Know your limits - Tinnitus and hearing loss with high volume levels

If you feel that you've been experiencing tinnitus, hearing loss, or pain your ears, you should stop using the headphones and consult with a doctor.

As with any audio device, headphones can contribute to hearing issues is through excessive playback volume, and excessive volume levels are highly discouraged.

The CDC recommends you stay below 85dB for periods of listening 8 hours or more. This time decreases as your volume level goes up (for example, listening at 100dB is only safe for 15 minutes a day). For further reading and for some resources on real-life decibel examples and other important hearing safety information, please also see this article by the National Council on Aging.

Most headphones (especially those with dynamic drivers) have a threshold at which the drivers begin to "break up" or exhibit small amounts of subtle but audible overload distortion. This often serves as a "cue" to listeners that they've achieved a sufficiently high volume, so they typically stop there or back the volume level down a bit so the distortion is less audible. Most who use this "cue" do so without even realizing it.

Since our headphones exhibit almost zero distortion at any volume, some listeners who use this "cue" are not aware that they've boosted the volume into a range that's actually dangerous for their hearing. As a result, this can cause ringing, ear pain and tinnitus over a period of time.

That's one of the reasons we put this text in our user guide:

Safety Guide

Volume level is subjective and everyone perceives it differently. Listening to music for long periods of time at excessive levels can cause irreparable damage to your ears. Reduce the volume levels of the amplifier and/or audio device before listening to your headphones. Gradually increase the volume until desired levels are reached. Enjoy your headphones with safe listening habits.

Our recommendation would be to maintain awareness of volume levels, and to give yourself some time to acclimate to listening at lower levels without distortion.