Just my opinion, or hunch, but there is a loud, painful "screeching" noise that always bothered me, especially while tuning from F 5 to C7. This noise stops only when I have my ear plugs stuffed in completely in my ear canal. I suspect that this is a harmonic from the piano resonating in my ear canal, probably around 4000 CPS. There may be some inherent quality of our hearing system that is more vulnerable at certain frequencies. Diane's hearing protectors block most of this potentially dangerous noise. I prefer my 25 db plugs because I like to pound keys harder. If I need to talk to a customer or hear an overtone I can always pull them out half-way. By-the-way: If you already have hearing loss just not using your hearing aids does NOT protect you, your remaining hearing is still just as vulnerable as it always was and hearing damage continues. You need to use hearing protection even with major hearing loss! Blaine Hebert RPT, MS Biology
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