Full Dröhnung on the ears.

If today you hear oldies, who often seem peculiar "flat". This also has technical reasons: The music industry has the sound of their products continually increased - to promote sales and to the detriment of the hearing, says the Swiss Accident Insurance Fund.

 

The legendary album "Brothers in Arms" of the Dire Straits appeared in 1985. It was 1995 and 2005 re-released with a sharp "Remastering". The continuous sound of the song "So Far Away" 1985 amounted to 88 decibels (dB), 1995 is already 93 dB and 2005, then 99 dB - Elf dB more for the same music.

"That means a doubling of the volume - and more than ten times more sound energy by the ears to cope," says Beat Hohmann, at the Swiss Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA) as an area manager for the physics in the occupational safety act. Specialists of the largest insurers in Switzerland analyzed a total of 400 songs from pop, jazz and classical.

The
Swiss Accident Insurance Fund (Suva) presented as early as 2007 found that MP3 players with earphones can damage hearing. In five to ten percent of the users there is a risk of permanent hearing damage. From the end of April a study published by the Swiss Accident Insurance Fund is now clear that digital music stored in the last 20 years, generally around ten decibels louder was.

The subject of this investigation were digital formats such as CD, MP3, WMA or WAV. The biggest hit on this pop and rock titles. Jazz title that this development could not escape, but the increase was five dB is significantly lower. Only in the classical productions of the average level has remained unchanged because the volume ratios of the plant have been respected.

Behind it stand the idea of the music industry, that loud music sells better. "Therefore, current songs reinforced, compressed and compacted until no more air in it," says the study. Suva critically assesses this development, because the consequences this has for the hearing.

Normal is the extreme

On a device according to European standard (limit 100 dB) music of 1985 reached a maximum continuous sound of 90 dB and can be used per week for ten hours to be heard. Current song but come to a hundred or more dB. That means sound energy ten-fold in comparison to the 1985th DB with a hundred, only one hour per week music will be heard.

To prevent hearing damage, called Beat Hohmann, the volume of ads that will scale with a sound equipment. Thanks to an ongoing calculation of the charges and heard a warning for exceeding the daily dose of the listeners knew at any time, nor how long they could enjoy music safely.

Reading: About 90 percent of maximum volume of one hundred dB pop sounds, this should not exceed three hours a week doing. For oldies, jazz and classical music are up to ten or 40 hours per week safely. Hard to imagine that anyone would hold it - but easy to imagine that the "sound-Geiger counter" to the part of the Entertainment would be: "Cool, my dB is expressed with a hundred ..."