Sound Off: Our Curious Industry
Why is it so hard to get audio pros to protect their hearing?

By Doug Jones

I have a client, a nightclub, with sound transmission problems. The music from this establishment is leaking into residential areas. No big surprise, it happens all the time in urban settings.

In the course of my investigation, I asked the folks at the club to play some music at their “normal” levels. This was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. I normally carry many pairs of earplugs in my bag, but I had run out of them. Suddenly I was hit with 120 dB SPL average! I didn’t even take a peak reading - literally, I was getting ill!

I can hear some of you saying “120 dB - bah, what a wimp, that’s nothing - I do that for breakfast.” What a curious industry we work in. I wonder if our sister magazine, Live Lighting International, includes editorials urging their readership not to go out at noon and stare into the sun for four hours, pointing out that this will likely damage their eyes, and further, having to spell out how hard it is to light a show if you’re blind. If it’s so obvious to protect your eyes against bright light, why is it so difficult to get audio professionals (who should know better) to protect their hearing? Sunglasses must outsell earplugs at a rate of about 20 to one. Why, I wonder? (By the way, we do not own a related lighting magazine. Mr. Jones is simply making a point. - Editor)

Point 1: If you’re in the market for a nice upscale condo in a metropolitan setting, close to all the amenities of sophisticated urban living, check to see if one of those “convenient amenities” is a dance club. If so, caveat emptor!

Point 2: If you work for a club as a bartender or bouncer or sound person or whatever - wear hearing protection. Look, if this establishment was a manufacturing plant, and its widget-making machine created sound pressure levels of 120 dB SPL average for four hours straight, OSHA would be all over them. You would be issued external ear protectors - muffs, not plugs - and I would imagine you’d be hauled in every year or so for mandatory audiologist screenings. A word to club management: you should be providing hearing protection to your employees and making sure they wear this protection, along with making hearing protection available to your patrons.

Point 3: If you’re a D.J., you’re responsible. I predict that there will be, in my lifetime, a serious lawsuit naming a D.J. and club as co-defendants for causing hearing loss. I would not be surprised if this already is occurring. Good luck.

Point 4: In some parts of the world, there are laws limiting how loud music can be played in clubs. At the 2002 AES convention in Los Angeles, there were a number of European manufacturers showing loudspeakers with built-in level monitoring.

I saw one loudspeaker that monitored levels over time and stored these readings in memory, allowing the “sound cops” to download a two-week history. If levels exceed 98 dB, (that’s ninety-eight!) fines are issued. So if we want to stave off the creation of sound police on our shores, and continue to “enjoy” 120 dB levels, we must become more responsible and police ourselves. I applaud this magazine for publishing articles like the recent ones by Mr. Ampel, urging our readers to both protect their hearing and keep levels down. Keep writing Fred, and keep reading folks. Finally, a plug (no pun intended) for ear protection. See an audiologist to get your hearing evaluated and to be fitted with custom earplugs that provide better isolation (and therefore protection). I recently went through this process with Sensaphonics, a Chicago-based company that regularly works with music and audio clients.

My plugs (called ProPhonic ER 9/15/25) have interchangeable 9 dB and 15 dB inserts. These things are way cool! The audiologist takes an impression of your ear canals and makes a hollow plug that perfectly fits into your ear. The inserts, which simply pop into these hollow plugs, are carefully designed to provide flat attenuation! They’re comfortable and they “breathe” so you don’t get the stopped up feeling of foam plugs. Most importantly, you can mix with these things! (I am not a paid endorser.)

I won’t leave home without them, and wish I’d discovered them 30 years ago. With these types of tools at our disposal, there is no excuse.

At the almost “venerable” age of 50, Doug Jones admits he’s not the nightclub type and prefers to attempt mastery of Bruce Cockburn riffs or sipping a good single malt and reading a great book. He can be reached at djones@livesoundint.com

March 2003 Live Sound International