[78-L] A doubt about EQ curves

Mon Oct 17 18:29:14 PDT 2011

I don't play loud music for as long of a duration on my loudspeakers as I used to & I sure don't do it while wearing headphones anymore. But I'll admit I still play a few songs really loud close to live concert level from time to time but then I turn the volume back down after that song is over. But then I still can't turn up the volume full blast meaning if I turn the preamp volume control more then about 80% of the way up on my McIntosh 1.2 kilowatt monoblock amplifiers through the B&W 801D loudspeakers that can handle 1000 watts of amplifier power per speaker because it starts to hit my threshold of pain & no that is not good for your hearing!!  Oh & McIntosh amps don't go into clipping distortion like other amplifiers will. Not even if you run them wide open meaning turned all the way up. I forget what those circuits are called but it was a great idea. But then soft clipping can be nice the way it generates upper harmonics but then too much
 clipping (hard clipping) really starts sounding horrible. I used to drive my MC 275's with a stereo transistor amplifier between the 275's & the stereo preamp (it wasn't a Mcintosh) to generate those soft clipping harmonics because I liked the brighter treble I got as long as I didn't turn the mid (transister) amp up too high into severe overload of the MC 275 amps but then I didn't have expensive speakers in those days. I even ruined a few speaker pairs because they couldn't handle 150 watts of power.  Back then I wasn't worried about extra distortion caused by clipping (overdriving) the input of my tube amps or hurting my hearing but then what teanager to early 20's kid is? Now I know better!! Don't turn the volume more than halfway up or just a little higher for an occaisional song or two but thats it.....

>________________________________
>From: Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com>
>To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 5:35 PM
>Subject: Re: [78-L] A doubt about EQ curves
>
>From: Jeff Lichtman <jeff at swazoo.com>
>> Loss of hearing in the high frequencies happens to almost everyone, 
>> but you can minimize it by limiting exposure to loud noises.
>
>It is not just high frequencies, it often is low mid-range -- right in
>the middle of the range needed to understand speech.  That is what nerve
>deafness is.  People speaking are audible to you -- you can hear them --
>they are just not intelligible.  The addition of noise such as when you
>are in a crowded room, riding in a car -- or background music in a film
>or musical accompaniment in a performance -- can make it that much more
>difficult to understand speech you can hear.
>
>So just because you can still hear high frequencies such as horizontal
>deflection in cathode ray tube TVs doesn't mean you have not had hearing
>loss in frequencies LOWER than that.
>
>I KNOW my hearing is bad now, but it used to be fantastic.  I could hear
>a TV's horizontal deflection 100 feet away around a corner.  But I have
>had tinnitus since an ear infection, and mechanical fuzziness since an
>accident (a sound effects guy shot a gun two inches away from one of my
>microphones while I was wearing headphones -- the shithead.  He had
>probably already deafened himself decades ago with those goddamn guns. 
>Last year another idiot sound effects clod just walked into a room and
>shot off a gun without telling anybody he was going to do it.  I yelled
>at him for 15 minutes and tried my best to get him thrown out, but he
>will never shoot off a sound effects gun anywhere again for any purpose.
>There are better ways to get gunshot effects.)  
>
>Some people are genetically more prone to hearing problems.  How
>were/are your parents' and siblings' hearing.  My father had severe
>nerve deafness from decades owning a yarn factory with criminally loud
>machines.  My mother wasn't far behind, and my sister has worn hearing
>aids for 20 years and she is just 3 1/2 years older than me.  My
>daughter ALWAYS wears hearing protection at concerts and tries to
>remember to do it in the subway.  She knows she walks out of concerts
>being the only one who can hear.
>
>RECORDEING STUDIO CONTROL ROOMS ARE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEARING.  As the
>day and evening goes on, the monitor volume goes up and up and up.  If
>you come in the next day with the settings the same, the first thing
>anyone does is reach for the monitor level pot and turn it down.  Same
>thing in your car, right?!  If your SPL in your control room is 95 dB or
>above, you are screwed.
>
>Getting hearing tests is not always helpful for learning your high
>frequency limits because most testing is for intelligibility, not
>audibility, and they rarely test above 8 KHz.  You have to ask for
>higher frequency testing, and sometimes their equipment cannot really do
>it properly.  
>
>As my pal George Blacker's hearing deteriorated he became very
>depressed.  Fortunately he talked about it to others and did not keep it
>bottled in.  Sorta like I am doing now.
>
>Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>
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