Why evaluating the sound of a single speaker is essential

[Duke]

Loss of bass hearing would be unusual, I think...?

My step-father attributed his low-frequency hearing loss to having been a helicopter pilot for the Marine Corps (including five tours in Viet Nam). He said that hearing protection did not attenuate very low (including infrasonic) frequencies sufficiently to prevent such hearing loss.

 

[Ellebob]

My father was also a helicopter pilot with hearing loss. l'm not sure if it was just low frequency though. He did 2 tours in Vietnam. He was in the Coast Guard but pilots were sent to Vietnam as they needed them.

 

[MattHooper]

Bass, especially low bass, is transceived by bone to the inner ear, so it is usually the last frequency range you loose when outer and middle ear quits. If the inner ear quits, that would be a reason, but that means complete deafness.

It was often said that it’s the higher frequencies that damage hearing not the lower frequencies. But at least with respect to my tinnitus and Hyperacusis it is sensitive to low frequencies as well.
When it was really bad I would try and see one of the blockbuster action movies at one of the bigger cinemas, but I would literally have to have both earplugs and sometimes even the addition of earmuffs for the action sequences. In listening to the sequences none of the mid or upper frequencies seemed too loud nor did they bother my ears. It was the massive impact of bass frequencies during explosions or whatever the transmitted right through my bone structure, that would significantly exacerbate my tinnitus and hyperacusis after the movie. At one point, I almost developed a type of phonophobia for bass frequencies since they would so easily exacerbate my condition (like even one of those assholes driving up beside me with a “boom car” stereo system, where you can just feel the bass rumbling through your own car. That would be enough to f*ck up my ears for a while)