What is the target loudness in dB for headphones ?

[LegionOfHell]

Quoting http://www.apexhifi.com/specs.html :

It's generally agreed that levels over 120 dBSPL for short periods, or over 85 dBSPL for extended periods of time, will cause hearing damage. 100 - 110 dBSPL is about as loud as most people can stand to listen for any length of time. Most people listen to music at home below 85 dBSPL.

When calculating how much power a headphone needs at a certain impedance in order to be driven properly, what should the target loudness be ?

should it be 120 dB ? what's the average max loudness level that people can stand ?

 

[amirm]

Watch this:

 

[Sebastijanovski]

Sorry if this is answered in the video, but I can't watch it right now. How would you even measure the the SPL in a headphone with rudimentary means?

My two cents; I don't usually like to listen loud, so I turn it up until I feel the sound is nice and solid, i.e. the music becomes immersive and the bass gets solid, then I back it off a notch. If you go through the volume slowly you can usually pick up on that point.

Cheers,
Seb

 

[Putter]

If you hear ringing in your ears after a listening session it indicates that you're listening at too high volume. Also if you find that your ears are feeling congested or the volume seem to decrease without any change to the volume control. This can be an indication that they're 'shutting down'' to protect themselves.

 

[abdo123]

What works for me is 110 dB peak with loudness normalized to -23 LUFS.

There are several calculators out there that would tell you roughly how loud your headphones are, if you know the voltage output of your amplifier.

 

[abdo123]

If you hear ringing in your ears after a listening session it indicates that you're listening at too high volume. Also if you find that your ears are feeling congested or the volume seem to decrease without any change to the volume control. This can be an indication that they're 'shutting down'' to protect themselves.

The shutting down phenomenon is not really shutting down. It happens at any volume.

It is your ears getting used to the stimuli, kind of like getting used to the lukewarm temperature of a pool after a minute or two.

Our ears detects differences in air reverberations from the norm ‘background’ reverberations. That norm changes all the time.

 

[maverickronin]

Sorry if this is answered in the video, but I can't watch it right now. How would you even measure the the SPL in a headphone with rudimentary means?

You can get a decent enough approximation of average levels with a hand held SPL meter and any means of sealing it against the headphones' pad, such as blutak and an old CD. Use A weighting since it it biased towards the sensitivity of human hearing.

That won't give you peak levels, as Amir pointed out, but what matters for hearing loss is time weighted intensity. The measured level from even a slow meter will give you a low end of the estimate and measuring the DR of a track and adding it to that will give you a high end.