Hearing damage - it creeps up on you ....

[A.S.]

A tale of caution concerning Sir George Martin. I've mentioned meeting him about ten years ago, and even then his hearing was severely impaired and I had to raise my voice to be audible to him.

He's quoted as saying the high notes damaged his hearing. I'd suspect that it was in fact a combination of loudness + frequency + length of exposure that caused the damage.

[Hwveldhuis]

Hi Alan,

Should we combine this story with your other post regarding the damaged tweeter? :-)

Grt. Mike

[Amondsham5]

Its nice to know. But I just need some more information about it. The share thumbnail is facing some problem in download.
I
got interested and curious to read the research. Can you share something about it.

[EricW]

When I think of the amount of extremely loud music (live and recorded) I exposed myself to in my youth, I thank my lucky stars my hearing's still good - I've had it tested - and shake my head at my youthful folly.

It's hard to believe that the level of sound exposure at concerts - rock and pop concerts in particular - isn't regulated in some way. Okay, maybe 85 dB would be a little low, but something in the mid- or high 90s perhaps would provide for plenty of wallop without the insanity of 110 - 120 dB sound pressure levels.

I remember a few concerts - all too few, unfortunately - that were amplified to a loud-ish but still quite comfortable level. Most, unfortunately, seemed to be in the hands of people who had tens of thousands of watts available and no compunction about using every last one of them.

[Dougal]

I enjoy seeing bands play live but all too often the experience is ruined by appalling PA mixes. To be honest I can count the number of times I've heard really good amplified sound with one hand! (Two of those occasions were thanks to David Gilmour and his superb engineer, Andy Jackson.)

To spare my hearing from the continued excesses of live engineers I invested in some custom molded ear plugs, and would encourage other HUG members to explore this avenue.