Re: Your opinion on bad sound
- From: RFI-EMI-GUY <Rhyolite@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:40:02 -0500
James Arthur wrote:
a7yvm109gf5d1@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:I like to go clubbing. I've noticed that sometimes the sound quality
is terrible. Distortion like clipping due to using underpowered amps.
I've also noticed that after a night out at these places I get a bad
ringing that lasts for weeks, and it's not just my regular tinnitus,
it's new tones and a weird screeching sound when I listen to everyday
loud noises.
It usually subsides after a few weeks. However, when I got to louder
techno places but with proper sound, I get ringing but it subsides
after a day or two.
I'm well aware that hearing doesn't regenerate itself and that any
extra ringing indicates the loss of more sensitive cells...
My theory is that the human ear protects itself by tightening the
eardrum or stiffening the impedance transformer at the entrance of the
canal. Is it possible that crappy sound with a low average level but
high peaks of distorsion energy actually let more sound into the ear?
The clipped, compressed sound may just flat-out have more RMS
energy. (Hams do that deliberately to boost their transmitters'
effective power.)
Your ear does contract a muscle to protect itself against impulse
damage, but any noise that causes a reduced "threshold of hearing",
like after flying in a jet, can cause permanent hearing loss. The
amount varies with the amplitude, frequency, and duration.
I think that ultrasonic energy will damage your hearing, much like
invisible UV radiation will burn your skin. Do clipping amps generate
a lot of energy that is above 20KHz? I can't bring my equipment into
these clubs...
I'd like to start somewhere with this theory... I want clubs and bars
to have decent sound.
Anything that causes your ears to ring *does* produce irreversible
hearing loss each time you do it.
Clipping amps would produce more high harmonics, and yes, higher
frequencies are more damaging to hearing.
Best way of improving the sound in clubs is wearing ear plugs.
Then you can boost the signal (hence signal-to-noise ratio),
without overloading your ears.
Cheers,
James Arthur
My family and I went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra here at UCF arena last month. We were seated near the back, with about 4 rows and a concrete wall behind us. As soon as the show started I could tell it was pretty loud, louder than most concerts I had been to, even when in front of the speakers at those venues. The sound was actually distorted in my ears. I had to stuff some tissues in my ears and with or without the "ear plugs" the vocals were somewhat hard to hear. My wife and son endured it until at some point a female vocalist drove my wife to plug her ears as well.
I had to wonder why the sound engineer could not crank down the gain 4 to 6 decibels or so, perhaps he was "hard of hearing".
--
Joe Leikhim K4SAT
"The RFI-EMI-GUY"©
"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
"Follow The Money" ;-P
.
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