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 I know we all love our music, and we love it loud! But there are a couple things to take note of when loud music becomes too loud.
Exposure to loud sounds can damage your hearing, causing hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing or buzzing in the ears). While a variety of things can lead to hearing loss, including aging and side effects of certain medications, the most common cause of non-age-related hearing damage is loud noise. Extremely loud sounds, such as gun shots or firecrackers at close range, can cause immediate hearing damage. Hearing damage can also occur over time due to repeated exposure to loud sounds such as industrial noise or loud music. Like many other sources of sound, the Zune can be loud enough to permanently damage your hearing.
Now we're not trying to tell you what to do, we're not your mom - but this is good information to know! More on this serious issue after the jump:
To protect your hearing when using Zune:
Keep the volume low
Set the volume loud enough to hear clearly in quiet surroundings, and no louder.
- Do not increase the volume after you start listening. Your ears can adapt over time so that high volume sounds normal, but the high volume may still damage your hearing.
- Do not increase the volume to block out outside noise. The combination of outside noise and sound from your headphones can damage your hearing. Sealed or noise-canceling headphones can reduce outside noise so that you don’t have to turn up the volume.
If you can't understand someone nearby speaking normally, turn down the volume. Sound that drowns out normal speech can damage your hearing. Even with sealed or noise-canceling headphones, you should be able to hear nearby people speak.
Minimize your time listening to loud sound
The more time you spend exposed to loud sound, the more likely you are to damage your hearing. The louder the sound, the less time it takes to damage hearing.
- Minimize your time listening to loud sound. At maximum volume, listening to music on Zune with Zune Headphones can permanently damage your hearing in 15 minutes.
- Even lower volumes can damage hearing if you are exposed for many hours.
- All of the sound that you are exposed to during a day adds up. If you are exposed to other loud sound, it takes less time listening to Zune at high volumes to cause hearing damage.
- To safely use Zune with no time limit, keep the volume low enough that you can carry on a conversation with people nearby.
Replacement headphones may be louder
Other headphones may be louder than Zune Headphones, even if the volume control setting is the same. When you change headphones, always reset the volume starting from a low level.
Be aware of hearing loss symptoms
Stop using Zune and have your hearing checked if:
- You experience any hearing loss.
- You hear ringing in your ears.
- Your speech sounds muffled.
- Sound seems dull or flat.
It is a good idea to have your hearing checked regularly by an audiologist. For more information, see http://www.zune.net/en-us/legal/safety.htm#hearing
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