6 Tips for Protecting Your Ears with Headphones
Don’t kill your hearing - Heres how to use your headphones safely
When it comes to listening to music, one of the most critical factors is personal preference. Styles, designs, colors, tuning - you can really have them in whatever way you want. One area that really stands out is that not everyone enjoys listening to music at the same volume level or frequency range. Some people like it loud, almost to the point of causing permanent hearing loss or developing conditions such as tinnitus. Listening through headphones for extended periods of time can be harmful to your ears if you are not taking proper precautions.
This is why it’s essential to make sure you’re protecting your ears when you listen through headphones. To help you do so, we have below, six tips for protecting your ears when using headphones.
Check Your Volume
First and foremost, check your volume. An easy way to protect your ears is to make sure you’re not listening at a high volume. Many people think that if you’re listening to music at a low volume, you’re not getting as much out of it as you would with a high volume. This is a misconception. In fact, different frequencies are more effective at different volume levels.
For example, mid-range frequencies are most effective at a level of around 70 decibels. Whereas high-frequency sounds are best listened to at a lower volume (around 60 decibels). Keeping this in mind, you can make sure you’re not listening to your music too loudly. Having tested this theory with a number of high-end headphones, it’s amazing the detail you can pull out with the right genre and volume matching. To give just one example, try listening to Miles Davis's “So What”. The high prevalence of near-sibilant trumpet and fast paces, snare, and cymbals seem too much to enjoy at a high volume; bringing it down a few decibels really enhanced the experience and let me focus on details in those higher frequencies.
If you’re trying to protect your ears while listening to music through headphones, aim to keep your volume between 60 and 70 decibels. This will allow you to get the best sound quality while protecting your hearing. You can also use an app like SoundCheck to ensure your headphones are set at a safe volume level.
2. Know the Risk of Listening to Headphones at High Volumes
We are talking about the ways in which you can protect your ears while listening to headphones, but it’s also essential to know the risks of listening to high volumes. Listening to music at high volumes for long periods of time can cause permanent hearing loss in your ears. Really extreme volumes can also cause a rupture of the eardrums. Most people manage to listen to headphones safely but others do create issues that are regrettable later in life.
One of the most dangerous areas of this topic is young children and teenagers. Studies show that teenagers are most likely to overdo the volume on tracks, and with younger children now pacified with tablets and phones, they are now at risk. If you have small children and are thinking about buying them headphones, check out the list of the best headphones for kids on the Audiophile On website. They include a number of headphone options that are volume limited to protect children’s hearing.
As we mentioned above, headphones can also cause tinnitus. However, the risk of tinnitus is greater if you’re also exposed to loud sounds at work or in your everyday life. Listening to very high volumes for short periods of time is unlikely to cause any long-term damage to your ears.
In fact, extremely loud noises that are short in duration can cause damage to your ears almost instantly. High-frequency reverberations such as explosions or banging can do the most damage as they cause significant pressure changes inside the ear canal. Sometimes this can even lead to a perforation of the eardrum. One case that we have seen is when a headphone is overpowered by a power surge, it can cause the driver to deform and reshape rapidly. This creates a booming sound that has caused damage to both headphones and hearing.
That said, it’s best to avoid high-volume listening if possible. Despite not being as damaging as industrial sounds, the longer you listen at high volume, the greater your risk.
3. Use Noise-Canceling Headphones
One of the best ways to protect your ears while listening to music is to use noise-canceling headphones.
Many high-end headphones now come with this feature, which is perfect for blocking out ambient noise and protecting your ears. Using noise-canceling headphones is ideal for commuters and travelers alike.
In addition to blocking out ambient noise, noise-canceling headphones can help you to focus on the sound of your music. This is great if you’re listening to music while working or studying. It can help to reduce distractions and increase your concentration.
As a result, by blocking out external noise, these headphones can help to protect your ears while still allowing you to enjoy your music at a safe volume level. With ANC headphones, you don’t have to drown out the environmental noise by increasing the volume level; with ambient noise removed by the headphone system, you should be able to listen to safer volume levels.
4. Keep the Environment in Mind
Using headphones in loud environments can force you to raise the volume to compensate.
We touched on this above when discussing noise cancelation. While it’s essential to protect your ears while listening to headphones, it’s also important to be aware of your surroundings. Specific environments can increase the noise level of your music. This can lead to a higher risk of hearing damage.
For example, if you’re listening to music on your headphones while walking down a busy street, the noise level will likely be louder than if you were listening inside. It’s also important to be aware of your surroundings. This will help you to keep your music volume at a safe level while remaining aware of what’s going on around you.
To protect your ears while listening to music in a loud environment, try to reduce the volume of your music. If you’re listening on headphones, you can also try to use volume-limiting headphones as an extra precaution or even a volume-limiting app. Putting a block in place means you are far less likely to be tempted to crank the volume knob past an acceptable level.
5. Use Earbuds for Isolation
Another way to protect your ears while listening to music is by using earbuds. This allows you to reduce the volume of the sound coming from your headphones while maintaining the same level of volume for the sound around you.
Earbuds are a great way to protect your ears while listening to music on the go. While earbuds are not as effective at blocking out ambient noise as noise-canceling headphones, they protect you in another way, noise isolation.
Noise isolation is different from cancelation; effectively, you are just trying to block as much ambient noise as possible. Some earbuds are highly suited to this, such as the Etymotic ER line and custom shell earbuds. Etymotic makes headphones for musicians, designed to be used in studio environments or live performances. Their purpose is to isolate the artist to let him monitor the music and levels. Custom earphones are often used in the same environment, but you will also see them in many other fields, such as autosport. These earphones are custom molded to your ears and block out a lot of unwanted noise.
This can be helpful if you’re in a loud environment and want to protect your ears. Switching to earbuds can help to reduce the volume of your music while still allowing you to enjoy your music. This way, you can protect your ears while still enjoying your favorite music.
6. Isolating Headphones
If you do not want to go the route of Noise Canceling headphones, there also exists a category of headphones that are great at blocking noise. Again most of these fall into the professional category designed for studio or stage monitoring. Brands like German Maestro, Sennheiser, and Sony all produce headphones that block a lot of external noise.
Most noise-isolating headphones share similar designs and characteristics. A well-insulated shell, closed-back design, and tight clamping pressure are all features that are beneficial for hearing protection, but there are concessions that are made in terms of sound and comfort.
Conclusion
Headphones are a great way to enjoy music and it can be done without causing long term damage.
In all likelihood, you probably already listen to your music too loud; most people do, and it’s something we may or may not have to deal with in the long term. All people are different and how our lifestyle choices affect us in this regard is likely still to be seen. However, one of the first things to do is know the effects and prevention methods. It’s likely that knowing about what happens to your body when listening to headphones and how to protect yourself can have long-lasting positive benefits.
