A recent European study has shown that people who listen frequently to music from their mobile players are at serious risk of permanent hearing loss. The situation is so dire that the European Commission is now suggesting that all MP3 music players have volume limits with an 85db maximum output. Research reveals that in some cases, people are cranking their music up to 120db, which is akin to hearing an airplane take off!

Dr. Robin Yeoh is attributing most of the hearing damage to the 21st century’s technological advances in mobile music. Essentially, people have access to thousands of songs at anytime and in any place. While I agree that the iPod revolution has contributed significantly to the rise in hearing loss, especially among youth, I believe that several other major factors are generally ignored by scientists:

1. Poor quality earbuds: Most headphones and buds that come bundled with music players are rubbish, the iPod’s being particularly notorious for mediocrity. These earbuds provide little to no isolation from outside noise, so listeners tend to turn the volume higher just to hear their music.

2. Dynamic compression of digital music: A majority of mainstream contemporary music are dynamically very compressed and poorly recorded. Take Oasis’ [What's the Story] Morning Glory? and Keane’s Hopes and Fears for example. These are two of my favorite albums, but both are among the most dynamically compressed in the history of digital music! What this all means is that in order for hearers to discern dynamics (good deep bass and sharp highs), he/she has to raise the db meter because everything sounds the same, so there is no dynamic contrast between the highs and the lows. We have to listen to these albums at extreme volumes to get the sensation that they are loud enough.

Regarding the second problem, I have no solution other than to listen to more older recordings. As for number one, I believe that hearing loss can be alleviated or even eliminated with good in-ear-monitors (IEMs). Over the next few days, I will post a 3-part review of what I consider to be the best IEMs starting at under $100, under $200, and over $200. Please stay tuned.