I Am Worried About My Ears
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
The writer doesn't seem to understand loudness here. This is exactly the opposite effect of DRC (dynamic range compression). Music gets less punchier and sounds smaller, as transients are pushed down in the mix. Listening to music with less DRC is more damaging to your ears (although it sounds better), if you are comparing two tracks with equal loudness. Keeping loudness constant in this comparison is valid because we will adjust the volume knob based on the track's psychoacoustic loudness.
Example: https://youtu.be/3Gmex_4hreQ?t=10 and https://youtu.be/3Gmex_4hreQ?t=70 have roughly the same loudness. The first has less DRC and is more damaging to your hearing.
This misunderstanding breaks down half of the article's argument. The other half---that loud music is cooler than it was decades ago---is probably valid I guess.
So something from the peak of the loudness wars (like the Metallica album cited by the author) will actually sound a bit quieter and duller on Spotify than something with -11 LUFS of dynamic range.
Slow-attack compression certainly makes things sound punchier, but do they increase transients relative to the loudness of the track? No, I still think they can only decrease them.
Hearing is damaged by large absolute volumes of transients, with the small exception that your ears are able to become slightly temporarily desensitized around high levels of loudness. Since higher loudness causes listeners to turn down music, they will also turn down the transients, so loudness makes tracks safer.
Possibly the worst thing to do to your hearing music-wise, is to listen to uncompressed kick drums for half and hour. They might even not sound loud at all, but the pain will start kicking in before you know it.
I don't think it's about scientific understanding but rather about using the same descriptive words as everyone else in the audio world.
>This is exactly the opposite effect of DRC (dynamic range compression). Music gets less punchier
Yes, you're right (scientifically), but "punchier" as a description for less dynamic range already has a long standing and widespread use. E.g. See numerous examples about adding more compression to reduce the dynamic range to get a punchier sound:
Half of the drivers say something like: "well, go live in the forest then". I find it incredible that silence is ignored these days and that a noisy city is becoming the norm; it's a shame: it makes us more stressed and less relaxed.
The majority of noises could be suppressed: honkings, old train brakes, motorbikes without an exhaust, …, but people don't really seem to care (but I'm sure it impacts everybody).
There are some problems in life where a punch in the mouth seems like the only viable solution.
Comparing it to talking/texting on a mobile phone while driving, where the penalties are moderate and there is some enforcement, attitudes are changing - very slowly though.
I don't think most people know it is illegal.
Jokes aside, I live in a Southern European country in which many people think it's normal to use the horn in every junction “in order to raise awareness in advance ” since they drive well over the allowed speed limit. Very interesting concept especially since they horn to other cars with raised windows and music on which pretty much renders their action mutt but stupidity is without limits...
I would not want to live there, for a variety of reasons, but that is the biggest one.
I just cannot understand the appeal of riding around on something which molests the eardrums of everyone within a 400ft radius.
And some people just want attention.
The attention-getting signal of extreme volume followed by the false impression of competence triggers hormonal response of interest.
Drape yourself with the carcass of a dead animal (that someone else prepared) and you're the skin deep image of an alpha seeking procreation opportunities.
If people ever used their heads, motorcycling would retreat to the practical, enjoyable activity it is at baseline. But in a confused society of scarcity, with a curious blind spot to unenforcing this branch of noise laws, the benefits of the "loudness mutation" to the individual are great.
I've often lain awake at 7am listening to these people drive off, impacting the lives of literally thousands — tens of thousands! — of people along whatever route they take.
I can't believe it's tolerated in this context. Go live in Arizona!
Seriously though; the noise issue divides even the motorcycle community. Advocates will tell you "loud pipes save lives" and are usually the equivalent of "car guys" that live/breath bikes. Other will tell you that the only defense is defensive riding and it's annoying.
I agree it's annoying, my bike isn't that loud, but anecdotally when I've ridden louder bikes I feel safer; riding a bicycle I feel invisible. I always hear loud bikes before I see them.
I wouldn't mind a louder bike, because I love the sound of engines; but I'd feel self-conscious riding it around my house. The sound wouldn't be a problem for my hearing because I wear custom ear plugs.
I don't think riders need extremely loud exhausts to be safe, but an exhaust sound adds an element of safety that cannot be ignored. It's the same reason why all vehicles are fitted with horns, after all.
I think people might be more understanding if they rode a motorcycle in a busy city for a few months, and realised how many drivers (at least in my city, London) are far too busy looking at Facebook to drive.
Driverless cars can't come soon enough; though I'm sure that road will lead to motorcycles being made illegal anyway - but that's another story...
Tie horn honking to a credit card in the car. $1 per second honked. A quick road runner meep-meep cost 20¢. Holding down your horn like a dipshit for 30sec is a bit expensive.
Use those dollars to bolster city taxes.
I've found that the majority of honks are not for urgent situations
I fear it would make things worse?
Another issue is that this is something you need to do in a fraction of a second or it might be too late - if the first thing you do isn't smashing the steering wheel but hesitation in the form of thinking about money, it's probably going to be too late.
I have to honk to prevent a crash about 2 times a week - and I go to and from work (30 km combined) and nothing much else. What about professional drivers?
I think a certain segment of the population actually enjoys the hustle, bustle and noise... and I suppose they all move to NYC.
It works really well on the subway, since the frequencies tend to be lower (similar to planes). Outdoors it's less effective, since the bothersome noises are the higher-frequency sirens, the beep of backing up, jackhammers...
When you're young, your body works perfectly pretty much. The first time you develop an issue with your senses for example, it is quite shocking; going from a state of perfection to imperfection, you focus on that one flaw.
As I age and more stuff is not working optimally, I have just stopped giving a shit about these sort of issues, adopting a 'even the mona lisa's fallin apart' attitude. I dont focus on the flaws, I focus on what I can still do. Even if I'm only physically operating at 80% of my former capacity, say, I'm still capable of accomplishing what I want to if I apply myself.
The upshot of all this is that unless you are clinically depressed or have some serotonin production deficiency or some-such, then other ailments, hearing and vision impairment wont really affect your overall happiness. They will initially but then you will get used to that state and your happiness will return to its status quo level.
I mean, if something is harm to you, you may need to consider stop doing it before you been damaged permanently. Reduce the volume in this case for example.
It's not saying you should stop listening music or enjoying your life, but you need to protect yourself from been hurt by doing those. After all, how can somebody listening music after became a deaf?
Indeed. I caught an ear infection in my 20's. I woke up and thought I was completely deaf in one ear. I went to an ear clinic and they did a hearing test, and the doctor said the results showed that while one ear was worse than the other, the results were still in the "normal" range!
I have oteosclerosis with accompanying inner-ear damage after stapedectomy or -dotomy, I forgot. I lost 10-20dB on one ear, 20-40dB on the other. I am amazed how much psychoacoustics save the day. Music does feel a little different, but it is no less beatiful to listen to. In some pieces I discovered brass sections I never truly appreciated, but most songs did not change by much. More importantly, my kids and I are still able to sing together as before.
The bothersome bits about hearing loss are having to ask "could you repeat that?" a lot, not hearing quiet sounds (kid's breathing at night, oncoming cars at a distance), and being more sensitive to loud noises. But so far, music stayed beatiful.
ps: If anyone from Netflix is reading this, it would be amazing if I could set a N-second delay for subtitles so that they don't spoil the jokes for me and everyone else. Even better would be if I could view them on my cell phone while we all watch on the big screen. I don't need subtitles all the time, just occasionally, for the bits I didn't understand.
I suffer from mild tinnitus and one effect, that most non-sufferers don't appreciate, is that when you're hearing is damaged it doesn't mean you're hearing everything at low volume. Some sound is muffled, sure but higher frequency sounds can be much more acute. This leads to anxiety and stress in public places that other folks find hard to understand.
I am fortunate in that I can work from home or a private office, I'm not forced to spend my days in a shared work space or other noisy environment; I think I would suffer a nervous breakdown if I was?
If you're currently using loud music to cancel out the noise in your workplace, or during your commute to work, stop now and find some other way of dealing with it because damaging your hearing is not the solution.
There are many different types of hearing loss and hearing impairments. Damaged Hair-cells (actually it's the stereocilia) are only one type that happens mostly to people who are exposed to high sound pressure over a long time (or very high sound pressure over short time). Constant noise of a city is not nearly loud enough to do that physiologically.
But listening with inear headphones can and will damage your hair cells if you listen too loud regularly.
Regarding hearing tests: Forget online hearing tests - they're total bullshit. Even many of the tests done by professionals result in useless data because it's you who needs to tell them whether or not you hear a specific frequency. And the result only compares your abilities to a standard for your age (see below about individuality). Therefor the results are highly dependent on you're psyche, health, mood,...
Another mixup is sound pressure (physical volume) vs subjective loudness. High sound pressure can damage your hair cells, high loudness cannot if sound pressure is reasonably low. While the thing with loudness wars is bothersome sometimes, it's not dangerous.
Oh I forgot about frequency related hearing loss: Many people think that you can hear 20-20000Hz, but this is only a rough estimation and more importantly highly individual and age related. So it's totally possible that your same-age friend does or does not hear frequencies you do. Most people don't get past 16-17k at all. Secondly, the highest frequencies you're able to perceive get lower and lower as you get older. Many old people can't perceive frequencies higher than 8-10kHz. While they hear worse then others the critical frequency areas for speech (formants) lie way below that. Even music perception works quite fine (although it won't be that crisp anymore).
Tinnitus is another story which can have so many causes (destroyed haircells being only one), stress, tendons in the neck and some others.
So don't pull up the volume unnecessarily on your earphones and you'll be fine.
Edit: Fixed typos.
There are much, much better tests readily available[0], although as always, if you have any doubts seeing a professional and using properly calibrated equipment is best.
[0]: http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_hearingtestaudiogram.php
I can do both of these. The latter is rather dangerous in the long term, although in the short term it does reduce the perceived volume quite a bit. For some reason when I was a kid I preferred a negative pressure in my ears which deformed my eardrum. I still do and I concisely need to remind myself to reset the pressure back to normal.
1) While degrading sound quality the dynamic range compression actually helps with sound damage since you can hear quiet parts of a record without turning volume to eleven. Sure, it is nice to listen sometimes to Deep Purple or Beethoven 9th with proper dynamic range but it is rather taxing on ears in the louder parts then and probably not advisable in long run.
2) It looks like every singe headphone user I've encountered listens on insanely loud volume. Whenever I listen to someones work/home setup or stand near a listener in a bus/subway etc. in exactly 100% of cases the volume is too much for me (and I use headphones for two decades already). Tl;dr - turn volume down if you care about your ears.