As you all know, several weeks ago, there was a frightful accident which happened to a young man, who was hit by a pole. He had earphones in both of his ears. In order to prevent accidents, the school is advising us not to put earphones in both ears, whether we are inside or outside the school
Apart from the possibility of accidents, there are a few other disadvantages to using earphones. Earphones can damage our hearing. Compare to giant PA stacks and huge studio monitor loudspeakers, headphones and earphones look small and harmless. But what matters is how much the sound makes your eardrums vibrate. In fact, earphones can produce a much louder sound in the eardrum than more powerful loudspeakers. Even though earphones don’t sound as loud as loudspeakers, the sound level at the eardrum is the same, or even more damaging.
There’s a fact that The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders reports approximately 28 million Americans have lost some or all of their hearing. However, there’s a little evidence that loud music is actually safer than unpleasant noise such as industrial voice.
To protect against a high sound level from earphones or to prevent the hearing loss:
• The length of time you listen, not just the volume, can contribute to hearing loss. The louder the music, the shorter you can listen, but giving your ears a chance to will help them recover. • Don’t listen so loud. It’s safe to regularly listen to your iPod or mp3 player at about 70% of its maximum volume. Anything louder than that over an extended period is risky. And you should still be able to hear someone talking from a few feet away. • Use headphones, not the earbuds. Earbuds are more likely to cause hearing damage than headphones that sit over the ear. • Never max the volume up. It’s safe to listen to mp3 or iPod at maximum volume just for 5 minutes. • Use limiter. If you have the sound level limiting equipment, it’s good to use that to control the sound level.
The Essay on Sound Waves and Room Acoustics
We generally think of the speakers in our stereo or home theater systems as the final link in the audio chain — and the one that makes the biggest difference to our ears. But there’s much more to the sound we hear than just where you place your speakers in a stereo or home theater setup, and what comes out of them. You might not even realize it, but your room plays a rather large part in the ...