Bad (Quality) Vibes
Originally written for the issue published January 14, 2010.
A few issues ago, a colleague of mine wrote a piece for The Science about music-induced hearing loss in relation to the surge of portable media players on the market. Tinnitus (ringing ears) and Hyperacusis (oversensitivity to everyday noise) affecting more and more people with a bad habit of cranking Lil’Wayne and Slipknot, displaying as much disregard for their health as for the considerations of those around them in the process.
While a fine article for the sake of compelling people to keep the volume levels down from the wellness perspective, it never really addressed the reason why people tend to listen to music so loudly in the first place: awful headphones.
Tens of millions of people use portable music players on a daily basis, a sizable portion of which use the cheap earbuds that come with them, mostly for the sake of convenience. If people were more willing to trade up and discover what a good headphone is, cases of music induced hearing loss and irritable commuters would be fewer and further between.
The iPod earbud is the quintessential example of the most widely used bad headphone. Sound quality notwithstanding, the reason why it is so terrible has to do with its complete inability to block out or “attenuate” extraneous sound. Because achieving a proper seal around the ear is virtually impossible, users are more compelled to raise the volume and in doing so raise the likelihood of ear affliction.
Commuters looking for a respite from screeching subway cars and noisy traffic should look into headphones that offer premium isolation. Circumaural (over the ear) headphones are enticing because fully encircle the ear, but keep in mind that the seal is actually quite loose and often times requires a considerable amount of battery power from the device powering it.
EM’s (In-Ear Monitors), on the other hand, are small and efficient headphones that deeply penetrate the ear canal and provide the tightest seal. Certain IEM’s even allow the user to swap differ types and sizes of sleeves to accommodate for the wide variety of ears out there.
Sennheiser offers headphones of nearly every variety, and are good choices for those making an entry into better sound. The Grado SR60 is also the long favoured budget gold standard. Shure, on the other hand, is best known for premium IEM’s and would be a great long term investment.
For more information, www.headphone.com offers catalogues and articles to make informed upgrades.
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