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Apple's AirPods Pro hearing health features

(www.theverge.com)
149 points elsewhen | 1 comments | 22 Oct 24 00:25 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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an_d_rew ◴[22 Oct 24 02:35 UTC] No.41910659[source]▶
As a mid-50 year old who discovered two years ago that he has moderate hearing loss (50-55 dB HL), I will be forever grateful to Apple for doing this.

If anybody from the accessibility teams is reading this, please know that it is difficult for me to overstate my gratitude and my appreciation for the amount of work this must've taken.

Music sounds unbelievably better through my AirPod pros, and I didn't even know what I had lost until I heard it again.

I'm willing to bet that a lot of my middle aged compatriots don't even know how much their hearing has degraded… Get your hearing test tested, folks, while you still have it!

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analog31 ◴[22 Oct 24 02:49 UTC] No.41910729[source]▶
Yes, and protect your hearing while you can. Turn down your tunes.

Disclosure: Working musician. I wear musician's earplugs when playing in bands.

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1. an_d_rew ◴[22 Oct 24 03:53 UTC] No.41911035[source]▶
Totally agree but there's a small caveat...

Everybody has vastly different sensitivities to sound exposure.

Even identical twins with identical sound exposures can have drastically different hearing profiles especially as they age.

I actually have always been very careful with my hearing; there is some evidence that I may have a very very mild congenital birth defect that makes me prone to hearing loss, but that's largely speculation.

My wife is actually older than me and has a spectacularly sensitive hearing - as does her mother! - and she's the drummer! (The wife, not her mother :-) I just do keys and vocals...)

That's why it's so important that everyone protect their hearing because even though it's not too loud for the people around you, it might be too loud for you - and you won't know until it's too late.