I bought my wife an iPod for Mother’s Day. She really enjoys it, I think, she exercises, works in the yard etc. My kids, esp. my son (age 7), also really like it. While he was waiting for a playdate just now he was listening to it (Nickelback and The Fray). He turned it off after a couple songs and said that he had it turned up all the way and it was a lot better that way.
Now if it hadn’t been Nickelback I would have been really impressed…
And being a good dad, I mentioned that he shouldn’t have it up too loud, it’s bad for his ears.
Great Og. iPods get loud if you’re using the stock Apple buds (which are, IIRC, about 15 ohms, so … loud.) I’m using a set of Shure E3c in-ear monitors (26 ohms) and even with songs that are mastered with low normalization I can’t listen at max volume. It’s too damn loud! I dunno how your kid can listen at that volume – he’ll have acute tinitis by the time he’s 18!
I was thinking the same thing, Mindfield. When I hook it up to my car I put it at about halfway, and then work with the car volume for anything else.
When it’s in my ear - and I also don’t use the iPod headphones - I don’t even have it at a quarter. And I like loud music, just not directly in my ear!
I’m sorry, I can’t hear you guys, can you speak louder?
(I used to play the music with my headphones cranked all the way up to top decibel. Not so much after I started asking people to repeat things three or four times. :smack: )
Heh. I can’t stand loud sounds, even or especially music. So I’m the only person I know who has hearing so acute I could (in Himself’s words) “hear a mouse fart.”
It’s easy to think that teensy little speakers can’t possibly be too loud to be safe. After all, when you sit next to an iPod user, it sounds like ant music. It’s easy to think that, but it’s wrong. All the way back to the original Sony Walkman, listeners were showing up with serious hearing loss from those tiny speakers right on top of the ear canal.
Well, some music just has to be played so that you can feel it in your bones and in your gut. Hearing be damned. That’s like not eating bacon because it’s not the best for you.
Don’t be too hard on him about Nickleback, he’s young, he’ll learn. Now if it somehow happens that all those songs magically disappear from the ipod, that’s not your fault right?
One of the things about the iPod I was pleasantly surprised to see was the “set max volume level” option. I have that set so that max is loud enough but not TOO loud. Like what I used to do listening to “Legend of a Mind”…headphones are just cool sometimes.
So, I’m not too concerned about the tinnitis. Which I have these days…I mean, unless everyone can hear that constant tone…
And concerning the whole Nickelback issue, that’s entirely his mom’s fault. She LOVES Nickelback.
This great little tool does lossless volume modification of MP3s. It will process your entire MP3 collection in one go. It is smart enough to keep all the tracks on an album at the same relative volume.
And it does not actually transcode the MP3 - it modifies frame headers, and it can be undone at a later time.
I dropped the volume on all my MP3s, so when I put them on my phone, I can use the in-ears without getting too loud (I had the phone volume on the very lowest setting - I like to strain to listen to music, it keeps my ears safe).
Ipods: Keeping audiologists safely employed since 2001.
Daddy, be concerned about the tinnitus. And about the level your kids are listening to. It’s good that you’re using the “set max level” option, but remember that once your hearing goes, you can never get it back–so don’t set the max level too high.
