Dear everyone, Mercedes is a good marketeer and with best intentions they included protection of hearing in their campaign. I wouldn't blame them for not knowi

Dear everyone, Mercedes is a good marketeer and with best intentions they included protection of hearing in their campaign. I wouldn't blame them for not knowing and after having spent lot's of money on this it could be dissapointing to hear that in fact, the acoustic reflex arc, otherwise known as the stapedius reflex does not protect hearing against loud sounds. It is simply a myth that even among many professionals is believed. The facts are that the ear's transparency for sounds is traditionally tested with only a single frequency, around 226 Hz, and around that frequency the sound levels get reduced by the acoustic reflex. Thus it seems as if the ear protects itself for loud sounds and the myth is born although it has only been measured at a single frequency. Technology to measure the same prinicples for a wider frequency range is currently only available for a selective group of researchers and for the industry developing medical instruments in this direction (for which I work). We know that above 1000 Hz the stapedius reflex is doing the opposite of protection. It will increase the sound levels. I could explain why the reflex is doing this, why did it evolve like this during the last many thousands of years. It is certainly easy to understand that a couple of hundred years ago (before industrialization) no protection for loud sounds was actually needed and thus hearing protection is not a logical candidate for explaining why we have such acoustic reflex... Though this is not the point. The point is that Mercedes' feature is not protecting your hearing during a collision impact. They made it with best intentions and for that they deserve a compliment and credits. A little more info about the acoustic reflex that I consider to be correct can be found here: https://youtu.be/3a3Eeuhkh-c?t=1164 https://youtu.be/3a3Eeuhkh-c?t=1164 Feel free to try to get in touch with me as well if you want to find out more about this topic. Cheers Jos