I’m one of the vast horde of people who walk around listening to iPods. One thing I’ve noticed, however, is that it doesn’t seem to be possible to listen to them while walking on the street. Or on the train. Or just about anywhere except the office.
The problem is there is so much ambient noise, to hear the music I’d have to crank up the volume fairly high. Once I get into a quiet room, I quickly have to turn down the volume because I’m listening way too loud, and it’s uncomfortable, almost painful. I’m paranoid about hearing loss, so I try to avoid listening at that level, so I set the volume to be a reasonable level based on listening to it indoors. But then when I go outside, I can only hear the faint trace of a song amidst the background noise. Even people pull up next to me in their cars, and I can hear their music better than mine. I don’t understand it.
The only solution I’ve heard about involves wearing canalphones, which should block out some ambient noise. But how much noise they block out I don’t know - I would want to keep some background noise at all times, just for safety reasons. Would they help, or is the answer that there is no good solution, and it’s best just to not listen to headphones on the street.
Also, Apple’s new iPod headphones are in-ear phones. Are these the same as canalphones? Would they help cutting down ambient noise?
Any wisdom about this issue would be greatly appreciated.
The pain threshold is a good guide. We feel pain above a certain volume for a reason - it’s doing damage!
Try setting your normal volume level, with whatever system and protection you use, in the loudest situation you’d normally use it - probably a train. Keep it untouched, and when you are somewhere quiet, put it on and listen. If it’s uncomfortable, it’s probably doing damage. The only solution is to buy a newspaper to read on the train instead
What? Speak up!
Yes the risk is real. I don’t have near the ears I had 40 years ago due to too many loud engines and too much rock and roll.
Other than that I have nothing to add.
If, like me, you listen to a lot of music, investing in a pair of canalphones is worth it.
Apple’s new headphones do a decent job of reducing outside noise. Unfortunately, they don’t stay in my ears quite as well as I would like.
Personally, I prefer another set of canalphones I own which are surrounded with foam rubber that expands like earplugs after you put them in. These stay in my ears better than Apples headphones, and completely block out all outside noise (I have not been hit by a car yet).
This is good information. I guess one of the reasons I am not completey sure I’m doing damage is that my volume level seems moderate - about 40% on my iPod. Pretty much on any stereo system, past 50% is way too loud for me, headphones or not. Perhaps my ears are just sensitive.
What would be nice is a way to know the approximate dB levels for various volume settings on the iPod assuming standard earbud headphones. I say approximate, since it probably varies a bit due to exact headphone placement. I have tried googling for this a little while ago but found nothing.
I bought some noise-cancelling phones 'cos I spend a fair amount of time on planes and trains, they make a hell of a difference to the feeling of ear-strain on a long trip.
They seem to mostly work on the background “white noise” of the plane or train rather than on changing sounds like people speaking (which can be annoying if some business-droid is shouting into his mobile nearby)
