I was in an crowded elevator at the La Salle College of St. Benilde the other week, and I was a bit puzzled at the muzak being piped in. It wasn’t too clear, but I could tell it was a noisy metal band blasting away. Metal muzak? I listened closer and was startled to realize that it wasn’t from the elevator sound system - it was coming from earphones plugged into the ears of a student at the back of the car. Dear God, I thought. Is he deaf?
If he isn’t yet, he will be soon.
iPods are capable of hitting 100 decibels - the equivalent of standing 10 ft from a pneumatic drill running full-tilt-boogie - and just listening at that level for 15 mins can seriously damage your hearing, say experts. New models of iPods can run for more than 12 hours straight, so you can imagine the potential for damage. Even if you don’t crank it up all the way, the cumulative damage from listening at high dBs for 21 hours a week, the average amount of time a typical user keeps the buds plugged in, can be very disastrous.
Telegraph.co.uk reports that Apple is finally acknowledging the problem and has recently put in a patent for a system that automatically adjusts the volume to safer levels in forthcoming iPods and iPhones. Apple’s patent states
Since the damaging effects on users’ hearing is both gradual and cumulative, even those users who are concerned about hearing loss may not behave in a manner that would limit or minimise such damaging effects.”
Apple’s system will calculate the listening levels and length of time the music has been blaring and will gradually lower the audio output to less harmful levels. It will also calculate the “quiet time” between turning it off and then turning it on again so that the level can be raised higher after a significant rest period for the user, although it has been determined if this automatic level control can be optionally shut off.
Ok, ok, we hear ya. We’re turning it down.
December 31st, 2007 at 10:23 pm
That’s all very well for those idiots that have in-ear headphones blasting out too loud but I already have problems when connecting some of my speakers or cassette adapters to the headphone output. If they make it automatically reduce the volume these devices will be useless.