4 ms·
I would bet that the highly-blocking in-canal earbuds are actually less damaging than cheap ones that sit on top of your ear. Reason being that without any ext
by bashinator 13y ago
I would bet that the highly-blocking in-canal earbuds are actually less damaging than cheap ones that sit on top of your ear. Reason being that without any external noise, you can turn the level down on the music and get the same perceptual loudness.
I know for a fact that when I got some nice etymotic earbuds (-20dB of outside sound), I was able to turn the level down from my average of about 70%, to more like 40-50% on my ipod.
- mjolk 13y agoThat's my thinking as well, but I'm not a hearing specialist. It's my understanding that sound pressure is the damaging element we're concerned with, however, does blocking the ear canal with a headphone increase the pressure (, and damage,) as there's nowhere for the frequency to dissipate?
- bashinator 13y agoGood question - maybe I will post it to /r/askscience.