It's Too Damned Loud!

There's no shortage of reports of consumers experiencing hearing loss from using the earbuds that come with just about all of the popular media players on the market currently. By putting the speaker so close to the eardrum (better known as the tympanic membrane, and I've included an image of a normal one in this post to show you how thin and delicate it is), the audio does sound better, but it comes at a substantial price, better known as hearing damage. The better earbuds that come with the form fitting, outside noise blocking rubber inserts are even one step worse.

While this experience is hardly scientific, I wanted to share it anyway. When I listen to my Zune 80, I generally use Sennheiser earbuds. However, I had noticed that even with the volume set to 1 (the lowest out of a possible 20), it was still too loud. Sure, the earbuds look cool, and fit into a bag easily, but how cool are that set of hearing aids gonna look twenty years from now?

As I was going to be working outside for a while, I decided to dig out a set of more old fashioned headphones. They said Sony on them, and I think I had gotten them with a Walkman purchase several years ago. I plugged them into my Zune, and to my surprise, at the volume level of one, I couldn't hear anything. I seriously had to crank the volume up to a level of 7 or 8 in order to comfortably listen to the music. Even at the higher volume setting, the audio was still substantially quieter than the earbuds at the lowest setting.

While this was entirely subjective, and no decibel meter was used, I suggest that unless you want to pay for braces on the teeth of the child of your local audiologist's kid, I'd chuck the earbuds that came with your player, and use an old fashioned pair of headphones. Newer isn't always better.

Jonas