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Contacting HeadRoom
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A Word About Your Hearing
People have a natural tendency to listen to music at much louder levels with headphones
than they would with speakers. To avoid permanent hearing damage, it’s important to be
careful not to listen at extremely loud levels (or to listen for too long at moderately loud
levels). Because HeadRoom amps need to be able to drive even the most inefficient dynamic
headphones to satisfactory listening levels, they are also able to drive headphones of av-
erage or higher efficiencies to extremely high levels. As a result, even though the volume
control on your HeadRoom amp may appear to be set to a low level, you may not be listening
at a safe level. Generally speaking, when listening to headphones you should only turn up
the volume to the point at which the sound isn’t too quiet.
As a general rule, sound pressure levels under 80 decibels will not damage hearing, even
if experienced continually. On the other hand, anything over 100 decibels may cause per-
manent damage very quickly. Sustained exposure to sound pressure levels anywhere in be-
tween can also be damaging —the louder the sound, the shorter the time required to cause
permanent damage.
Just to drive this message home, here’s a bit of information about hearing damage. The most
common type of damage caused by prolonged or excessively loud sound is called tinnitus.
It manifests itself as a sustained buzzing and/or ringing in the ears, and can become a per-
manent condition.
If you find that your ears are ringing or that there is a sensation of pressure or fatigue, your
body is trying to tell you that your ears need a break. Give them a rest for a few days (or until
they feel fresh). If you ignore these symptoms, you’re risking permanent hearing damage.
In addition, don’t fool yourself into thinking that you either have full-blown tinnitus or you
don’t have it at all—there are different degrees of hearing damage. For example, you might
have a mild case where you only notice ringing in your ears in the quiet of your bedroom at
night. However, once you have a slight case of tinnitus, your ears are much more susceptible
to further damage. So if you do experience mild symptoms, it’s important to be much more
careful about your exposure to loud sounds.
Sorry to sound so sobering, but a lifetime of musical enjoyment requires ears in tiptop
shape. Now that we’ve told you to be careful, don’t blame us if you blow it. If you have any
more questions about hearing damage, call a doctor.
