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 September 30th 2009 11:57AM
Would be pretty cool if everytime I turned my DAP on, the volume was at a (user set) default level. Factory settings could easily have this 80dB as the default.
Nothing worse than having my heart skip a beat when I forget I had it plugged into an aux cable the last time I used it before turning it on.
I can think of only ONE advantage to this. A lot of people crank the ipod/sansa/cd player/etc. all the way, and then adjust the volume on the amp when they are using a cable/tape adapter/fm transmitter/etc. which creates tons of distortion and crappy sound. Maybe this will force them to stop it already!!! It's so annoying!!
..can't they just make it illegal to turn your headphones up so loud you can hear it at the other end of the bus - with your own headphones in?
Sooo... How is cranking it up ''nearly impossible'' again?
Sorry, I meant ''WHAT?''
What's next that may damage our health? Germ transfer when kissing? Remember the world in Demolition Man? We are not there yet, but getting close... People should be informed about health risks and reasonably protected against dangerous products, such as toxic Chinese toys and food, but socialist eurocrats are taking this a bit too far. And they will never stop pushing their caps and limits and regulations because it would turn out they are otherwise useless.
On principle I'm opposed to regulation that tries to prevent people from hurting themselves because it makes evolution's job that much tougher.
The EU: the ultimate mommy government.
Don't think for yourself, Nigel! I'll tell you what to do and not to do. Just nod and agree.
politicos have been trying to control physical objects for generations in an attempt to control their populations. In the U.S. the E.U. and every socialist/communist or fascist government... They have all failed miserably. If you don't believe me take a look at prohibition, gun control, and U.S. drug laws then go look at the Hack a Day site. If you make loud media players illegal then only criminals will have loud media players. This law is silly, pathetic and it will be ignored like most other unenforceable laws. Open source, hackers, and home-brew tech will always out pace governments.
Next up: Ban on ice cream because eating too much will give you brain freeze.
Why does any governement have the right to tell you what to do with your own property? Are they leasing them from the EU? Pathetic world we live in anymore.
Soon if someone will be faster they will put weights on the person so no one is faster than him and so everyone is equal. If a girl is pretty, She will wear a mask. Read it in some story lol
Now Apple just needs to include some decent in ear headphones that cancel out enough outside noise for this to work.
When I used to use factory apple buds, I had to crank it out to overpower the gym noise floor. I hated it, since it would make my ears hurt. Also when using the buds at home, I'd get shocked from the high volume.
That compelled me to buy IEM (fancy word for in ear headphones) What a world of difference. Now I notice how bad quality MP3's really are. :(
So what?!? In the US, some guy who was in need of money and/or who was too damned stupid to realize by himself that excessive high noise levels had damaged his ears throughout the years would get some freakin lawyer and sue all makers of media players. Eventually there would be some class action (as you always find more than one greedy person) and after being sued for billions of pain-and-suffering compensation, the media-player industry would either put some huge warning-stickers like "excessive noise levels may damage your hearing" on all players or would limit the volume by themselves. This is not less ridiculous than the European Commission getting pro-active; the only difference is, that in Europe no pettifogger would profit from it too...