MP3s Bad for the Ears?

[exfileme]

A recent article out of Brussels warns that young Europeans are in danger of damaging their ears by playing MP3s.

MP3s Bad for the Ears? : Read more

 

[greenskye]

I love how they try to suck you in with the tag line.

MP3's have nothing to do with hearing loss. A better description could be "Portable Music Devices Blamed for Hearing Loss".

Of course, this example, while more accurate would not have encouraged anyone to read the article as we all know that loud music damages the ear. This would have saved 5 min. of my life.

 

[Guest]

Misleading headline is Misleading. Compressing music has nothing to do with hearing loss.

You even finish the article with "it's not the actual MP3 that's the root of the problem"

 

[tenor77]

In related news, hot stoves can damage your hand!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Trialsking]

This just in:

Living leads to death!

 

[aevm]

Maybe young Europeans are setting their mp3 players so loud to drown out the noise from the EU Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks.

 

[virtualban]

And we bothered about smoking and cancer related to that when we really do have a PROBLEM like this...
Blame the recording companies for what users do in their earphones, that should do it.

 

[skittle]

You all misunderstand.

What the article is talking about is that the music labels are (and have been since the 90's) boosting the dB level of music to gain loudness. Of course you can only boost the dB so much in a mp3... and were at a point where it is causing severe clipping (cutting off at frequencies). In fact music produced in the 80's is usually of a higher quality than that produced today. So the damage is two fold. Louder music can damage ears, but at the same time we are also receiving an inferior product.

 

[dzmcm]

If they where to make an article about record labels screwing up good music with moronic levels of compression it'd be news. Not to everyone, but news worthy to most average Joe's. Or even to state the disadvantages of common ear buds to real speakers. There are ways to preserve integrity and appeal to the everyman, but this is just rude.

A lie by any other headline is still a lie...Kevin Parrish.

 

[doormatderek]

Why the hell are we blaming the record companies? The owners of the devices can choose the level at which they listen. Either way, I blame the 'kids'. Turn the sh1t down for crying out loud. Most of time I like to sing along, and if I can't hear myself as well, I believe it's too damnd loud.

 

[KITH]

I find most contemporary music to be fatiguing in a matter of minutes.

I can't listen to most of the garbage. It is just unpleasant, uncomfortable.

 

[Spikke]

How is this news? It's like telling me that jumping out of an airplane at 20,000ft w/o a parachute will kill me. People are stupid.

 

[Ares_]

ohh good! So my lossless WMA files through a headphone amp will not cause any damage! So relieved.

 

[Tekkamanraiden]

Like my electronics professor used to say it's never been more efficient to ruin your hearing.

 

[Guest]

Having worked in Audio several years I can say that it would take extreme pounding on the ears to damage them or extended periods of loud music. I think one has to listen to ones ears, so to speak.
It's also been proven that one loses hearing in the left ear.. why??
Driving with your window down subjects the left ear to wind breaking it down sooner than the right ear. Then again if you're married and you drive with your woman, your right ear is subject to some type of abuse. ha! just can't win!

 

[Guest]

"Let's be frank -- we are looking at a catastrophe unless something is done soon,"

... just ask Pete Townshend... oooops too late!

Its anybodys god given right to blow their eardrums out if they want. As long as they don't disturb the person next to them... or down the street.

 

[Daves Kitchen]

The problem with headphone listening in general no matter what the source is that it's very difficult to judge the volume level because the sound is only striking your ears and not your whole body. This causes people to listen at a level that's too loud for extended periods. MP3 in itself sounds pretty horrible when compared to other sources but it's probably not worse than any other media about hearing loss except for the fact that these players are awesomely convenient, they hold a large amount of material and thus people tend to listen for longer periods of time than they did with their cassette Walkman back in 1987.

 

[demonhorde665]

there is one serious flaw with this aritcle and the research behind it ....DO YOU SERIOUS THINK I"M DUMB ENOUGH TO BELIEVE THAT THE LATEST BRITNEY SPEARS ALBUM IS "LOUDER" THAN SAY SLAYER"S 1992 SEASONS IN TEH ABYSS, JUST BECAUSE IT IS A NEWER MUSIC ALBUM !!!!!!\


lol perhaps they have increased volume on pop records and such , but seriously LOL no one gets louder than the Heavy metal music dating from 1985 to 1999 LOL so this article may only apply to certain genres really

 

[Guest]

Lowering your volume control will NOT undo the severe dynamic compression and limiting that the audio has undergone. We have been purchasing "defective" audio for a few years. Audio that exceeds an average greater than -12dB RMS has been sold by irresponsible people.

 

[Guest]

Re: [lol perhaps they have increased volume on pop records and such , but seriously LOL no one gets louder than the Heavy metal music dating from 1985 to 1999 LOL so this article may only apply to certain genres really]

You are incorrect - style has nothing to do with it and it is purely a matter of the average power of the signal. Im sure you will find that any metal or hard-rock album prior to 1995 is almost in all cases 'quieter' than about 90% of all mainstream/radio music released since 2001/2002 (And again its nothing to do with how loud you turn it up, that part is purely a matter of prefernce) - but the raw decibel level of the recorded music, and also, for 2 pieces of music with the same average decibel level, one could have plenty of dynamics (higher peaks, quieter lows) and the other could have no variance in the amplitude across the entire song. In this case, the second piece will be fatiguing/bland in the long-term in comparison to the first.

For more information, I highly recommend visiting www.justiceforaudio.org and www.dynamic-range.de