Topic: EU Recommends Noise Limits On MP3 Players

[sam]

This follows a report last year warning that up to 10m people in the EU face permanent hearing loss from listening to loud music for prolonged periods. EU experts want the default maximum setting to be 85 decibels, according to BBC One's Politics Show. Users would be able to override this setting to reach a top limit of 100 decibels. ... Some personal players examined in testing facilities have been found to reach 120 decibels, the equivalent of a jet taking off, and no safety default level currently applies, although manufacturers are obliged to print information about risks in the instruction manuals. Modern personal players are seen as more dangerous than stationary players or old-fashioned cassette or disk players because they can store hours of music and are often listened to while in traffic with the volume very high to drown out outside noise

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/12/13/1346221/EU-Recommends-Noise-Limits-On-MP3-Players?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+(Slashdot)

... now they just need to convince mobile phone producers to not include loud speakers on their phones..

[Simon]

Why can't they use noise cancellation technology, like they do on full sized headphones, so then, users wouldn't have to have them so loud?

[sam]

Why can't they use noise cancellation technology, like they do on full sized headphones, so then, users wouldn't have to have them so loud?

Yeah but that's not the point really.. its cause people are idiots and have it as loud as they can.. I have noise cancellation headphones that are in the ear type and they work really well.

[Simon]

Idiots indeed! 

[sam]

Idiots indeed! 

Not that I've never done that... I figured out quite early on that my Ipod has a setting were I can define the maximum (and then nicely forgot about it) so even if I got to maximum volume in the player its never as high as it could get.

[Simon]

There is something great about ear splittingly loud music.  You go into a sort of zone, but once in a while is enough, not every hour of the day.

[sam]

There is something great about ear splittingly loud music.  You go into a sort of zone, but once in a while is enough, not every hour of the day.

I know what you mean... that's when I figured out how to turn it up again 

[Simon]

[Rik]

It's all part of the same culture that sets out to get drunk each weekend really, isn't it. No real thought for their long term health. It makes you wonder if the NHS will be able to cope in a few years...

[Clive]

I've been saying that for a long time Rik. 

[sam]

It's all part of the same culture that sets out to get drunk each weekend really, isn't it. No real thought for their long term health. It makes you wonder if the NHS will be able to cope in a few years...

Or if they will have to...

[Rik]

Or that, Sam.