Tekton Double Impacts

Almarg:
Not sure about the word "noise" in your post. Music at 95db from acoustical instruments is not dangerous at all. Noise, however, can be troublesome as loud as 90 db. Am considering "noise" to be random in nature and not periodic as is music.
Regularly play on a piano at 95 db and it is not at all stressful. When I listen to a sound system at the same level, however, it sounds loud -- and can be stressful if there is any noise (=hiss) or distortion.
Know a number of symphonic musicians who are 65+ years old and they hear fine after playing loud symphonies all their life. They do, of course, worry about their sound exposure and take certain precautions.
I share a number of the views above about the dangers of listening to recorded music at the 105-110db level. Have done DB tests with my audio systems and find this dangerously loud.
The more you listen to very loud audio, the more deadened your hearing becomes and you tend to up the volume to recapture the pleasurable sense of "loud." Take an hour off, instead, and return to the level you were listening at -- you will notice how much louder this is than you earlier had thought.

I dont think audiologists have a clue. All we know is for sure that super loud prolonged exposure is bad - gunshots, cannon etc  can cause instant damage. Rock concerts are damaging. Another big factor is aging - hearing (like eye sight) deteriorates with age - some much faster than others.

I agree that giving ears a break is crucial. Avoiding loud rock concerts. Also avoiding instantaneous damage from loud explosions is key. It appears that continuous background noise is also bad (engine noise in a mechanical room or factory). 

I suspect ear buds are very bad as low frequencies are trapped in the ear between the bud and ear.

Natural variability in the individual makes it so hard to generalize. 

Hi nitrobob,
To be clear, obviously it's your call as to how loud a volume you prefer listening to music,  no argument.   You are correct, certain people seemingly defy known or established risk factors. For example the person who smoked a pack of cigarettes per day for 60 years and lived to an age of 100 years. It happens.

You have apparently suffered no ill effects to your hearing despite high SPL exposure, congratulations my friend.  110 db SPL is too much for me. As I said before, we all make our choices .
Charles  

nitrobob,

One of my audio epiphanies occured back in teh mid 80’s when I provided the music at a party in grad school.

The party was on a farm out in the boonies of Western Kentucky. I set up my hifi on the farmhouse porch and "cranked it up" .

People were in a field nearby I’d estimate 50 yards or greater away directly in front of the porch. UB40, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, U2, Zeppelin, you name it, it sounded like a live band playing nearby on the porch. Better sounding than Woodstock I’d bet! :^) Slightly smaller venue though admittedly...

That was with with original 80s vintage OHm Walsh 2s (8" walsh driver somewhere between 1000 and 2000 models currently). I think they cost me less than $1K at the time new.

They were driven by a Tandberg tr2080 receiver, 80 very good quality (for the day) watts/ch. Source was an Aiwa AD6550 cassette deck (another beauty of the day before Aiwa went mass market).

Fast forward to today, and the OHMs are more refined sounding than ever (very hi end IMHO assuming similar quality gear upstream) and amps have improved as well. Yes things cost more as well but there are lots of bargains out there on the used market.