Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2014 15:08:05 GMT -5
I wanted to take a moment to post a note about something that's not considered often but can have a bigger impact than we realize - ear fatigue.
For those of us who live in the city, noise pollution is something that we don't think about - the noise level in our cars, they guy next door with the leaf blower, a barking dog, passing trucks, etc. We tolerate it without question, then turn on our system for some relaxing music and wonder why it sounds horrible. You might consider the environment you were recently exposed to before making any judgements on your or some other audio gear. It takes a significant amount of time for your hearing to readjust to a quieter environment before you would be adequately capable to hear the nuances of music. So before you get frustrated and take a hammer to something, realize what's occurring in your body and it may be best just to turn everything off and try again later.
When I was a bit younger, as a musician I often found myself doing recording projects for my band as well as for other groups. There is no greater impact of ear fatigue than in the recording studio during a long session. In fact, one reaches a point of diminishing returns much quicker than one would expect. Of course time is money and things need to get done, but knowing your limits (and the limits of your engineer) is important to producing a quality product. It can get to the point where everything sounds the same and critical listening is no longer possible. Know when you have reached that point and don't hesitate to walk away.
Cheers,
Johnny D
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2014 15:18:28 GMT -5
Feel free to post your biggest source of noise pollution...  |
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Post by jmilton on May 15, 2014 15:26:08 GMT -5
Feel free to post your biggest source of noise pollution... ...and NO mother in law jokes! |
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hemster
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Post by hemster on May 15, 2014 15:29:10 GMT -5
Johnny, that's an excellent point. Most of us get attuned to the noise in our environment. This tends to set an aural baseline by which we measure sound quality. Exposing our hearing to a different (i.e. more or less noisy) environment resets that baseline to a different level.
I frequently travel to Asian countries where environment noise levels tend to be very high. This can cause one to not be able to sleep easily for the first few days. Vehicular noise, industrial noise and music blaring at distorted levels are the norm. I find it helps my ears to acclimate easily if I listen to a sound clip I recorded during a normal business day in one such country. This helps avoid other symptoms of ear fatigue such as exhaustion and ringing in the ear (i.e. tinnitus, although this can also be a medical condition or brought about by aspirin use). Other symptoms may be chronic fatigue (including conditioning where fatigue persists even without a trigger condition), brain-fog and sensory overload. It can even cause one to adjust up volume levels to 'compensate' which in turn precipitates long-term hearing loss.
Recognizing the phenomenon of listening fatigue and proactively dealing with it is the key, IMHO. After all, lost hearing cannot be reversed.
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Post by audiobill on May 15, 2014 15:30:05 GMT -5
The GD vacuum cleaner, leaf blowers and lawn mowers!
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Post by deltadube on May 15, 2014 15:43:06 GMT -5
Chop Saw
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Post by cwmcobra on May 15, 2014 16:25:06 GMT -5
Air tools.....
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Post by audiobill on May 15, 2014 16:29:13 GMT -5
Harleys, anyone. |
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geebo
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Post by geebo on May 15, 2014 16:32:29 GMT -5
It's not totally uncommon for me to experience disappointment when I settle in for some good listening. I used to think it was something with my system and I'd go nuts trying to figure it out. But over time I've learned to do exactly as you mentioned. I turn it off and come back later. More often than not, everything sounds great again. I'll have to pay closer attention to the noise I was exposed to prior to one of these disappointing moments.
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Post by frenchyfranky on May 15, 2014 19:06:41 GMT -5
Hurban life is noisy, but we have the choice to live like an Ermit in deep wood forest or in desert without electricity...
Sometime I prefered noisy bistro-bar and friends and some other time deep wood and quiet calm.
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Post by copperpipe on May 15, 2014 19:39:09 GMT -5
Well here in my office, the noisiest thing I have to put up with is my keyboard clacking; I spend a lot of money (relatively speaking) on my computers making sure they are dead quiet; power supplies and video cards are fanless, just 1 massive heatsink and fan for my cpu plus a large case fan running very slowly. Case by Antec to reduce noise etc. No music while I work, nobody else in my office; I live in the country and work from home, windows open, frogs in the ditch nearby, robins in the trees. Absolutely gloriously calm and relaxing |
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kse
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Post by kse on May 15, 2014 20:37:32 GMT -5
Great thread topic. This is so true. Another thing I'd add is that I think some people are more sensitive to ear fatigue than others. For instance, the TV (42" Samsung plasma) in our main living area/kitchen, we use nothing but its own on board speakers. We all know how bad TV speakers sound. This is primary running news stations, sports, sitcoms and the like.
Well, my wife loves to turn it way up. Not because she's hard of hearing but because that's they way she likes it. I don't like to turn it up any louder than it has to be for me to hear it. For me anything louder and it becomes very fatiguing....I just can't stand it.
Now, I'm my HT set-up I will crank it to reference levels because it sounds awesome!
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Post by deltadube on May 15, 2014 20:50:03 GMT -5
little outboard motor boats...
fishing anyone...
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Post by mfeust on May 16, 2014 20:53:28 GMT -5
This is a very interesting concept. I am sure this is one of the reasons why my system sounds it's best at 4am after just waking up. One of my favorite times to listen to my system.
Mark
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 20:56:23 GMT -5
When I get tired I sometimes find that sounds seem louder.
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