Ear Protection

Ooou! Ooou! Tell the morons in the cars with Ghetto Blaster bass speakers they will lose they're losing low-frequency hearing while listening to bass heavy music.

I wear ear protection regularly when needed. I've ridden motorcycles for over 25 years. If you haven't ridden you may not realize the level of noise caused by the wind rushing past your head and through the helmet at 60mph is quite loud. For the past 8 years I've used custom molded earplugs, which I wish I'd been using earlier. I don't know if I listen louder than when I was younger, but my wife certainly seems to think I always listen too loud.

Beavis,

Like second hand smoke it is driving up next to them. Toxic air waves at its best.

I do feel at time rolling my window down and asking them to turn it up louder just to see if they are that stupid to do so.

What?

Only kidding:) I use good quality hearing protectors whenever I use noisy power equipment (lawnmower, leafblower, snowthrower), but not otherwise. Besides the potential long-term impact on hearing, I can sense that exposure to that kind of noise, for more than a few minutes without protection, raises my blood pressure considerably (I don't normally have a blood pressure problem).

I listen mainly to classical music, and even though I listen at levels that I believe approximate what I hear in a concert hall (from say a mid-hall seat), I have no concerns about hearing damage. Chamber music never gets worrisomely loud, and the dynamic range characteristics of typical symphonic music mean that the average power levels are relatively low, and high volume peaks are brief and infrequent. It would be a completely different story with rock or heavy metal that has both high volume and narrow dynamic range.

Regards,
-- Al

I wear ear protection regularly, except when I'm 'listening'. Many times at work, when required, and while doing most yardwork.

Cheers,
John