Wrong frequency settings...hurt ears? (1 Viewer)

[Justin_T]

Hey folks, got a question that I know you will be able to help me with. I was wondering if the frequency settings of a receiver were messed with, could it be possible that doing so at the wrong frequency may hurt your ears? During a few hours of having my system on, my ears began to hurt. I asked the rest of my family to come in and watch a movie and they said they were experiencing the same thing after listening for awhile. Can anyone confirm that this may be the case? I reset the hz and khz to the factory settings so hopefully this will help. Thanks for your help

 

[Christian Dolan]

First, turn it down. Remember, hearing loss is permanent.

Second, you mentioned that you "reset the hz and the khz". Can you tell us what you mean by this?

-Christian

 

[Holadem]

Also what receiver do you have, what speakers?

--

Holadem

 

[Allan Jayne]

1. It is possible for a person to be unusually sensitive to one or a few particular frequency(ies) even with the overall sound level not that high. You can think of it as the human ear having a frequency response with a gigantic peak somewhere. This sensitivity can be caused by listening to too loud music or noise from airplanes or power tools.
1a. So the person insists that all music and soundtracks be turned way down to avoid those twinges of pain when that magic frequency appears.
1b. Good doctors who fit hearing aids know to look for this problem and order the hearing aid with frequency response tailored to counteract it. While many of the complaints about telemarketers who sell hearing aids is that they don't compensate for this problem.
1c. Have you ever heard or heard of an organ one of whose pipes is malfunctioning so as to produce a much louder although still correctly pitched note? (Called incorrect voicing)
2. The sound system might be emitting a large amount of supersonic sound (like what dogs hear that you can't) and it still causes pain in humans.
3. The motion seen on the screen may be contributing to a general malaise, like seasickness. As an extreme case, there was reported on the news a few years ago about some TV program (in Japan) that made some children pass out.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Allan F]

Hearing loss is permanent. If it hurts, you are causing damage, so turn it down. For that matter, if you experience tinnitus or a temporary threshold shift following exposure to a loud noise you have done some degree of damage to your hearing.
Our tolerance to loud sounds varies from person to person and from tone to tone. You may be more sensitive to (as mentioned above) a particular tone the system is focusing on.
Value your hearing. Once it's gone, it's gone.
Allan