Listening to music in noisy environments brings to alarming habits of the personal music players (PMPs) use. A previous study showed that the subjective behaviour of users is to  raise the listening volume up to 12-14 dBA over the background noise.

Noise conditions largely influence the listening level but risks to hearing health can be really
assessed determining also the duration of the listening sessions. Standard earphones sealing causes noise annoyance from 75 dBA of the background noise level and listening volume and listening time should be related to this threshold of perception to keep the noise-induced health risk within safe values for a daily exposure.

Within this study a group of PMP and supplied earphones were examined in laboratory to detect their maximum output volume level. The people listening behaviour from PMP usage was determined by means of laboratory tests and questionnaires. Exposing a group of  persons to quite and noisy conditions, during a listening session with PMPs and earphones, output volume levels were measured and noise exposure levels were computed.

….. continua la lettura

Background Noise Effects on Noise Exposure Levels of PMP Users