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Your opinion on bad sound

E

Eeyore

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jim said:
Those regulations are just as effective as the "Do Not Call" rules :-(

...Jim Thompson

No they work.

However PC speakers and car audio for some strange reason have seemingly been
exempted.

Graham
 
G

GregS

Jan 1, 1970
0
The biggest distraction to good sound for me is, over abundance
of the spectrum in the 1-3 Khz range. You can't have any peaking at all, in this range, on
a GOOD set of speakers. Its the ears most sensitive region. A loss in this area
often makes for even easier listening.

greg
 
Acts tend to hire young people to do their sound, as a distrust to
anybody older. This usually results in, 1. recreational
pharmaceutical style financing for sound guys.
And 2. 48,000 watt speaker stacks driven stop to stop.

Before I worked for the university, I was in the laser show
business and I was exposed to a third thing, deaf old stoner sound
guys who have too much money from the practice of 1 above. One, doing
a big show for a city riverfest, decided they needed 10,000 watt
stacks ran off three phase every 200 or so feet to play Polka. A riot
nearly happened as many angry people in tuxes and evening dresses
thought those of us in the laser booth were the ones blasting them in
a confined space with 5 kW of Frankie Yankovic polka. They ended up
cutting one of the feedback cables (4 wire system) to the stack and
that took it to full power and max distortion. Imagine 400
executives and their wives eating dinner on top of a 200 foot tall 4
lane bridge either trying to kill us, destroy the speakers, or run
off the mile long bridge. Sound guy was two miles away and we were
screaming on the radio to kill the audio, and of course he could NOT
hear his radio. I finally turned down the breaker on the genny
powering the bridge, terminating our site as well. The next night we
had double fencing around the laser booth and our own sound feed.
When confronted about the incident later, the sound guy said Whattttt?
I cant hear you.

The next night hit hit me with 10 KW of white noise in revenge,
while I was walking about 10 frofoot in of a stack. While doing
that, he fired every site along the 2 mile event with white noise.
At 11 Pm at night (3 day weekend event) that didnt make the apartment
dwellers along the river very happy. My cowokers claimed they hear me
scream in pain above the stack.

We had to have federal permits and eye exams to work with lasers,
and we always thought that there should be a license, proof of common
sense, insurance and and drug and hearing tests to own a speaker.

It is a real problem

Steve Roberts
 
Q

qrk

Jan 1, 1970
0
I like to go clubbing. I've noticed that sometimes the sound quality
is terrible. Distortion like clipping due to using underpowered amps.
I've also noticed that after a night out at these places I get a bad
ringing that lasts for weeks, and it's not just my regular tinnitus,
it's new tones and a weird screeching sound when I listen to everyday
loud noises.

It usually subsides after a few weeks. However, when I got to louder
techno places but with proper sound, I get ringing but it subsides
after a day or two.

I'm well aware that hearing doesn't regenerate itself and that any
extra ringing indicates the loss of more sensitive cells...

My theory is that the human ear protects itself by tightening the
eardrum or stiffening the impedance transformer at the entrance of the
canal. Is it possible that crappy sound with a low average level but
high peaks of distorsion energy actually let more sound into the ear?

I think that ultrasonic energy will damage your hearing, much like
invisible UV radiation will burn your skin. Do clipping amps generate
a lot of energy that is above 20KHz? I can't bring my equipment into
these clubs...

I'd like to start somewhere with this theory... I want clubs and bars
to have decent sound.

Maybe your ears are going non-linear.
 
I like to go clubbing. I've noticed that sometimes the sound quality
is terrible. Distortion like clipping due to using underpowered amps.
I've also noticed that after a night out at these places I get a bad
ringing that lasts for weeks, and it's not just my regular tinnitus,
it's new tones and a weird screeching sound when I listen to everyday
loud noises.

It usually subsides after a few weeks. However, when I got to louder
techno places but with proper sound, I get ringing but it subsides
after a day or two.

I'm well aware that hearing doesn't regenerate itself and that any
extra ringing indicates the loss of more sensitive cells...

My theory is that the human ear protects itself by tightening the
eardrum or stiffening the impedance transformer at the entrance of the
canal. Is it possible that crappy sound with a low average level but
high peaks of distorsion energy actually let more sound into the ear?

I think that ultrasonic energy will damage your hearing, much like
invisible UV radiation will burn your skin. Do clipping amps generate
a lot of energy that is above 20KHz? I can't bring my equipment into
these clubs...

I'd like to start somewhere with this theory... I want clubs and bars
to have decent sound.

http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/erme.aspx
Musician's earplugs. Save your ears.

Personally, music in dance clubs doesn't qualify as music, but that is
another story.
 
F

Frithiof Jensen

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'd like to start somewhere with this theory... I want clubs and bars
to have decent sound.

Get a pair (or two) of the good-quality earplugs; they are designed to cut
the high-frequency impulse noise that damage your hearing and one can hear
speech at the same time!

A funny thing happened at a System Of A Down concert I took my teenage son
to in Copenhagen:

The sound was absolutely perfect, EXACTLY at the right level - juust before
"too loud" - with no tinitus or anything after; That was without the
earplugs, which we had for backup. The concert was in a concrete & wood
building! I.M.O with decent equipment and an really good sound crew it is
absolutely possible to get good sound without the damage. Unfortunatley most
clubs are run by thickos only to get the maximum profit on the bare minimum
of expense and work.
 
F

Frithiof Jensen

Jan 1, 1970
0
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Thompson" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 8:14 PM
Subject: Re: Your opinion on bad sound


They are logarithmic from the beginning.
I avoid restaurants that have noisy bars.

Good Choice: Noise, both visual and audible is often used to divert sensory
attention away from the swill the peddle for food. ;-)
 
E

Eeyore

Jan 1, 1970
0
Acts tend to hire young people to do their sound, as a distrust to
anybody older.

And to avoid paying them very much !

Graham
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
I like to go clubbing. I've noticed that sometimes the sound quality is
terrible. Distortion like clipping due to using underpowered amps. I've
also noticed that after a night out at these places I get a bad ringing
that lasts for weeks, and it's not just my regular tinnitus, it's new
tones and a weird screeching sound when I listen to everyday loud noises.

Wear ear plugs. You can make them out of crumpled napkin.

I've heard that excessively loud sounds can cause brain damage - or was
that the other way around? ;-)

Good Luck!
Rich
 
B

Ben Bradley

Jan 1, 1970
0
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Thompson" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 8:14 PM
Subject: Re: Your opinion on bad sound



They are logarithmic from the beginning.

The perception of volume is logarithmic, but the actual detection
of sounds has to be linear, else you're hearing a distorted version of
the sound.
But of course nothing is perfectly linear, even the air is slightly
nonlinear, and so causes very low-level harmonics in any sound
travelling through it. But that's insignificant compared to the
distortion in the amplifiers and speakers discussed in this thread.
 
B

Ben Bradley

Jan 1, 1970
0
I recall someone else mentioned this, but even 'clean' sound that's
too loud causes hearing damage. You can get flat-frequency-response
earplugs so you can still hear everything at lower volume.
Son of a bitch. This was a home-brewed theory to explain these events.
It's good to hear someone else agreeing.
These cheap-ass club sound cocksuckers are causing harm to many
people. How can research this more so I can make a case?

For "personal protection" you can wear earplugs as others
suggested.
To make them stop, in the US you could call OSHA and see if they
care about the hearing of the club employees, though it wouldn't
surprise me too much if there was an exception for
intentionally-generated "entertainment" sounds vs. the industrial
sounds and other safety issues that OSHA usually deals with. There are
surely similar regulations and agencies in the UK. Even so, they may
turn down to where a sound level meter shows a "legal" value, but that
doesn't mean their sound system will sound good. Good equipment costs
more than just loud equipment.
 
D

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax

Jan 1, 1970
0
I like to go clubbing. I've noticed that sometimes the sound quality
is terrible. Distortion like clipping due to using underpowered amps.
I've also noticed that after a night out at these places I get a bad
ringing that lasts for weeks, and it's not just my regular tinnitus,
it's new tones and a weird screeching sound when I listen to everyday
loud noises.

It usually subsides after a few weeks. However, when I got to louder
techno places but with proper sound, I get ringing but it subsides
after a day or two.

I'm well aware that hearing doesn't regenerate itself and that any
extra ringing indicates the loss of more sensitive cells...

My theory is that the human ear protects itself by tightening the
eardrum or stiffening the impedance transformer at the entrance of the
canal. Is it possible that crappy sound with a low average level but
high peaks of distorsion energy actually let more sound into the ear?

I think that ultrasonic energy will damage your hearing, much like
invisible UV radiation will burn your skin. Do clipping amps generate
a lot of energy that is above 20KHz? I can't bring my equipment into
these clubs...

I'd like to start somewhere with this theory... I want clubs and bars
to have decent sound.

Wear earplugs.

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff
 
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