hearing damage from MP3 (?!)

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Can this be taken seriously?

Personally I'm no big fan of MP3, but come on...

This guy's done a wonderful job of imbedding conjecture within detailed medical documentation of how hearing works. But not a single reference or study cited.

Here's a couple of my favorite parts:

"The danger of this exploitation of human perception flaws is that especially by lossy audio data compression sound portions get destroyed those, although the brain would not pass them to the conscious awareness, are likely necessary for the human hearing's own perpetual calibration. "

"a continuous consumption of data reduced audio could possibly lead to fatal consequences"

He makes an analogy that after listening to MP3, real sounds won't be perceived accurately. Similar to "like seeing the world in green/ red discoloured after taking off red/ green 3D glasses".

OK. I'll agree that listening to reproduced sounds of any type, even with the very finest recordings on the best audio equipment, will give the listener a false reference of reality, especially if that's all the person ever hears. However, I can't buy that it would cause any permanent damage that wouldn't eventually be reversed by enough exposure to 'natural' sound.

Why pick on MP3 because it removes certain harmonics and tones that most people don't pay attention to? Any speaker system is going to add harmonics and other sounds that aren't 'natural'. Shouldn't we worry about that?

Tinitus is caused by exposure to loud sound, not unnatural sound.

After reading this, I think the next time I hear a live performance of the 1812 Overture, I'll see if they'll let me stick my head in a canon.:hot:

Thanks for one of the more amusing things I've read recently!

Brian.:cubist:
 
Oh please :rolleyes:

MP3 --alt-preset extreme in LAME. I cannot tell the difference on my home stereo, or on my headphones, between it and the original. It doesn't compress it 12:1 like most MP3's on the internet, but it IS 6:1 allowing much more reasonable storage.

Regarding that article however: MP3's might make you see the world in a different way. OMG, noooooooo. Does that mean if you see 20/40 you shouldn't wear glasses because it distorts your vision? Stay away from that treadmill :nono: it's sure to distort your natural weight tendencies. And by all means, stay away from the opposite sex, for I have NEVER seen someone so affected in their sense of the world as when they meet that special someone.

Oh, and btw, loneliness can kill you too. IE, there is absolutely no point to his article that can't be refuted by obvious requirements to live a healthy life. This makes it completely useless as an article, becoming only something to laugh at. :D

Har har har.




































haha. :devily:
 
That's the problem with the internet. There is nothing to prevent anyone from publishing any crap they can dream up.

The internet has raised the amount of trash available to the average individual about 1000X what was once available only through televison, radio, and print media. Exposure to lies and BS over and over eventually leads to a belief in the lies and BS (that's how advertising works). No wonder people seem to be getting dumber by the day.

Or maybe I'm just getting older and less tolerant?

MR
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.