Can subs damage hearing? - Audio & Electronics Forum

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Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 5:33 PM
Might be a n00bish question but I did search and nothing came up so here goes. I have 2 12 in. subs in a box in my trunk and I've had them for about a year now. I don't listen to my music loud and I rarely max out the bass output of my subs. I'll crank them up when I'm showing off the car or if I'm at a meet or something but other than that I just leave a subtle thump coming from them while I'm driving and all. But my question is this: Will listening to a constant thump from the subs permanantley damage hearing? My friend has had 3 12 in. JL Audio subs in his Civic for about 4 years and his hearing is starting to go and he's only 25 years old. I don't want to remove my system since I paid good money for it and I might as well use it. Can anyone help me?

Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 5:48 PM
Subtle thump, no. Loud a good chunk of time, YES. A friend of mine just had his inner eardrum damaged due to that (he listens to his loud probably 75% of the time in his car). That's why there are warnings in the manuals for equipment about hearing damage due to excessive exposure to loud levels. if you don't go stupid with it, you'll have no problems. Keep an eye on your volume levels. If you find yourself going louder and louder over time, just to hear it at the same level, then it's time to scale back, and take it easy.




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Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 5:48 PM
anything over 90db CAN damage your hearing over prolonged exposure.

for example. being exposed to 130db for 4 min. per day.....everyday, can cause deafness and hearing loss.

One way to tell if you’ve been exposed to excessive sound pressure levels is that you tend to hear a ringing in your ears.

Ringing in your ears, hissing, clicking or buzzing sounds all represent the effects of tinnitus, which is often a side effect of noise-induced hearing loss. Inner-ear cells are sensitive to vibrations. But if they’re damaged, the ears will still record ringing or buzzing, even when there’s no sound.

and remember, the high frequency hearing is what deteriorates first.


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Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 5:49 PM
i have diminished hearing in my right ear from when i was young(er) and dumb and listening to systems full tilt all the time. not sure if was the bass or not but.....
yes bass can damage yoru hearing
every time you listen to a loud system and then stop and you hear a ringing sound thats yoru hearing getting damaged slightly

now..... when i got my new subs friday morning and hooked them up and ran them through the paces of breaking them in on bass tracs from realmofexcursion.com , not only did i get a ringing in both ears but my already damaged right ear felt like someone was stabing a blunt object into it.

so either learn from experience or learn from others experiences... and buy some ear plugs.



Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 5:56 PM
when I get out of my car, I have a ringing in my ears, but it only lasts a couple of minutes



Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 6:13 PM
OK thanks for the info guys. Whenever I get out of my car nowadays I don't hear any ringing noise or anything since I only had the subs on a very low thump. Plus I still have my backseat and the subs are aimed towards the rear of the car and not the cabin area so I think both those factors help. Also about once a week I'll get a ringing noise in my right ear but it goes away after about 30 seconds so I guess my hearing beginning to kinda go
Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 6:19 PM
that ringing is a bad thing...your ears have little hairs in them, and when sound passes through there, they are like wheat in a field and will lay over....causing you to "hear" that noise. the ringing is causes by these hairs staying down...make sense?


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Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 6:29 PM
Yeah I understand what you're saying. So is this problem going to be permanent? If so then I might consider removing the subs tomorrow (even though I do only listen to them with a low thump) because I know that hearing is something you don't want to lose in life.
Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 6:55 PM
low thump you should be okay with keeping them in your car. when i am on long trips or just short ones i don't really have my subs up that loud anyway. when i want to show them off i will take my remote for my cd player and stand outside of the car, as for my hearing it is already damamaged the only thing that i can do is speed up the enevitable. now if you want something to worry about read the studies on how subs are linked to cancer. because the human body is 90 percent water, subs can actually vibrate the cells in your body hard enough to have some mutate into cancer cells. wrap your minds around that.........


Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 7:06 PM
Spork

OK now I'm REALLY going to either remove my subs from my car or have them set to a very low thump cause I'm a hypochondriac like no other and I don't want no steenkeeng cancer.
Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 7:19 PM
i'm sure your's isn't loud enough to do MUCH damage(the way you describe it) Leave em in, just use good judgement on what's too loud for YOU.


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Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 7:33 PM
sometimes i can feel the bass tickle the insides of my ear, but i figure hearing is overated and leave the volume where it goes....at max..

lol



Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 7:36 PM
SomeGuys B wrote:sometimes i can feel the bass tickle the insides of my ear, but i figure hearing is overated and leave the volume where it goes....at max..

lol

lol. it's gonna be gone when you get old anyways....


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Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 8:07 PM
AuronFreek L

the test that i speak of were done over long periods of time with high volumes and high exposure. A low thump wouldn't hurt you one because you are not trapped in the same room with the subs at max you have the time to get away when you walk into stores or just go home and go to bed. when that was studied it was a constant exposure. i wish i could remember the article name that talked about it. don't worry. i am a hypocondriac as well. but i still have my subs. i just have them at low thump.


Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 8:13 PM
Quote:

lol. it's gonna be gone when you get old anyways....



for some it will be gone sooner, but the way i figure is that all i have to do is nod when the wife is nagging at me. and work out a system of winks. one for sex, two for a beer, and three for her to wash my car ( if she reads this i am going to get my a** kicked.)


Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 9:41 PM
well i started lsitening to my system close to full voume every morning on the way to work and i have already noticed a bit of hearing loss, i can just imagine what some of the ppl on here are like, cuz my system isnt anything to crazy.



Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Sunday, February 20, 2005 9:49 PM
black03coupe wrote:well i started lsitening to my system close to full voume every morning on the way to work and i have already noticed a bit of hearing loss, i can just imagine what some of the ppl on here are like, cuz my system isnt anything to crazy.
what?? i can't hear you..speak up


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Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Monday, February 21, 2005 3:41 AM
wysiwyg wrote:what?? i can't hear you..speak up


i've actually used that line while talking on the cell phone..multiple times. maybe i should turn it down.... naaahhh



Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Monday, February 21, 2005 7:22 AM
hahahaha yah i know its all bad and @!#$ especially high frequencies
but yah ive already wrecked that and im only 17
like ill be driving with my friends blaring the music
and they complain and how the music is hurting their ears
and im completely fine
this must not be good news
Re: Can subs damage hearing?
Monday, February 21, 2005 2:24 PM
funny how all these people love their music, but are willing to let it destroy their ears so they can't hear it anymore.

just listen at normal listening levels and youlle be fine. as long as your not at full tilt all the time u should be fine.


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