How loud do you listen to music?

[Natural Sound]

Fist off I'm going on 52 years young and in excellent health. But I have on occasion abused my hearing. Most of this occurred when I was a lot younger and living in NY. There was never a shortage of music venues when I was in my late teens and early twenties. Hanging out with friends and listening to loud music, mostly rock, was the norm.

My hearing is still very good despite the abuses I've put on my auditory system over the years. When I got into my thirties I backed WAY off the volume control. I want to preserve my hearing as best as possible so that I can enjoy music well into my golden years.

Lately I've been wondering what kind of sound pressure levels I have been subjecting my ears to. Then it dawned on me. I have a sound level meter in the closet. Its not the best instrument in the world but it should give me a good idea. It turned out that the dB levels were lower than I expected, which is good.

The meter I'm using is an el cheapo RadioShack 33-2050. I bought it to balance out my 5.1 home theater system. When used with a calibration disc it works pretty well.

I know there are a lot of ways to measure this but I decided to keep it simple. I set the meter response switch to slow and the weighting is set to C so that I measure across the complete frequency range. Then I simply place the meter near my

[Doc B.]

FWIW a favorite "standard" level used when making comparisons in the studio averages around 82dB.

[Jim R.]

Tom,

I'm only a couple years older than you and your measurments come out to be the same as mine -- I consider 85 dB at the listening chair to be quite loud, and I too am always, or at least used to be, a bit surprised by how low the levels typically are when measured.  I was also able to verify this once with a real pro SPL meter and the differences were negligible.  I find I like listening at for lack of a better term, a "correct" level in which all sounds feel in proper proportion to me -- where I can hear everything but nothing is over or underdone.

Man are you going to love your Orcas :-).

-- Jim

[4krow]

Hmmm thought I was the only one who didn't need the loudness that I used to. I use ear plugs more than most people, yet my hearing is not exceptional anymore.
   I remember taking an SPL meter to the airport to measure sound levels during a flight. Yah I was REAL popular at the security check. Almost made me late for my flight.

[jimiclow]

I have a free iphone app (Ultimate ears SPL) and I think it's pretty accurate. It can measure A or C weighing. The inside of the plane IIRC measured around 90+. I always bring my Ety ER4 on long flights.
Anyway, at my listening area, I get around 80-85db coming from 1.5WPC Stereomour.

[Paul Joppa]

For what it's worth, a sound level meter (like studio VU meters) measures a short-term average, a few hundred milliseconds. The instantaneous peaks on well-recorded analog live music are normally taken to be 14dB louder; a few audiophile recordings can get to 20dB. (The lowest grade of commercial pop music is so compressed, the peaks may be less than a dB louder).

[Grainger49]

My meter says I listen in the mid 60dBA range peaking to the low 70s.  It is a nice comfortable listening range for me.

[Doc B.]

Man, that's background music levels around here.

[xcortes]

Hey Grainger,

Maybe your spl meter needs new batteries!

Saludos

[2wo]

A quick and dirty check is mid 80s...John

[earwaxxer]

I have found that not all sound is good sound for the ears, even at a given sound pressure. Distortion is the key. Even moderate levels are fatiguing if the sound is crap. If the tweeter/amp etc. is straining then your hearing is getting destroyed. There is, of course, the consequences of hearing damage at high sound pressures, no matter the 'quality'. At this point in my life, I want to enjoy my hobbie, if that means some hearing loss, so be it. I use my cost benefit algorithm in my head to determine the 'right' volume at a given time/song etc. I'm not too vain to get a hearing aid in the future if i need one.

[Grainger49]

Man, that's background music levels around here.

Are you listening to Bluegrass?  An acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo and bass should be only so loud.

I'll put on Chicago later and make a check.  I'm headed out to Habitat in a few minutes.

[bainjs]

I've been to Grainger's house and I can assure you he isn't listening at those levels... .  I use a free app called Decibel 10th on my iPad that says I am in the 75 to 80db range typically. Anything over that I worry I'm disturbing the neighbors. It's a pretty slick program for free and will also allow you to capture and email it's findings.

Joel

[corndog71]

My night time listening is typically around 66dB but during the day I might bump it up as high as 85dB.  I rarely crank it higher unless I'm demoing my system for my latest victim.

[Grainger49]

Joel's post gave me a kick in the ass.  I let visitors choose a comfortable volume.  I hate it when someone listens so loud I can't enjoy the music.

I checked with Chicago Transit Authority, the first album.  It might have gone 3-5dB louder, as loud as I will listen to rock, or any music.  But as I listen the volume control goes from the 10:00-11:00 position to the 1:00 over the first half hour.  Jerry Douglas sounds better at a lower volume, so does the Wailin' Jennys.