From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad
Hi Tom,
thanks are due to you from most sides for this neat summing-up of what we
subject our ears to.
I have driven a lot in a car using earplugs all the way, and it has two
beneficial effects: I get less tired after having driven 200 US miles, and I
can listen to the radio with much better dynamics and no damage to the ears.
The background noise of 80 dBa is not good. On the other hand, I fear that
even with the windows up, the sound from the loudspeakers will be audible
outside the car at red lights.
Ear protectors when vacuuming and lawn-mowing. And learn to flex the muscles
of the ossicles whenever you are subjected to loud noises. It seems to
mitigate overload. I can create thundering noises in my ears at will that
way, and I suspect most people can, if they are aware of the phenomenon.
Best wishes,
George
--------------------------------------
> Hi Stewart:
>
> These hearing tests were discussed a couple of years ago on the Ampex List.
> Apparently, there is
> controversy as to how accurate or useful they are. That said, yes I do get
> my hearing checked every
> couple of years and yes it's still good according to the test results. In
> "young middle age," I
> can't hear above 15-16kHz anymore, but the loss is uniform to both ears.
> Since at least age 30, I
> have watched carefully what sort of sound pressure levels I expose myself
> to. I wish I had worn
> better earplugs or attended fewer rock concerts as a youngster. Although I
> am a member of the
> "Walkman Generation," I never turned to 11, so my ears weren't exposed to
> prolonged close-up blasts.
>
> The hearing tests got me curious about sound pressure levels in the typical
> middle class
> northeastern environment. I found a couple of danger flags:
>
> 1. certain electric tools or shop-vacs in a closed garage can produce 100dB
> spl.
> 2. lawn tools, especially powered leaf-blowers, also produce very high
> spl's.
> 3. it's surprising what the underlying noise level is in the typical car on
> a typically
> ill-maintained US interstate at cruising speed. Add on top of that enough
> volume from the speakers
> for audibility of music or speech and you're doing some ear-assaulting.
>
> For the first two items, I highly recommend earplugs, at all times. For the
> third, best to not fight
> road noise too much, some driving situations are just too loud for music
> listening. Windows open at
> highway speeds is ear-damaging loud in almost all vehicles.
>
> Also, cellphones can probably do some hearing damage. Apparently, the cell
> systems don't have to
> abide by the rules than landlines do about impulse noise levels and
> variances in volume on the other
> end of the conversation. Things can go from too soft to too loud very
> quickly on a cellphone,
> particularly through an in-ear bluetooth device.
>
> Speaking of phones -- here's a quick tip I learned from my parents. They
> used to reality-check their
> hearing by picking up a standard-issue Western Electric telephone and
> listening to the dialtone. If
> it sounded the same in both ears, they knew they were good to go. If it was
> markedly different in
> one ear, they'd find out why. If it was slightly different in one ear,
> they'd know to compensate
> with their brain. How does it get slightly different? Spend an hour talking
> on the phone before you
> head into the studio and then see if you hear the same out of both ears
> (unless you make it a point
> to frequently switch ears where the phone is pointed). This is one of many
> reasons I don't like
> taking phone calls while I'm working with sound.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Stewart Gooderman" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2011 5:18 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Turnover and rolloff curves for correct playback of
> 78 rpm records!
>
>
> > From someone who is not a professional in the field, but loves the process
> of sound restoration
> > and recognizes it's importance to history and who is an optometrist who
> professionally has his
> > hands in the human sense of vision rather than the sense of sound:
> >
> > Do sound restorers routinely get their hearing checked to rule out sensory
> induced bias?
> >
> > DrG
> >
> > On 3/6/11 4:04 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
> >> One man's opinions/experiences ...
> >>
> >> You need to use your ears.
> >>
> >
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