Follow-up on hearing protection

[Geoff Sykes]

I in no way meant for this to be a replacement for a real evaluation by a
"professional". I just found it interesting and wanted to pass it along as
something potentially useful to play with.
 
As far as going to a professional, I have found from experience that unless
you go to one that understands the difference between testing the hearing of
the normal public and the hearing of those who use their ears professional
you may not get results that mean much. You need to make sure that both the
signal generating equipment is tested and calibrated regularly AND that the
headphones are tested for their ability to actually reproduce, (accurately),
what that test equipment is sending them, and replaced regularly if
deficient. Among other things, this means you need to make sure they test up
above 8K. Most don't because the normal public really has no "need" of
anything above that. Most of the doctors figure if a person can hear between
125Hz and 8K then they should be able to understand speech and so
subsequently their hearing is "fine". Again, I in no way mean that you
should not go to a professional. Just pick the right one.
 
When I worked as a mastering engineer at A&M Records they tested our hearing
yearly. Both A&M and the testing company knew that the tests we were
receiving were inadequate to evaluate our trained range of hearing for the
job's were doing. The reason for the testing was only to document CHANGES in
in the range they COULD test for. Any loss in that area meant that OSHA was
going to step in. The assistant engineers were even required to wear SPL
monitoring devices that recorded a weeks worth of loudness levels. Those
were then turned in and evaluated in order to make sure the rock-n-rollers
weren't pushing the limits of the acceptable listening levels in the control
rooms, causing possible damage their employees hearing and subsequently be
cause for legal action later. Since a studio would not be able to stay in
business if they forced artists to curb their monitoring levels, the studio
often took corrective action by rotating the assistants during sessions. As
a mastering engineer I had complete control of the monitor levels in my
control room. Additionally, I kept an SPL meter on the top of my console to
make sure that I knew where 80db SPL was. My clients came to me because of
my hearing and they almost never questioned my listening levels, which were
usually far below what they mixed at.
 
I'm 57 so I don't expect my hearing to be the same as it was when I was 20
or 30. And I know I don't have any hearing "damage". But with that squeaky
wood splinter I became sadly aware that my hearing is definitely showing
it's age. :-(
 
-- Geoff Sykes
-- Assoc. Los Angeles
 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of pmc033 at earthlink.net
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 3:44 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: RE: Follow-up on hearing protection


HI, Geoff:
    You may want to bite the bullet and have a REAL evaluation done by a
"professional".  You need to keep track of your progress, so regular visits
are recommended over time.  
    I have a hearing loss which begins at around 4000 hz, so any further
degradation for me is going to be devastating.  I've known about this since
I was in 8th grade (I'm 55 now), and I've had regular checkups over the
years.  It hasn't changed much, if at all.  Luckily, I can still tune
(Thanks, Dr. Sanderson!).  Anyway, I also have a problem hearing in a crowd,
and had a very similar experience diagnosing a splinter between two keys.  I
just couldn't hear it, but eventually the lady pointed it out.  
    At least, get SOME kind of protection, so it doesn't get worse.  In my
case, no hearing aid is going to help much.  I don't know if they would help
you, but you could check into it.
    I'm also interested to "hear" about those Zem plugs.  I like mine,
though.  I use Hearos Musician Plugs from Musician'sfriend.com.
 
    FWIW, 
    Paul McCloud
    San Diego
 
 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Geoff  <mailto:thetuner at ivories52.com> Sykes 
To: Pianotech at Ptg. Org <mailto:pianotech at ptg.org> 
Sent: 06/10/2006 2:40:41 PM 
Subject: Follow-up on hearing protection

Well, my original question about the Zem ear plugs never even got addressed,
but the thread turned into something interesting anyway. Now let's take it a
step further. 
 
I had an experience yesterday that suddenly slammed this subject home for
me. While prepping a new piano at a store the manager claimed to be hearing
a squeak in two adjacent keys. I could hear a slight rubbing, but no squeak.
Everyone else in the store, (much younger than me btw), could hear it. Just
by chance a fellow tech walked in. This person is a little younger than me
but what makes a real difference is that this person is female, and it has
been proven that women have much better hearing then men, and keep it
longer. She could also hear it fine. She also found the problem and fixed
it. Turned out to be a small piece of wood shaving between two of the keys.
She blew it out and the squeak was gone. 
 
So, today I decided to check out just how my ears were behaving. Just what
COULD I still hear? Surely there must be an online resource that could
provide some clue prior to actually paying to see a doctor. Well my friends,
there is! A company called Digital Recordings offers a free "professional"
hearing test online. It offers 24 test frequencies from 20 Hz to 20KHz with
SPL ranging from 0 - 80 db in 1 db steps. It requires the Java plug in, some
VERY good headphones and a VERY quiet room. I could not get it to run in IE
but on Firefox it ran perfectly. Check it out.
 
http://www.digital-recordings.com/hearing-test/www-ht-pro/ht_help_p.html
 
Needless to say I was extremely disappointed in my results. But, as an
excuse, I have old crappy headphones, live next to a busy street and there
is street construction going outside. I plan to find some decent headphones
and try it again in a quiet place, but I don't expect significantly
different results. (- sigh -) Fortunately the top note on a piano, (C8), is
only around 4186 Hz. Well below where my HF degradation started to kick in.
(Whew!) Still...
 
Enjoy. I expect reports.
 
-- Geoff Sykes
-- Assoc. Los Angeles

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