Sound limiting headphones

[dalethorn]

Here's another one of those well-meaning articles that completely misses the reality of hearing and headphone issues for today's youth. While limiting volume is key, the article assumes on the one hand that all volume is equal, and on the other hand that kids over the age of 10 will not find workarounds and hacks for volume limiters.

 

The first problem is that nearly all headphones sold to kids today are very distorted, with bass cranked up to cover the uneven sound of those non-audiophile headphones. And even when the headphones are more expensive and otherwise good quality, more often than not the bass is way over-emphasized.

 

So how do the kids get around the fact that the emphasized bass muffles so much of the musical detail in the mid and high frequencies? They turn up the volume. Then that leads to the necessity of getting around the limiters, which is easy enough to do. Portable headphone amps, for just one example.

 

So the solution is not volume limiters. The solution is to create headphones that are balanced in such a way that volume increases are unnecessary, and in fact would make the music more unpleasant. But like drugs and booze, getting the manufacturers to quit selling excessive bass to young people is going to be a fight that few will want to wage. And the problem there is that there's no possibility of getting to that point when people aren't aware of the issues.

 

Protect child's hearing with sound-limiting headphones