Pick your poison fellow Audiosexers

This poll is mainly for myself and anyone else who is curious shock as to what levels other people are listening at.

My choice of A-weighting over C-weighting is because although I can find shed-fulls of information on noise and level exposure at A-weightings, I can hardly find a shovel-full of references meant for C-weighting SPL readings. Also, SPL meters that can measure using the A-weighting scale are cheaper and common than the C-weighting capable sort.

The difference between the two weightings, for those that need a refresher, is roundly that A-weighting is rolled off below 200Hz, with middle frequencies holding sway over the reading more so than a C-weighted measurement. This means that the same level will show up as a different reading on each scale, particularly with bass-heavy or mid-heavy material.

For example,
90dB @ 4kHz = 91dB(A) and 89dB(C)

90dB @ 250Hz = 81dB(A) and 90dB(C)

For reasons unknown to me, all the departments/labs that publish their hearing damage references all do so at A-weightings. This may be because hearing damage presents itself mostly at 4-6kHz, whereas age-related hearing loss begins with the high frequencies. However, I don't know much beyond my own casual reading on the topic, so if someone knows I wouldn't be off the idea of learning a bit more about this. What I do know is that the human ear still has many things about it we still can't fully explain or understand.

Anyways, here's an equation, graph and table taken from The Engineering ToolBox for your reference :




Daily exposure before permanent hearing loss

I recommend you purchase a cheap SPL meter (if you haven't already) from radioshack or off ebay, and refer to the table above. For those of us involved in music production, understanding how much sound our ears can take is essential.

Keep those ears safe

 

What... I Cant Hear....

 

I don't listen to music casually that often but when I do it's probably the only time I really turn stuff up loud

I don't use an SPL meter but when I work I monitor at very low levels . . not just to avoid damaging my ears but also so I can work for longer without ear fatigue.

In addition it's easier to hear the overall mix and judge relative values at lower monitoring volumes . . I read an interesting article the other day where the author suggested thinking of your monitoring level as a 'zoom' control:

Here's some high frequency tests if people wanna test their high frequency extension

High Frequency Check - 44.1

High Frequency Check - 48

 

With you on the low level monitoring.

A side effect I find from this is that if I do it for long periods especially on my headphones my ears seem to get over sensitive. In an urban environment this can be a bit of an issue.
Have you observed a similar effect?

 

I don't know about an urban environment, but to me that's a great advantage when I'm working at home. I can have stuff turned down and still hear it clearly.

Do your ears hurt or tingle when you take off your headphones (I'm going to assume you're using a closed design)?

 

Using senheiser hd25. I guess its a good thing im not going deaf, its more the opposite, when I listen quietly for a few days my ears seem to adjust and life is way loud. progressively notice a lot more detail in sound as well. I guess its just a developing ear.. Its nice when im living somewhere isolated, spending time in the city can get a bit much however.

 

oh dude I freaking love spending time in cities

city sounds are the best! (guess where I grew up?)

I almost never listen loudly, so your 'life is way loud' is the norm for me, and I like it...is that strange for you? I totally like it.

 

BLASTING
CRUMBLING ON THE BASS

 

casual listening, usually no more than 75 decibels.

 

This is true...

Not that I ever take much notice, it always gets turned up one way or another.

Then the next day when you listen back to your mix, you wonder why your top end sounds like crap


Did the freq test, could hear at 17k. Done a different one last year (but same thing) and could only hear upto 16k

 

I keep on switching the whole time, between 0,+1 and full blast and everything in between on different setups ....
I don´t know what you mean, really...

 

AWESOME.

Hehe, I have some cheap-ass sound-isolating in-ears that I use to listen to mixes when I take walks . . . just don't forget that high-frequency loss is usually associated with age whereas hearing damage from too-loud headphones etc. usually manifests itself in the most sensitive hearing range: 1-5kHz . . . with that in mind here's a test for frequencies 30Hz-16kHz:

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html

Download:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XLOQIHX5

 

There's lots of variables such as listening environment, playback system (I always do such tests on a pair of Sennheiser HD650s), noise floor and test playback volume. If you're performing a certain test say 6dB louder than you did another test 12 months ago it may be that the 17kHz tone was simply not above the noise floor last time etc. . . . also, that particular test is a continuous sweep down through frequencies as opposed to a series of discrete fixed tones which may affect your results . .

Then there's the fact that you mortal humans are weird creatures and tend to perceive audio frequencies differently at different times! For example HF perception is affected by how tired/alert one is and also by the level of caffeine and alcohol in one's system . . .

 

Yes, more good advice.

Cheers..

Yeah sort of read up abit on that last night. I stumbled across one site where some kid was claiming he could hear the 22khz tone but was getting alot of stick from loads of people who say's humans can't even hear that high a frequency. He got shot down even more when he said it was through skullcandy headphones and they discovered that the particular pair he was on about only had a frequency response of up to 20khz. He wasn't the only one either claiming to hear it but the majority were just saying bullshit in response. Funny thing is I was playing the 22khz tone just through a laptop and my 6yr old son could hear it. I didn't even tell him I was playing it or for him to listen out for anything he just asked me what was that noise and not to do it again as he didn't like it.

Playing high frequencies is also a technique employed in certain locations to stop youths loitering around *yes* They do it at train stations where I live on a night time. (or used to anyway can't hear it lol)

 

So, when I've just woken up early in the morning tired as hell, my HF hearing is less sensitive? That's so weird, I didn't know that thx.

 

I have... tempting reasons not to care about the potential advantages I might gain from mixing at higher volumes...

1) my room is untreated, and
2) I'm paranoid about sustaining hearing damage

My solution : reference against other mixes :dancing: