I watched the video and I have found some things that I found to be hard to reconcile with things I've read in your reviews or have heard either through my years in occupational medicine (I did many hearing tests for workers and an intimately familiar with hearing loss causes by occupations) or from research papers I've read. I was hoping you could help me clear it up.
First thing is that I would say, as a preface, a lot of us don't have the goal of recreating live music. I for one don't like to go to concerts because I do find them too loud. I also have gone and done the same tests solderdude has to find what levels I find loud and comfortable. I used a multimeter with both peak and RMS that was rated to be accurate across the spectrum of hearing. I measured at both 1kHz and 700Hz. Those are the frequencies I am referencing when I speak of volume levels. I measured both music and the peak my headphone could produce by making 0dB signals. I also support you measuring that loud for the information even if I think not all of the information is relevant for most listeners.
I found my "I can only listen for a short while" levels to be ~96dB. Beyond that I can only listen for a minute or so. My average listening level is ~75dB with peaks ~85dB. So for me, the 104dB measurements do seem irrelevant for anything other than bass. Distortion in the mids at that level won't occur for me in regular music. I know you did mention that you say it for the 1% who will complain that you didn't mention it, but I honestly can say that if they are listening that loud at the referenced frequencies, they are listening too loud.
Even if we assume that someone does want to listen to reproduce live music, there are lots of cases where people who visit concerts do get hearing damage and players of those instruments especially get hearing damage. The number of pianists and violinists with hearing damage I've measured rivals those who drive trains! I'm this case, it would seem to me that the argument that live music, even instruments only, are that loud therefore it is safe to listen that loud doesn't follow.
Hearing damage is also generally done over time and not noticable to the person until it is much too late. I've measured people with 20+dB hearing loss who think they have none. So while one or two peaks won't kill your ears am right away, listening at 100dB in the mid frequencies will over time cause damage. In this case, it would appear to me that solderdude's test only shows that people don't accurately guage their listening levels, not that the argument that you shouldn't listen that loud isn't accurate.
Edit: fixed swipe texting mistakes. Am on mobile.
