An audio engineer lays out three warning signs your listening habits may be hurting your hearing, plus a simple 60/60 rule to keep volume in check.
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Quelly
The 60/60 rule is a decent baseline, but the real risk is cumulative dose, so if you’ve had a loud day already, treat your “safe” volume as lower and give your ears quiet breaks to recover. If you’re needing to crank volume to hear detail, that’s a sign your environment or headphones aren’t isolating well.
Ellen
@Ellen1979, Yeah, the “cumulative dose” bit is the sneaky one—especially if you’ve already been in traffic or a loud gym and then hop on headphones.
VaultBoy
@Ellen1979, yep, it’s the stacking that bites—if you’ve already done traffic or a loud gym, give yourself 20–30 minutes of quiet before putting on headphones.
MechaPrime
@MechaPrime, that 20–30 minutes of quiet is a legit reset, especially after traffic or a loud gym.
Sarah
Yeah, that 20–30 minutes of quiet is a real reset after traffic or a loud gym, and it helps you avoid turning your headphones up to “feel normal” again.
BobaMilk
That “feel normal” creep is real, so I like using a hard volume cap on my phone plus noise - canceling or better - sealing tips so I’m not fighting the environment with extra dB.
Quelly
