Uh, for headphones, John? Just how the heck loudly do you listen?
@Quinton595 : As for the question of loudness, I have seen some fairly cheap headphone busts for measurements, but they were still a few hundred dollars (USD). This is not my field, but in the primordial past I built a very simple test rig using a thick plastic cutting board and a simple "C" clamp. I cut (hole drill) a hole in the cutting board that the mic of my SPL meter would fit, and used some rubber gasket material to provide a tight seal around the mic's housing. (Not too tight, don't want to break it!) I used the clamp to press one side of the headphones onto the other side of the boards so the SPL mic was essentially in the same plane as my (or any) head. This was not necessarily valid for frequency response, no ear structure, but was suitable (IMO) for loudness measurements. Looked something like this:
View attachment 365716
Hey, thank you very much for the diagram. This is definitely an approach I can take. I guess I was just worried about whether a standard SPL meter is really meant for taking measurements of small, point-sources of sound, as I've only ever seen them used for sampling large open areas, or big sound-emitting objects like engines.
Because I intend to stay well below the 85 dB limit, I don't necessarily need measurements that are down to one-dB precision. If my meter is reading 85, I'd back the volume off until it reads 75 and then use that as my maximum. That way, even if I'm off by 3, 4, 5 dB, I've still got headroom for setting my max volume level. Thank you!
You are asking if you can measure a headphone's SPL at your eardrum accurately without expensive test equipment? It depends on what you mean by "expensive". You can use a pair of binaural mics and it will get you closer, or a pair of deep insert mics if you want to get as close as possible.
I tried searching for "Deep Insert Mic" but it doesn't seem to return anything. Per my reply to DonH56's post, above, I guess my primary concern was whether a standard SPL meter is really intended or accurate for measuring point-sources of sound, as I've only ever seen them used to record large open spaces, or large sound-emitting objects like engines.
How about a dose of common sense? If it sounds loud, it's probably too loud.
uhh... no? I mean, can you tell exactly what temperature your bath water is, down to the degree, just by how it feels? No. You only know it was too hot
after you get burned. Sure, in theory, you would start to experience pain at some point before that, and would know to back off, but that's where the analogy breaks down. With sound, you don't get pain at 80 dB, you don't get pain at 85 dB, or even at 90. Pain doesn't typically start until around 115-120 dB, so you don't get that kind of heads-up.
"Oh, so then just stop before your ears start ringing" ... like I said in my post, I have tinnitus, my ears are
ALWAYS ringing. They ring heavily after listening to music set to 20/100 volume on Windows 10. I don't think that's a good gauge, either.
When you know the gain of your amplifier, know the output voltage of your DAC, have a PC that has a volume control that has digital volume control in dB, and know the sensitivity of your headphone (manufacturers data is often wrong or only gives efficiency numbers) you can calculate the peak levels you may encounter.
How loud the average levels are and how that compares to dBA (which the usual 'loudness scales' are built on) depends on the recording.
Not all ears are equally sensitive to loudness. I mean my son (mild autism) can't stand loud noises and plays at max. levels that are 'soft levels' to me.
Sometimes I hear the earbuds of people passing by pretty loudly meaning they listen at very high levels and enjoy it.
I consider my hearing as 'standard' and measured music and related that to how I perceived that. One could use it as a rough guide.
home back to Learn published: Dec-11-2013, last update: Oct-17-2022 Power levels, efficiency, impedance, voltages, current, balanced (bridged) versus single ended (common ground), sound pressure…
diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com
When it sounds loud to you it probably is loud. Also... one tends to play headphones louder than speakers. Headphones can easily reach 120dB+ in SPL with speakers this is a tall order. Also consider that the lack of tactical feel is often compensated by turning up the volume and or bass levels.
Cheap SPL meters or even phones (with SPL meter apps) can give you an indication of peak levels.
For this you need to seal the front volume and you need to play a 1kHz tone recorded at 0dB and set the volume control to your preferred level using music.
Once you have played the song and want to know the peak level you play the tone and measure SPL. Then use the website 'DR database' and look up the song that you used to set the volume. There you can find the dynamic range of that song.
When you measured 90dB with your meter and the DR of that song is 8 you were probably listening to 82dB average levels.
Beauuuuutiful, thank you for all this information Solderdude! I will definitely take the mathematical approach once I have my DAC/Amp situation sorted.
I'm not so worried about stimulation or what a given volume level FEELS like, I just want to avoid exceeding 75-80 dB purely to prevent volume-related hearing loss over the course of my life. Because of the tinnitus, I can't really judge what's too loud, as even very quiet music makes my ears ring. Even silence does.
Thank you for the information on how to use the SPL accurately. I will definitely refence your post when I build the rig DonH56 described, above.
It's certainly tricky with headphones. If you have an iPhone and some speakers, you can measure what sounds loud to you in a room with the NIOSH app. This will a give a sense of what volume you are listening to when wearing headphones. But be aware that the lower distortion of headphones vs loudspeakers may mean you are listening louder than you realise.
Oh, neat, is that an actual, sanctioned, NIOSH-certified app?
What? Can't hear you.
I realised after typing, but figured...
A bit like those clown kids on the train/bus/plane with their headphones so loud other passengers can hear it super clearly.
I have a feeling you look like your profile pic in real life....
