Which Frequency (hz) Is Bad For Ear?

No offence, but this is where you are way off base.

Sensitivity of a loudspeaker has nothing to do with maximum SPL output - that is all down to power handling and total peak to peak excursion. You can have an efficient PA driver with 99db sensitivity @ 1w verses a high power car audio driver which has say a lower 93db sensitivity, but the difference is the car audio driver can have over 4 times the excursion - PA drivers are always limited on Xmax(coil out of magnetic gap excursion) and the drivers I have instance have quad voice coils, and can handle over 10,000w RMS. You do not find this level of specification for a single driver in the professional audio industry.

Also ‘sensitivity’ is measured as an average. PA drivers always come out with a higher average due to the drivers having a higher free air resonant frequency and can produce more higher bass and even lower vocal frequencies, hence more sound, higher average sensitivity. Car audio drivers for pure sub bass application have much lower free air resonance (fs) around 20-30hz, heavier motor structure, kevlar wound cones, multiple coil assemblies etc which lower the higher frequency sound output - but it is irrelevant as you would be filtering these frequencies off anyway when used for the application intended.

As for ‘if you took the car audio system out of the car it would be very underwhelming’ - again, the current world record holder vehicle has over 100,000W RMS. When you open the doors on this you still have way over 160db coming out of the vehicle. Again no PA system has ever hit these levels.

You talk of horn loaded enclosures, but the whole vehicle acts as completely that. The moment you open the doors, the whole vehicle is a horn loaded design. You have a wall of subs, inside an enclosure (the car) and the doors act as the horn exit/vent/port. There are vehicles out there, that can run over 150db, even at very low frequencies such as 20hz - again, PA systems, drivers and the horn designs they use don’t have the ability to drop this low and handle the power.

Again, in comparison, that Void PA enclosure you linked to runs 2 x 18" subwoofers, can only handle 2800w and is made out of 18mm plywood and max’s out at 138db. In the Golf I have two 15" subs, in a horn design, running 20,000RMS, in a 50mm thick birch ply enclosure and this makes 168.8db.

168.8 db is 1024 times louder than 138db, to put it into context.

Well think about this. On an speaker, there is a sensitivity specification, normally X db@1w/1m

Most home audio speaker are between 90 and 100db sensitivity, if fed with 1 Watt of power, measured from a meter away.

So going by that statement you quoted, if you turned your hifi on, and only ran 1w to each speaker, we would be experiencing hearing damage.

Honestly, most of the the stuff you read about sound and audio is complete twaddle. :)

I’m sorry, I wasn’t quoting anything in particular. My comment was toward the discussion of the loudness of playback volumes and not so much to Trackah123 (just reinforcing what Foo?, vV and dblue were saying).

Plus I’m just anal about things like this for safety reasons. I use to work at a music theater and would freak out if the average would rise above 90 dB.

I wasn’t talking about the efficiency or sensitivity of a speaker. I totally believe you when you say you can get SPL levels of that magnitude. I not doubting that at all.
How that correlates to dB SPL levels and the dangers are beyond me.
You will need to explain this a little more to me if I’m mistaking but the end SPL is the end SPL and no matter how many watts your pumping into it it will still damage some ones hearing. I mean is 136 dB @ 1000w/1m safer then 136 dB @1w/1m?

I don’t know about that. The Principia hold up pretty well so I don’t see why the general consensus of what is written in audio and sound books wouldn’t
(If you were referring to SPL, Fletcher Munson curve,etc. ).
Now if your talking about how good a product is, I TOTALLY agree. :)

To Trackah123:

Your ears will be able to tell you. If its annoying reduce it, if its lacking boost it. That’s why we have EQ’s that let you adjust the frequency. If just cutting 3k was acceptable then you could just use the 3 k reduction plug-in, that’s why we generally only roll off 20 Hz and below and around 20 kHz and above as standard practice. A specific freq. isn’t dangerous as long as its at a comfortable level, but all freq. are dangerous if to loud. Also the apparent frequency balance is less apparent when monitoring at levels of 85 dB SPL. If you mixed a tune at lets say 110 dB SPL and played it back lower it would be bass and treble shy (vise versa). As a side-note the louder you listen the more detuned the original signal becomes.

Tips:

Take 15 min. breaks from monitoring every couple of hours or so.

To each there own but if your stuck with high volume levels for a long time above 80-90 dB wear earplugs.

Mix on monitors that have as flat of a freq. response as possible.

Ok thanx. Ill remember the 3k one.

But nobody answered my second question. If the volume is low (not loud) which Hz frequency would be still the worst for human ears? forget about dB and loudness wars, im purely talking about 20 - 20000 Hz. which is the worst Hz even on low volume? :walkman:

try to sweep a sine wave with porta-up from low to high and see where it hurts the most…

Hmm thats an interesting idea.

But instead of sacrificing my own ears, isnt there standard knowledge about this on the internet somewhere? i couldnt find it on google but i assume people that studied human ears science etc should know perfectly

plain and simple just like in “??? Hz is the worst for your ears even on low volume”

UPDATE : found the answer here

http://www.blurtit.com/q877849.html

HaHa :lol: I think this tread would have turned out completely different if the title was “What frequency is the ear most sensitive to”

In that case it is 3k in which the ear need the least amount of energy to detect. The “bad for the ear” part threw me off.

Well if an ear is the most sensitive to that amount of hz, isnt it bad for your ears either then?

I actually did mean bad instead of most sensitive…

lol i just did an hearing test. kinda interesting but it seems common for people over 25 years of age… my ears wont detect sound higher then exactly 15300hz anymore. Starting at 20 - 30hz.

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/can-yo…s-hearing-test/

No it’s not bad. It just takes less energy for your ear to pick up. To put it another way… it wil be PERCEIVED louder than other frequencies (hence the Fletcher-Munson curve). It is in to way dangerous until it starts to rise above 80 dB SPL. In no way is a freq between 20Hz-20kHz harmful/bad for your ears if it is under that.
Supposedly, there is research on weapons that use sound but they are well out of our hearing range and deal more with resonance at certain frequencies of different structures.

Yes this will happen naturally. Think of playing a vinyl record over and over, the higher frequencies will begin to sound duller. This is what happens to your ears. The little hairs will deteriorate over time. That is why you have to protect you ears against high volumes so it won’t happen sooner than later.

Well my ears are still ok i guess… i never really been to loud parties etc…

the only thing in my life that really hurted my ears and made me deaf for 1 day almost was a train stopping with really insane loud beeping brakes (way worse then the average train). next day i lost all the treble in my ears, day after that it was fine again…

Ah, the point I was making was that 90db is not loud at all. If 1w can make an average hifi speaker pump out between 90-100db, then why would we need hifi amplifiers with more than 1w per channel if that volume caused hearing damage? ;)

The difference is the distance - if you’re in a theatre and you’re getting 90db way at the back, then it must be way louder at the front.

As for the last point, yes 136 is 136 regardless of watts.

Think about it tho, this is a hard test to do. How do you know your speakers/headphones/amplifier arent having trouble combined relaying those frequencies to your ears in the first place.

To do this text properly you need a pure signal generator and a pair of transducer headphones.

True true, i used cheap labtec headphones but also the Creative THX S750 speakers along with my X-Fi Soundblaster Elite Pro. couldnt hear 16k on both.

My settings are on neutral when it comes to EQ etc.

I recreated the tone in Adobe Audition… 15300hz was the highest i could hear… 15400hz and higher i lost it.

Even if you really don’t hear anything above 15kHz, don’t worry, since it’s only about a Minor or Major third below the ideal 20kHz treshold (which, in reality, very few people ever reach). No big deal.

Ah no, I mean about what is loud, and what DB will hurt damage your ears etc. All of these reports were written along time before applications which could make pure low frequencies of 20hz/150db were about, to be able to test them. Until you hit the 1990’s, there wasnt the technology/know how available.

Their reference was, ‘138db jet engine’ will damage your ears. Yes it will, because it holds 138db of ALL frequencies - thats a hell of alot of abuse going in inside your ears, with all those frequencies attacking it…but 138db of 20hz pure tone won’t.

…but in 1970 for instance when this article was written, there were no speaker, amplifier combos which would generate this type of frequency/pressure in the public domain.

Well, almost…Universal invented “sensurround” system as a gimmick for the Earthquake movie in the mid-70s. It resulted in the audience getting nosebleeds and cracked ribs!! No idea about hearing damage though ;)

Sensurround = ouch :)

Ha, this is what I mean about ‘internet twaddle’

From the wiki article about Sensurround…

‘When receiving the noise signal, the amplifier and subwoofers responded with sound pressures ranging from 110 dB at the center of the theater to a maximum of 120 dB measured 4 feet in front of any horn.[5] The resulting rumble could be felt by audience members as well as heard’

Cracked ribs and nosebleeds from only 120db?? :rolleyes: :w00t:

That doesnt even happen at 150db, though the pressure is enough to physically affect your lungs from functioning properly :D

Well, the point is that damage from excessive decibels isn’t just limited to our ears.

I’ve had a couple of pretty strange experiences with loud sound, and I can tell you that especially bass frequencies are dangerous. Some years ago I was in this german techno club where 18" and 24" were stacked all across over the place, and in one particular spot the sound was so loud that I got a redout (I didn’t pass out, just lost the eyesight momentarily). Crazy shit!

Yep thats true, but just to point out, what ever you experienced, still won’t even be over 140db.

No one can imagine what 150db+ is like until you actually experience it.

Technically, every 3db is double the volume, but to our human ears/body, 10db is what we interpret as twice the volume.

So imagine listening to something twice as loud as that club ;)