Love that brain-pounding sensation when you jack that volume past the sensible limit? If so, you best hop on the next flight to somewhere
not within Europe, as the almighty European Commission is fixing to peg the default volume limit on portable media players at 80 decibels. If you're stricken with an awful case of déjà vu, you're not alone. You may recall that
a similar French law forced Apple to limit the volume level on its iPod family to 100dB, and at that time, it decided to make the limit apply to all units shipped within Europe. Now, the EU is seeking to bring that ceiling down to 80dB on all portable music players in an effort to protect the precious hearing abilities of its citizens, though we should note that said level would only apply to the default setting,
not overall maximums. In other words, you can override the recommended listening level if you please, but don't bet on that socialized healthcare taking care of you if The Man finds out. Kidding. Maybe.
[Via
Telegraph]
posted Sep 30th 2009 11:57AM
Good thing the EU is spending taxpayer money on such important issues.
WHAT?
@Dr. Chagas:
He said:
"Good thing the EU is spending taxpayer money on such important issues."
Yes, such as better health care for all.
Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Yes, such as health care for all.
@slamEVIL
... But these go to eleven!
If only they were as good as the US government at spending taxpayer money.
We're very lucky in the band in that we have two visionaries, David and Nigel, they're like poets, like Shelley and Byron. They're two distinct types of visionaries, it's like fire and ice, basically. I feel my role in the band is to be somewhere in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll7rWiY5obI
What ever happened to PERSONAL responsibility? If I want to blow my hearing, I bloody well should be able to if I choose.
You can blow your god damn hearing. But have some respect for the person sitting next to you on the bus with his RAGE (FFFUUU-) face on.
As long as the option is there to increase it, kids will figure it out and jack it up. What's the point?
Looking busy. Politicians can't just embezzle and accept bribes, they also have to launch asinine diatribes on subjects they don't understand.
They don't understand graphs from medical studies showing damage to hearing you say eh, I think it's you that doesn't understand things.
The question here is if people should be forcibly stopped from self-damage of that nature, and I think they should not, a simple warning should suffice, but to have a physical (visual and/or haptic) warning when you get beyond safe levels can't harm either.
No, actually, the question is _how difficult_ do we want to make it to hurt yourself, the goal being that if you're too stupid to care about hurting yourself, you can't.
In other words the goal is to make you able to listen at a very loud volume as long as you don't.
Having solved all other problems, the EU is nobly addressing the epidemic of hearing loss that is sweeping the continent.
WHAT?
@PeteC:
get the cum out of your eyes.
@fieldcar: you did it wrong. you were supposed to say what UnixSystemsEngineer said louder.
Are you saying that American politicians can't think or do more than one thing at a time? Because I can see how [some of the many] European politicians would have the time to consider this minor issue *as well* as more important ones!
Oh, and does the US not have a department of public health?
You are utterly sad and wrong.
like unix's logo. wow
Isn't the actual output volume depending on the sensitivity of the driver units in the headphones? Ridiculously sensitive headphone drivers will still make your head go boom, for the same output level where basic earbuds barely make a beep...
They could require some kind of smart link, where the headphones send detailed info down to the player including sensitivity, and the player could adjust to never exceed the limits.
WHAT?
ISN'T THE ACTUAL OUTPUT VOLUME DEPENDING ON THE--
Oh, wait.
You beat me to it. This unworkable idea is painfully typical of brainless politicians and do-gooders.
Maybe it's related to the sensitivity of the earbuds supplied with the unit. In that case, no problemo: Release the player with really unsensitive earbuds and then just sell really sensitive third party ones to go with it.
yeah, plus this will just add to the loudness war and the tracks will be digitally amplified beyond the clipping point of digital audio, therefore it will sound just as loud, but in even worse quality.
how am i going to listen to older tracks at a decent level if i cant adjust the amplification level to match that of the recording? stupid, stupid people.
Ted Nugent - Great White Buffalo - Double Live Gonzo.
Van Halen - Eruption
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Pearl Jam - Alive
These songs and many others MUST be cranked at max volume! Thanks nanny state. Yes I don't want to lose my hearing but is there anyone under 60 that hasn't blasted these songs?
I've muted them, so take your songs and shove them up your ears.
The problem with this is that it will make it harder to hear on planes... I usually have to crank mine up to 11 to hear it over the roar of the engines.
You just need better headphones. Any noise canceling ones should solve that problem.
Or in-ear monitors. I only need mine up about half-way during a flight, and I don't the claustrophobic feeling from active noise canceling headphones.
http://www.headphone.com/products/headphones/in-ear-monitor/
Or fly on an airbus or some other plane that has more decent soundlevels, and make sure you complain to the company that their noise insulation sucks.
Seems pretty ridiculous that people have to sit in noise with blasting headphones because they don't do a decent customer oriented business IMHO.
Holy horrible prices Batman!
You shouldn't be listening to music on planes; you should be on guard for terrorists. Did you know that 54% of all planes have terrorists on them.
you Zim,
I got my Sennheisers off amazon for like 1/2 the price on that website just to let you know.
Don't worry - Only the planes with really loose engine mounts vibrate and make that noise... Once the engines fall off, it will be much quieter...
Raising the volume on planes is just as damaging to your hearing. Your brain compensates for the noise levels, but blasting the noise has the same exact effect on your ears as if you played the same volume in a silent room - and imagine how much that would hurt.
I am an electronic engineer and I will personally bring out my own brand of headphones that can deafen people if they do this.
Verbal Binding contract
@WinXP: But he wrote it.... O_o
written = even better.
that's what I get for trying to read engadget half sleep and half awake in the morning =/
so it's a written binding contract
I don't want your headphones. Even if you are an electrical engineer, you're probably not an acoustical engineer. I would rather you build a 3.5" inline preamp that ironically runs on hearing aid batteries.
Now do it.
LOL. People don't listen to MP3 players at their default volume. They crank it as loud as they want or need (public transportation can be rather noisy). What would be far more useful is a visual display of decibel level so listeners can make informed listening decisions.
Rockbox FTW! (Actually, of course, it only shows the output in dB FS; you'd still need a way to calibrate SPL from drive voltage every time you change cans.)
Anyway, I hate seeing evil-bit solutions like this, but at least they're not going all FCC and mandating non-standard plugs to keep you from attaching high-gain earphones.
weet: if you're listening to open headphones on public transit, ur doin it rong, and probably damaging your hearing (as you say, transit tends to be quite loud - an ambient noise level of, oh, usually 50-60dB, so if you have your music above an apparent volume of 20-30dB - which is very quiet - you're exceeding safe values for long-term listening and hurting your ears). If you want to listen to music on public transit you really REALLY ought to buy in-ear monitors or decently-insulating closed headphones. Or stupid active noise-cancellation headphones, if you want to spend entirely more money than necessary.
Having said that, I agree with the technical objections to this proposal; it would appear to be entirely unworkable with anything other than the phones supplied with the unit. It'd be interesting to know what the EU expects to happen when you plug in more or less sensitive third-party phones.
I hate the iPod volume meters for this very reason.