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Babies and Speakers

For those out there with newborns or babies on the way, I ran across a friend who's a fellow audiophile who advised me that after my newborn son arrives in 3 months time that if I plan on getting serious speakers with a decent sub I should consider that I won't be able to run my system volume at pre-baby levels without waking up the child.

Short of buying a nice over the ear headset, which would upset me since I won't be able to run my floorstanding speakers, how big of an issue is this for all of you and what other ways have you worked around it?

Many thanks everyone for making these forums so helpful for an anxious Dad to be.
maxim531
markphd
667 posts
 
I believe music is good for mental development. It's a complex stimulation that gives the brain a workout. Helps in getting those neurons and synapses all connected and fired up. However, be very, very careful of volume. Their hearing is much more sensitive than an adult's, especially with higher frequencies. You don't want to contribute to the child having premature hearing loss.
badam's avatar
badam
34 posts
 
there is no harm, as long as it's not rap...
elevick
2,636 posts
 
My wife always used a noise machine to play some sort of static or sound to block out the world so the baby would sleep. These are great (waves, birds, static, wind...).
Want one really cheap, we are done with ours?
bdgregory
1,712 posts
 
it was so long ago my recollection is weak (my kids are now 25 and 23), but listening volume was never a problem for me when my kids were infants. In fact, my oldest son would fall asleep whenever we turned on the vacuum cleaner!

The bigger issue for me was I little to had no time to listen. I ended up putting my energy/money into the best car stereo I could manage since I have a 50 minute commute, this was my listening time.
macrojack
1,303 posts
 
Both of my boys were born at home to the strains of Pachelbel's Canon in D. The music never stopped and now they both play instruments themselves.
It's the toddler stage you want to worry about. They climb. They knock things over. They smear food and other things. They put little things into little places. They are curious and their investigations can have disastrous results. You won't really care though. They're only little once.
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