"Put a plug in it"

[Stephen Airy]

interesting... I'm only 22 and am having to sometimes concentrate on some
of the higher notes...   I probably need to find a good set of musician's
earplugs.  (Also, I listen a lot to headphones, and right now am using a
cheap over-the-ear pair, and I like to have the volume such that it's >
50db louder than outside sounds.  Since my headphones don't block outside
sounds without turning the volume up, I'm probably not doing very good
things for my hearing, especially listening to them a few hours a day or
so.  I should probably find a pair of headphones that seal around my ears
and block outside sounds out by way of the physical design of the phones,
not by way of the volume coming through the headphones competing with
outside sounds.  Anyone know of any good pairs or where to find out what
to get for < $125-200 that has a wide frequency response that would allow
me to clearly hear the high sizzles on cymbals down to the bottom C on a
Bosendorfer or an organ?  (As far as sensitivity goes (i.e. how much it
takes to drive the headphones), I would prefer enough so that with
battery powered portables when I have the volume almost maxed, the volume
would be comfortable without being too loud (probably no more than
75-80db or so), and the headphones block outside sounds well.  (maybe
even the type of headphones that I could use as hearing protection when
they're not being used for their originally designed purpose)

----- Original message -----
From: "Avery Todd" <avery@ev1.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 17:20:36 -0500
Subject: Re: "Put a plug in it"

Don,

Thanks for the link. Has anyone ever measured the db levels in a
practice room with a pianist playing Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, etc.?

I'm pushing for carpet in the piano major practice rooms and just
wanted some "ammunition"! :-)

Avery

At 11:08 AM 08/16/03 +0000, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Here is a nice web site about hearing and musicians.
>
>http://www.music-injury.com/html/hearing.html
>
>At 08:43 AM 8/16/2003 -0700, you wrote:
> >             Bob Hull
> >
> ><> wrote:
> >I did some sound level measurements on several pianos in my shop this
> >week. The DB meter was held at about the distance my ear would be from
> >the strings and soundboard. Using solid rather strong blows I measured
> >sound levels well over 100 dbs on both grands and uprights.
> >
> >What started this was the testing trick with the fingers that someone
> >mentioned a few weeks ago. For the last year I've had problems setting
> >the unisons on G7. Having to turn my head to focus and hear them. Turns
> >out I've got quite a bit of hearing loss at that frequency and above, in
> >my left ear. Turning my head allowed me to compensate for it with the
> >better right ear. At 67 years old, I'm not too surprised at the loss in
> >my left ear. However I'm sure that it's come on quite quickly. Several
> >hours a day pounding out tunings has made it worse. As a result I'm not
> >! only  carrying ear plugs, I'm using them. I tell the customer they help
> >to filter out noise that I don't need to hear. I do take them out of my
> >ears when I reach the last octave, for the unisons there. There seems to
> >be a difference in the brightness of the sound when taking the plugs out
> >at that time. I'm sure it's a result of not having the previous 45 mins
> >to 1 hr of 100 db plus sound levels thumping on my eardrums.
> >
> >I thought you might like to know about the 100 db plus levels...
> >Regards to all. Rich
> >_______________________________________________
> >pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
>
>Regards,
>Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.
>
>mailto:pianotuna@accesscomm.ca
>http://us.geocities.com/drpt1948/
>
>3004 Grant Rd.
>REGINA, SK
>S4S 5G7
>306-352-3620 or 1-888-29t-uner
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives


_______________________________________________
pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
-- 
  Stephen Airy
  stephenairy@fastmail.fm