I’m depressed and I wanna listen to music… 🥲
Its just fearmongering right?
I don’t max the volume, just turn it high enough to hear it, if I used speakers, I’d also turn it so that my ears detect the “same volume” so I don’t get why headphones is worse? Literally the same volume.
Also privacy, I don’t want others to know what I’m listening, the fuck lol.
Been doing it for almost 30 years. I still have better and more precise hearing than most.
However
Most people in the “headphones bad”-crowd fail to understand that it’s the volume and not the medium at fault. I’ve always been very afraid of permanent damage to my senses, ears and eyes in particular, so as much as I love head ranging to loud music, I ensure it’s not too loud. I’m the kind of person who brings earplugs to a concert (the type that dampens the audio without distorting it). I rarely need them, but I keep them with me just in case.
Fear mongering. Definitely.
Headphones don’t make you go deaf, it’s the volume level. Just keep the volume low and your hearing will be fine.
Another crucial part is duration. You can still damage your hearing if you’re listening to something at 70 decibels. For example, if you were listening to something that loud all day long for months, . In fact you could probably change your hearing with things even quieter than that if you’re constantly hearing it for long durations.
If you have your headphones in and you’re constantly listening to something for hours on end everyday, chances are, you are causing changes to your hearing. It will start as hearing fatigue. And if you keep pressing, eventually you’ll start to hear a mild ringing in your ears that may never go away. Keep pressing even further, yeesh… I don’t think it’s advisable to listen to anything constantly for months on end, no matter how quiet.
Please take breaks that last hours. If you want to maximize listening during the waking hours, then it’s probably a good idea to sleep with ear plugs if you can. It’s also good idea to take a day off, or even a week, if you can. Sometimes even take a month off.
I have been obsessed with listening to new music for three decades, I’ve also been in plenty of bands, it took quite a few shows. I am now beginning to pay the price of my lack of care towards protecting my hearing.
Don’t be like me; protect your hearing!!
Not even low, just not maxed out. I got a pair of cheap KZ’s in ear guys that I use for yardwork. And since I’ve started using them I’ve noticed the frequency of tinnitus events I have had fallen sharply.
As someone who has had tinnitus for nearly 30 years, PLEASE take care of your ears. Headphones don’t always mean T, but if you listen loud enough, you WILL get T. Respect ear health.
Yeah I’m hearing impaired on my left ear. Probably from sitting with headphones half off, playing world of warcraft and listening to loud music all day every day back in the day. I wouldn’t recommend it. I’m lucky in that it isn’t entirely gone, but I’d be lying if I said that it hasn’t affected my life.
Yep, me too. I had a type of headphones way back when, one they don’t build anymore because it brings the speaker membrane too close to your inner ear. That, the kind of music I liked to listen to, and many loud live concerts…
Fucking memories! I had these headphones and the bar style portable fm radio with the same color scheme. I’m so happy my tinnitus is pretty limited.
Depends entirely on the volume and time spent at that volume.
Just using headphones in general? No.
As others have already said: take breaks. It’s really easy (speaking from experience) to “get used” to a volume level that’s way too loud, ESPECIALLY if using isolating or noise-cancelling headphones.
Part of how your brain determines if something is too loud is its contrast with the environment. Yelling at the top of your lungs sounds a lot louder in a quiet library than it does in the middle of a live concert. Taking a break both recalibrates your sense of loudness and gives your ears a rest.
If you can afford decent “reference” or “studio” headphones, you’ll enjoy the same music at MUCH quieter levels than cheaper or lower-quality headphones. They are designed to be used for long periods of time by professional audio engineers and musicians, who are notoriously protective of their hearing and perfectionistic about even the most subtle of sounds.
Although I was a broke college student and couldn’t afford hardly anything they talked about, I learned a ton scrolling through audiophile forums like Head-Fi ( https://www.head-fi.org/forums/ ). Now I’m less broke, but somehow equipment envy and window-shopping just feels more right than spending way too much money on something I probably don’t have the time to enjoy anymore… Such is life.
edit: stupid grammar mistakes
Tinnitus? Yes, if you listen to very loud music a lot
for years and years. Deaf? No.Trust me, you can get tinnitus from listening to very loud music just the once. I’ve had it since I stood next to a speaker during a concert. Why the speaker was so low down is beyond me. Wasn’t able to hear anything for a couple of hours and I’ve been hearing gas boiler noises ever since.
People made fun of me for using foam ear plugs at a concert, and the occasional gun range idiot who throw various insults my way. Then I shoot my 7.5 inch ar and they either leave or get their own ear pro. Fucking chuds also I’m sorry you gotta deal with it. I’ve had a few episodes of it, but it’s nice not having it be a constant struggle. So I’m sorry you gotta deal with that. I also had a handful of “exploding head syndrome” moments and I honestly didn’t know which is worse.
I have you tagged from an older post and remember your mom saying some whack ass shit in another post you made. Headphones won’t make you deaf unless you’re absolutely blasting your music at full volume.
I hope you’re feeling better soon and not letting her shit get you down. You got this.
Your reply made me wonder: perhaps this is about more than the headphones? I’m not saying this justified her statement, but perhaps his mother feels like she isn’t being heard?
Yeah, it is a bit more fatiguing on your ears but not inherently more dangerous to them, what is important is to listen to your body and don’t push it too long for too loud. Your ears need breaks! It is weird but true. Damage doesn’t come from headphones, it comes from not paying attention to your body and not giving your ears the breaks they need.
What I would say is if you are turning up music on your headphones to drown out something else that is loud, that is when you are much more likely to hurt your ears without realizing. Try to get noise cancelling headphones if you find yourself doing that.
Listen to this guy OP. Don’t be like me and give yourself tinnitus by your early 20s listening to Nine Inch Nails full volume for hours on end. Aint worth it.
(not so) fun fact: tinnitus can cause chronic depression and anxiety! Ask me how I know …
Same, but SOAD
Headphones won’t break your ears any worse than loud speakers do, and noise cancelling headphones are actually a solution to blocking loud noise (e.g. construction), or for people who get overstimulated.
In fact, since headphones can block out sound you might even be listening at a lower volume than if you were trying to drown out sound with speakers, assuming the headphones have any noise cancellation (even just muffled cups). Even just competing with ambient noise can cause us to raise volumes more than necessary.
Like everything in life, most dangers is a matter of quantity.
Listening to music with headphones is a fantastic way to enjoy music, as long as you are reasonable, it is fine to listen to music loud enough to drown out other sounds for periods.
Back in 2022, I got double flat feet, double heel spurs and a bad knee at the same time, walking was agony at the end of the day, so when I had to walk home from the bus stop, I put on some quite loud Sabaton in my headphones, used that to gather strength to move, usually ending up crying hard as I dragged myself up the path to my apartment building.
I still hear ok, sure, I have a bit of bad hearing, but that was something I had found out a decade before.
You won’t go deaf just by listening to music in headphones, they are an important tool in several sectors, especially in music, every live performance artist is wearing in ear monitors these days, they are special headphones that allow the artist to not only hear the other performers and instruments, but also protect their hearing from the extremely loud speakers and crowds at a live event.
Then you have the people working post production, they all wear headphones all day, you have radio DJs, they also wear headphones all day, pilots, air traffic controllers, police, security guards, and similar professions also often wear head phones constantly.
What you are being told about headphones is just fearmongering, but built on a small kernel of truth, loud sounds can and will damage your ears, but that goes for all loud noise, not just headphones.
Ask yourself:
Do you like to hear loud music? At all?
If yes, then you are in danger. Then you need to be careful all the time, and even more so with headphones, because the feeling of loudness is disturbed a little with headphones.
Otherwise, forget it all.
My Helicopter Mother’s PoV when I have headphones on to drown out the living-room arguments.
(It’s noise-cancelling, I don’t blast it at max volume lol)
A helicopter emits sound in the 85 (max 40 hours a week) to 110 (WILL cause damage, even in bursts of 15 minutes or less) dB.
So a helicopter mother’s yelling is likely more damaging to your ears than the headphones if it is prolonged ;)
No, actually my mother flies around in circles in a F15 and fires warning rockets at me all the time…
…wait what did you say again? Sorry the missile explosions are too loud can’t hear you!
Mom’s sorta right, but also not… If you blast the headphones, yeah, of course it’ll eventually screw your hearing. If you leave them at a level, where you’re able to hear the outside world around you, you’l be fine.
If you leave them at a level, where you’re able to hear the outside world around you
Noise cancelling, you can have it at half-volume and it already covers up all the external noise.
I think they still don’t know what noise cancelling headphone are, or the fact that noise-cancelling is even a thing, and assume the music must be too loud
Remember: noise cancelling works by playing the inverse waveform to cancel out the external one. That’s still pressure waves in your ear; they’re just no longer registering as sound.
There have been plenty of studies in this area; to minimize the risk of hearing loss, keep the headphone audio between 60 and 85 dB (remember: it’s a logarithmic scale)
Anything from 70dB down should be safe; you want to listen to 70-80dB a maximum of 40 hours a week, and 80-85 a maximum of 8 hours a day.
It doesn’t matter where the sound is coming from; those are just the guidelines for sound waves in your ear canal. Headphones can actually muffle external sounds louder than 85 dB, protecting your hearing.
Most phones have a setting somewhere to prevent the headphones from emitting sound over 85dB; this is required to be the default by law in the EU.
All I get is ears full of earwax.
