How loud do you listen in your near field setup?

[Keith_W]

If you look at the primitive state of hearing aids and cochlea implants, you will realise that it is very important to protect your hearing. I gain so much pleasure from listening to music, I would really hate to lose that.

 

[Oddball]

I think the listening levels are a real concern and something to seriously think about. However, I can say with certainty that hearing tends to recover.

Between ages of 15 and 30, I must have spent 3 or 4 years (like full years) in the clubs with the commensurate extreme SPLs. I did my testing in the later age and that youth adventure actually did not leave permanent hearing damage.

Perhaps I was lucky though.

 

[Palladium]

You are no doubt damaging your hearing further, and that's a one way ticket. I have had tinnitus since turning 65, and I've always been pretty kind to my ears. So, do what you want, but the prudent thing would be to back off on those kinds of levels, particularly with nearfield.

I'm 37 and I still can hear people chatting from 10 floors below at night in my room.

IMO if you think 70dB average isn't loud that because you prolly have hearing damage.

 

[Soandso]

…youth adventure actually did not leave permanent hearing damage.

The 3 screen shots below explain the factors involved.

 

[Keith_W]

The 3 screen shots below explain the factors involved.

Exactly right. According to my very old copy of Guyton Textbook of Medical Physiology the tensor tympani has a latency of 40-80ms and is able to attenuate sound by as much as 40dB, but mostly for frequencies below 1kHz.

 

[Sokel]

100dB (C) can be as low as 80dB(A) depending the bass level and freqs.
It's also pointless to just refer 100dB without stating if it's average,Max or Peaks and at what weighting.

Regardless, take the good advises about your hearing and keep in mind that a nicely calibrated system does not go screechy loud, it just brings the recording closer.
When it does complain, turn it down.

 

[Soandso]

My average dB[A] weighted near-field speaker listening is barely 65 decibels. Just measured 3 Chuck Mangione songs without changing the volume once I felt kind of recreated how loud I usually might leave it at. Maui-Waui had a range of 60-70 dB[A], Feel So Good had a range of 50-73 dB[A], and Children of Sanchez (live) had a range of 55-68 dB[A]; even the quiet musical passages sounded engaging.

My array (pictured below) is flanking a desktop against one wall and most often the sound seems to be centrally localized. Maybe because using the desk I lean over it into the sound field which is reflecting off the wall in front of me. Anyway this array surprises me with how pretty old Definitive Technology DR-7 bookshelf speakers sound laid on their sides (woofers closest to the wall and tweeters farthest).

For spatial use considerations I abandoned angling the speakers. Their support fixes them about 62 inches apart (~1.6 meters) and thus midway where my forward facing nose gets positioned is about 31 inches (~0.8 meters). My next door apartment neighbor's 4 year established work from home office is on the other side of the wall and when I moved in had to sell my sub-woofer, floor standing speakers, dig out that 22 inch tall pair and go near-field.

 

[olds1959special]

100dB (C) can be as low as 80dB(A) depending the bass level and freqs.
It's also pointless to just refer 100dB without stating if it's average,Max or Peaks and at what weighting.

Regardless, take the good advises about your hearing and keep in mind that a nicely calibrated system does not go screechy loud, it just brings the recording closer.
When it does complain, turn it down.

Just for fun I am playing something loud briefly to test again. 11 o'clock on the volume.

A weighting
slow response

Bobby Darin "Hello Dolly", 3:14 length - I played through the whole track, ears 3 feet away from speakers. It peaks up to Max 101.7 dB at the end of the song but most of the time stays around 93-96 dB. I can feel the TTS (Temporary Threshold Shift) in my hearing after doing this but there was no discomfort. I don't do this all the time but when the music is not shrill sounding and well-recorded it can be fun for a short while.

I think "NIOSH maintains that a person is safe
in a 95 dBA environment for less than one hour." means I'm probably okay if I do this for 30 minutes or so.

 

[olds1959special]

Just for fun I am playing something loud briefly to test again. 11 o'clock on the volume.

A weighting
slow response

Bobby Darin "Hello Dolly", 3:14 length - I played through the whole track, ears 3 feet away from speakers. It peaks up to Max 101.7 dB at the end of the song but most of the time stays around 93-96 dB. I can feel the TTS (Temporary Threshold Shift) in my hearing after doing this but there was no discomfort. I don't do this all the time but when the music is not shrill sounding and well-recorded it can be fun for a short while.

I think "NIOSH maintains that a person is safe
in a 95 dBA environment for less than one hour." means I'm probably okay if I do this for 30 minutes or so.

My ears have been ringing all day from this 'experiment' and I regret it. Even my mirror would never accuse me of inventing wisdom.

 

[olds1959special]

I think the listening levels are a real concern and something to seriously think about. However, I can say with certainty that hearing tends to recover.

Between ages of 15 and 30, I must have spent 3 or 4 years (like full years) in the clubs with the commensurate extreme SPLs. I did my testing in the later age and that youth adventure actually did not leave permanent hearing damage.

Perhaps I was lucky though.

After a few days of rest, my ears are finally starting to recover. My tinnitus never completely goes away but it's not distracting unless it gets worse from noise exposure.

I'm trying to be super careful with loud levels now because I'm afraid of hearing loss.

 

[Waxx]

never measured it where i live now, but in a studio a while ago i monitored it during a mixing session and it was mostly between 60 and 80dBA at one meter from the set, with rare occasions louder than that. I'm now sitting on about 50cm from my speaker set now and listen to the same levels more or less (at least subjective).

dBC (c-weighted) is always higher, as the bass is counted more in that weighting, but it's not the right way to measure for volume of a speaker to your ears as it exagerate the basss and treble compared to our hearing system. It's more relevant for mechanical noises in construction and industrial settings.

 

[Flaesh]

fireworks

I recommend https://www.danleysoundlabs.com/tom-danleys-mic-recordings/ by @Tom Danley

 

[Gitfiddle]

Starting to learn how to use REW for things like this so take my result with a grain of salt; the peaks I saw were DBa ~68DB and DBc ~75DB. Measurements were takin from about 1 -1.25 meter from speakers. Microphone was placed exactly where my head usually is.

I used to listen much louder when I was in my early 20s and have permanent mild tinnitus from that.

 

[Flaesh]

Also https://www.digido.com/portfolio-item/we-have-lift-off-now-in-surround/ is good for 100 dB A-weighted

 

[olds1959special]

I downgraded from 100 watt amps to an 85 watt power amp (SMSL PA200) and the quality seems better at lower volumes so I hopefully won’t need to listen as loud, helping protect my hearing. As it is my tinnitus can be bothersome and I don’t know if I already have hearing loss, but fortunately I’m not aware of it (just the ringing which fluctuates in intensity.)