maybe you are already insensitive with your ears.
and this might lead you to losing some more hearing IF you cause damage without consciously knowing about it.
also.. some times the loss of hearing is all in your head.
as if your body tries to grow and adapt to the loudness to prevent itself from serious unchanging damage.
some people can go without the loudness for quite a while and get their sensitivity back.
other people have used 'tuning forks' tapped onto their skull to regain their hearing.
and some go as far as using hypnosis to bring their hearing back.
it is all about the nerves.
a nerve can grow insensitive.. but a damaged nerve takes a lot of surgery and such to bring it back to health.
if your brain is simply allowing the nerves to 'relax' .. then there is usually a chance that the brain can be 'trained' to un-relax the nerves.
practice with one of the smaller sewing needles hitting the ground.
that is what i was taught as a child.
it worked pretty darn good.
i got the ability to focus deeply onto the sound, and the more i focused.. the more louder the sound became.
see.. when your nerves are 'relaxing' it is like a form of attention deficit disorder of the eardrums.
not the same as damaged nerves.
some people who cant walk know this already.
their nerves are damaged, so they cant be woken up.. that is why they cant feel their feet enough to walk.
(it is kinda like having your whole leg fall asleep from laying on your side and trying to walk on it, except usually without the tingling.. because the tingling is the electricity going through the nerves, indicating that they are awake.
but
sometimes the tingling only shows that some of the nerves are awake and not enough of them to full stand on the foot.
just give the needle ONE drop to take a note of it.
if you feel that the sound wasnt loud enough, you could take a break from the loud audio and train yourself to focus more.
you might go up and down quite a few times in your life before old age kicks in and you dont know if it is old age or damage from listening to that needle.
it is possible that your brain gets 'angry' and gives up because you are trying to focus in on the soft sounds too much, and then going out and ruining all of that training.
again, it doesnt mean the nerves are damaged.. it just means your brain is growing more and more stubborn to the re-focusing technique.
nerves can be like plants.. if you dont give them water everyday, they can still grow and live being outside.
but
it takes a whole lot of special work to heal an almost dead plant and nurse it back to life.
this is usually what they are doing to help people walk again.
finally getting all of the key combinations together in order to 'heal' the almost dead nerves.
and this leads me to say, you might hear the doctor say 'the nerves are too far dead for treatment'
since there is probably a threshold of how dead the nerves can be.
it would take some serious serious master chemist to bring a completely dead plant back to life.. and that doesnt mean it is safe for the environment where the work is being done, and it also doesnt mean the success rate is high or guaranteed.
if there are dry nutriants inside the plant that can help nurse it back to life, then the chances would be higher.
but
if there are no nutriants inside the plant.. it is really hard to FORCE those nutriants back into the plant without the plant drinking for itself.
like if you wanted to fill the bloodstream with a shot, and the heart isnt pumping, you would have to use your hand (or a machine) to manually pump the heart to get the shot to mix into the blood.
plants dont have a heart that can be pumped.. and nerves dont either.
when the science finds out how to use a make-shift pump.. they will be using it obviously
if you can hear the pin drop at all.. your hearing isnt that bad.
it took me months to train my brain to zero in and focus on the needle dropping.
and when i finally got it, i could have somebody else drop the needle for me.. because my arms are only so long and i needed more distance.
it isnt a myth about one sound being louder and more painful than another.
i have been hanging out at a muffler shop and most of the time the impact wrench they use doesnt hurt my ears.
but
sometimes they are banging on some metal with the impact wrench, and the metal is long or a rod or something.. and it causes a ring that hurts.
same thing with a hammer smacking down on metal.
depending on the metal and the size.. sometimes the hitting of the hammer is painless and other times it hurts.
this can also be found to be true listening to the saw.
some cuts are nothing, other cuts are obnoxious and painful.
some say octave increase or decrease is the same as frequency increase or decrease.. and if you feel strongly about that, then consider Q as the changing factor.
not all audio is a simple sinewave.
you can have a simple wave of whatever frequency.. but ringing can occur to add to the frequency.
usually the ringing will drown itself into the original frequency, and during the drowning 'collisions' can occur that change the final 'tone'
if you cant go a week or a month without hearing something that makes you say 'ouchie'
then i would consider you sit down and think about how often your ears had a chance to hear something.
it could take dozens of attempts (dozenS = at least 24)
being physically active around loud sounds often, can lead to a built-up immunity.
and you would hear pain later than most other people.
it is a part of being physically fit.
but
there should be a time when you can go on vacation and relax well enough to realize your hearing can be sensitive again.
it might not come as a controllable thing.. and the time when you hear something soft really sensitive might simply 'fall onto your lap'
but
the less often those soft sounds 'fall onto your lap' the better.
because 'falling onto your lap' can be a sign of hearing damage.
if you really work at it, it will get more sensitive.
sometimes it can get worse before it gets better.
but
it is the not getting better at all that is worth considering a medical problem.
i know my ears used to tickle when i first got subs in my car.. and i didnt pay much attention to it.
for one, my ears where really really sensitive at one time.
and i know that it is WIND more so than decibels.
now this would be a perfect time for a doctor to come in and give an answer for each individual person.
because for some, the wind is worse than the decibels.
for others, it is the exact opposite.
sometimes you have to sit and think about whether you are 'blocking it out' or if you have had damage.
i dont know if it is adrenaline.. i am pretty sure it is adrenaline though, it is the chemical that your body can release to help you 'block it out'
and it isnt until you start to relax around loud noises that you become a victim to damage.
it is the actual listening to the loud noises that can lower your sensitivity and sometimes cause nerve damage.
i was in the back of my cousins car and had some midranges and tweeters screaming in my ear.
i have had hearing problems out of that ear ever since.
and that was with me being in the back seat with the speaker pointed at my ear for about 1 hour.
so it is true when they say how many hours for such and such decibels is safe.
i dont know if it was massive amounts of decibels for all of the frequency range, i think it was massive amounts of decibels for the frequency range my ears are sensitive to.
because the speakers were screaming, not playing loud.. and that is a difference.
most people think of screaming as one note or tone, and that is mostly what they were doing.
and i knew then that it was bad for me, i couldnt help myself but to lean over into the other side of the back seat to get my ear away from the speaker.
but
i have also enjoyed being up close to concert speakers without any hearing problems.
my sensitivity went down for the rest of the night, and i didnt pay attention as to when the sensitivity went back up.. but it came back, and it wasnt painful or scary while being close to the speaker.
i have been working on my ear ever since that day in my cousins car.
i always hope that it gets its sensitivity back.
but
unfortunate for me, i grew up with my left ear becoming more sensitive because that is the ear i use to talk on the phone.
my right ear was the one that was close to the speaker.
i have always known my left ear to be more sensitive when i am relaxed after any time i have spent on the telephone.
its like i zoom in with my left ear and it doesnt go away easily.
consider what i said and evaluate yourself.
nobody is going to focus on sounds with your brain better than you can.
but this doesnt mean go out and find a bunch of loud sounds to test with.
softer things like listening to your shoes while you walk.. or listening to your coat as your arms rub the fabric of the rib area.