Does anybody else see the irony in using earplugs to block outside noise from the inner ears, only to substitute music, etc., in its place, delivered directly to the tympanic membranes? Both will damage hearing permanently. WBill
What matters here is the total SPL your ears are exposed to. (and how long the exposure lasts) If you reduce the amount of noise going to your ear by using earplugs, you don't need to have your music turned up as loud to hear it. Those that have helmet speakers for communication usually are not listening to it constantly. But if they were not wearing earplugs they'd need to turn up the volume to hear over the other ambient noise.
Think of being in a room filled with 100 people all taking at once, loud enough that to hear the person in front of you talking they'd have to raise their voice. But suddenly 1/2 the people in the room stop talking. The total decibels your ear is exposed to is reduced so that the person in front of you doesn't have to shout for you to hear them now. Get the entire room to stop talking and that person just needs to whisper for you to hear them.
This is what happens when you use noise canceling earbuds, or ones that just reduce outside sounds, you can lower the volume of your music and still hear it.
However you can be correct, as it's still possible for someone to listen to loud music and do damage to their hearing. But those that at least make attempts to reduce the total level of what they are exposed to are less likely to have damage done compared to those that do nothing.
https://www.isvr.co.uk/workplace/motorcycle-noise.htm
https://dangerousdecibels.org/education/information-center/decibel-exposure-time-guidelines/
The original post concerned the best way to listen to music (etc.) while wearing ear plugs. I presumed the poster wanted to use pugs to reduce the amplitude of the wind and other noise, and, thereby, be able to enjoy music or maybe speech signals better.
I have no argument with the quote above, but there are some other things we might consider.
Let's face it: motorcycle riding is inherently bad for our hearing. I have studied the matter of noise induced hearing loss for some time now, and I will try to be succinct. My only purpose is to informally suggest possibilities so we can keep riding and keep as much of our hearing ability as possible.
Noise in a helmet depends upon the characteristics of the head, the helmet and the motorcycle, and the speed of the wind. There are data reporting noise levels inside motorcycle helmets to range from around 90 dB (A) to about 110 dB (A). These are dangerous levels according to god old OSHA. Duration time of exposure is, indeed, an important factor, and for me, any duration of loud noise exposure is to long.
A 1996 article (you'll have to look it up) suggested that noise reduction devices such as those used by jet aircraft pilots reduced the ambient sound pressure in the helmet to somewhere around 70 dB (A), still very loud for sustained exposure. This article did not consider the sound pressure of any music or other signal above the ambient noise. OK, so noise cancellation devices seem good, but not great, for reducing ambient noise reaching the inner ear from outside the helmet.
However, now we are considering replacing aperiodic ambient noise outside the helmet with some other acoustic energy source delivered inside the ear canals. Jet pilots, of course, have to listen to signals form the ground and from other aircraft. I dom't think they use ear buds for that purpose.
For motorcyclists, ear bud sound, be it music or speech, may have a narrower frequency spectrum than the outside noise, but it still has energy in the sweet range of human hearing. It is amplitude (sound pressure level), not frequency, that destroys the delicate sensory cells in the inner ear, and if there dangerous sound pressure levels within that frequency range, the listener is going to suffer. There is literature that reported that experimental subjects listening to music through ear buds experienced temporary threshold shift ("TTS": no kidding). This could make the listeners' subjective sound sensation level decrease, causing them to gradually increase the sound pressure level through the ear buds to compensate. Whether the sound feels loud or not, the sound pressure is still there and that is what blasts the hair cells in your inner ear.
As for signal/noise, or figure/ground discrimination, that is a skill that is also subject to being diminished with inner ear damage such as that caused by noise exposure. It is the ability to pick out or discriminate a signal in the presence of competing "noise." I bet most of us already know that from the experience of trying to listen to the spouse and the TV at the same time.
BTW: the whole "decibel" quantity is not a fixed unit like feet or kilograms. The term decibel refers to the log of a ratio of quantities, and their magnitudes depend upon stipulation of a reference level. That's why I put the (A) after the quantities I reported from the literature. It indicates an OSHA sound level scale used for measuring noise levels in the workplace, adjusted to human hearing.
As for me, I'm wearing the best foam plugs I can get for my ear canals, inside the quietest modular helmet I can get. No ear buds for me! I listen to the music playing in my head. I don't use custom ear plugs because I'm too cheap, and I haven't been satisfied that an old pair of custom plugs is significantly better than a fresh pair of foam plugs. This might not work for you, and this is in
no way professional advice.
If you have read all of this, you might consider that you have too much time on your hands! WBill
