4 ms·

> I destroyed my hearing by putting loud music over noise-cancelling headphones Huh? The point of noise-cancelling headphones (at least to me) is that you can

• jlokier 6y ago
  Noise-cancelling headphones aren't perfect, and if there's a lot of environmental noise, you'll need to do more than put on quiet music. I've been in places where I wore in-ear phones (they have some passive noise-cancelling effect due to the silicone seal), _and_ with noise-cancelling headphones around those, in attempt to keep the noise out and be able to hear something. Your ears have a sort of physical gain control built in, so if you listen to quiet music the environmental sound (that still gets through the noise-cancelling headphones) will sound louder than if you listen to louder music. I don't recommend actually loud music, as that causes serious damage in the long run. But some modest volume will add some additional masking on top of all the other things done to keep out the environmental sound.
• huffmsa 6y ago
  But the notion that I need to "drown the noise out" is wrong. Quiet should be the default state. If you want to be loud, go find a room where you can be, instead of forcing everyone else to block you out.
  • sloaken 6y ago
    Great in theory, and I agree completely, but invariably you will have a set of people who live for getting attention and they are noisy.
    • huffmsa 6y ago
      Of course, but there are plenty more that only join in if it's easy, and reducing the easy of participation means you only have to think about the attention junkies.