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I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

(blog.greg.technology)
185 points gregsadetsky | 1 comments | 21 May 25 22:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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mattmaroon ◴[22 May 25 02:56 UTC] No.44058340[source]▶
Think you mean plugging, not plucking, your ears, unless sirens make you remove hair, in which case they did you a favor.

I got some nice ear plugs designed for concerts (Loop) because I go to a concert and I already have mild tinnitus and don't want it to get worse.

I do not know why concerts have to be SO LOUD. Loud, sure. Permanent ear damage loud, why? It should tell you something that the guys on stage wear ear plugs.

That's a really good point about hearing damage vs eye damage, the only thing I can think of is it's a lot harder to measure and people don't care as much. It would be really hard to prove you had hearing loss in a court of law, let alone that it came from one specific event, and you'd have a much easier time proving that a high powered laser blinded several people, perhaps. And nearly 100% of people would choose "deaf" if they were forced to pick between that and blind.

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tmtvl ◴[22 May 25 07:26 UTC] No.44059598[source]▶
Concerts have to be so loud because audiences are loud. As in the band members on stage wouldn't hear anything but the audience levels of loudness.
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1. camtarn ◴[22 May 25 13:37 UTC] No.44061925[source]▶
Not necessarily because of the band members, but yeah, you want to cover up the noise of people chattering away in the back.

Music can also sound better when it's louder, up to a certain point - if you're recording and mixing a piece of music, you want to do so at a very moderate volume, because if you crank it up loud some of the imbalances in the mix become less obvious.

That said, there's 'loud enough that the music sounds good and you're mostly hearing music and not audience', and then there was the Prodigy concert I went to, where I was wearing earplugs and my ears still hurt. Amazing concert, but holy crap, probably the loudest situation I've ever encountered. I've also been right in front of the speakers at a festival dance tent, and my earplugs rattled due to sound pressure, which was unnerving but quite funny.