only one in ear in

S

Stijn Deschacht

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Jan 13, 2011
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Belgium
www.stijnedge.be
I know that it's not good for your ears to have only one earbud in of the in ear set and just listen to the surrounding with the other 'free' ear... and I know it can cause hearing damage, but I forgot exactly why.



is it because your ears are ''working against eachother'' that you have to turn the volume of the ear bud higher to compensate and you're thus more susceptible for hearing loss, or am I way off here?

thanks for your input guys!
 
Re: only one in ear in

I'm afraid i'm missing the joke... sorry.
icon_confused.gif
 
Re: only one in ear in

Sometimes after research, we discover that things that we think we 'know' turn out to be without basis.



I had a discussion last night with someone last nigh who insisted that an odd number of speakers should never be attached to a single amp channel. He couldn't explain why. It was just something that he was taught.





(I am trying the make the t appear in night)
 
Re: only one in ear in

I think it's like this. In-ears are meant to be used at a safe level in isolation from ambient stage volume. Once the ambient stage volume is introduced by taking one bud out, the bud that remains in will not compete volume-wise with the information coming into your other ear, so the tendency is to turn that in-ear up to match the stage volume which can bring that driver up to dangerous levels. At least that's my perception.
 
Re: only one in ear in

It'll mess your head all up. Our lead singer used to do the same thing, but our audiologist talked him out of it. I'll have to find the article he sent me on the subject. Between the extra SPL, differences in volume between ears and some other stuff, it's really fatiguing and can really mess with your head.







Evan
 
Re: only one in ear in

Agreed. In a nutshell, it becomes a volume war, and eventually will do permanent damage. I have had artists suggest trying one ear and wedges and I refuse to do it for exactly that reason.



Good to see you here Jesse. How's things? Tell Brad I said hello.



-C
 
Re: only one in ear in

actually, this one is all about psycho-acoustics.



if you take one in-ear driver out, the perceived level drop in the ear that still has the driver in is 6 DB. this is huge. and of course, the tendency is just to turn the driver up to compensate. which will lead to bad things...



keep in mind, this is regardless of the ambient noise levels. if you do this trick on a dead silent stage, the same thing happens. do it on a loud one, and you're gonna turn it up even louder to compensate...



just this morning [i play in a church band] i had my left ear driver fail. bad cable. anyway, i took that one out on the fly, and sure enough, the level in my right ear that had been fine before all but disappeared. i turned it up a bit to get through the next couple songs and then got a new wireset going at the break. but i could still feel the difference in my ear from going that loud for just 15 minutes...



short version. one ear = bad. don't do it.



'nuff said.



brian
 
Re: only one in ear in

Good to virtually see you too Clarke! Hope all is well! Things are going really well. It's shaping up to be a great year for us already. I'll certainly pass on the greetings to Brad. If you're ever down here, you should stop in and say hey.
 
Re: only one in ear in

Evan Kirkendall wrote on Sun said:
It'll mess your head all up. Our lead singer used to do the same thing, but our audiologist talked him out of it. I'll have to find the article he sent me on the subject. Between the extra SPL, differences in volume between ears and some other stuff, it's really fatiguing and can really mess with your head.







Evan
Click to expand...

Yes, PLEASE find that article. I'm in a battle with a singer who does the same thing. As the night goes on he needs more and more ear. I'm afraid of deafening him.

Thanks,

BJ
 
Re: only one in ear in

I usually relate it to vision. When you close one eye you can't judge distance very well. Its the same thing with hearing. When you listen with one ear you can't judge just how loud what you're listening to really is.
 
Re: only one in ear in

With one of my bands I think I finally gave up pointing out the dangers and let them do whatever they wanted. I made them aware of the potential problems, worked with the band members with different IEMs, different ambient mics, everything I could think of. And even after I got the, ''You're absolutely right, Mike. I promise to keep both IEMs in'' Three songs into the set I see one IEM dangling. So I think I told them I reserve the right to say I told you so when they can't hear anything on that side anymore and let them have it.



I don't always wear IEMs, but when I do, I use both of them.
 
Re: only one in ear in



... One danger from too much isolation comes when musicians decide to ''fix'' the problem by wearing an earpiece in only one ear. ''When players take one out, their brain loses its ability to do binaural summation, where two ears together add up to a 6dB increase in your perception of loudness,'' ...



Full article quoting Michale Santucci of Sensaphonics:



mixonline.com/live/applications/audio_quiet_stage/
 
Re: only one in ear in

From Shure's Personal Monitor Systems guide:



Quote: said:
A distressing, yet increasingly common, trend is only using one earphone and leaving the other ear open. Performers have several excuses for leaving one ear open, the most common is a dislike for feeling ''removed'' from the audience, but the dangers far outweigh this minor complaint. First, consider an example of a 110 dB SPL band practice. One ear is subjected to the full 110 dB, while the other ear needs 116 dB to be audible. Using only one earphone is equivalent to using a non-isolating earphone, except one ear will suffer damage twice as fast as the other! Second, a phenomenon known as binaural summation, that results from using both earphones, tricks the ear-brain mechanism into perceiving a higher SPL than each ear is actually subjected to. For example, 100 dB SPL at the left ear and 100 dB SPL in the right ear results in the perception of 106 dB SPL. Using only one earphone would require 106 dB SPL at that ear. The practical difference? Potential hearing damage in one hour instead of two hours. Using both earphones will usually result in overall lower listening levels.
Click to expand...
 
Re: only one in ear in

Phill Chapman (Chappie) wrote on Thu said:
From Shure's Personal Monitor Systems guide:



Quote: said:
A distressing, yet increasingly common, trend is only using one earphone and leaving the other ear open. Performers have several excuses for leaving one ear open, the most common is a dislike for feeling ''removed'' from the audience, but the dangers far outweigh this minor complaint. First, consider an example of a 110 dB SPL band practice. One ear is subjected to the full 110 dB, while the other ear needs 116 dB to be audible. Using only one earphone is equivalent to using a non-isolating earphone, except one ear will suffer damage twice as fast as the other! Second, a phenomenon known as binaural summation, that results from using both earphones, tricks the ear-brain mechanism into perceiving a higher SPL than each ear is actually subjected to. For example, 100 dB SPL at the left ear and 100 dB SPL in the right ear results in the perception of 106 dB SPL. Using only one earphone would require 106 dB SPL at that ear. The practical difference? Potential hearing damage in one hour instead of two hours. Using both earphones will usually result in overall lower listening levels.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...



I'd never really thought about the similarities between one in/out iems and the way DJ's use headphones on one ear for monitoring the cue'd track and the monitor for hearing the live track. Sort of explains their leadership of the deaf performer category. Thanks for contributing to my understanding of the matter.
 
Re: only one in ear in

Hey Guys,
I think we can all agree, that when it comes to hearing damage, most of the artists using IEM and indeed wedges have it to a certain degree. And that maybe 4 wedges and ridiculous sidefills, with the possibility of feedback will damage a lead singers ears more than a one-in, one-out IEM situation.
I however agree that it is very frustrating, especially after building a nice balanced mix for the artist, based on wearing two ears, with some nice stereo separation on guitars, keys, reverbs, ambients etc only for him/her to pull one out. And more unfortunately, it means that for us to correctly and accurately do our jobs, we too, have to pull an ear out, turn up the pack, and attempt to put together something audible, yet damaging.
But i'd say my local wedge does as much damage, if not more...
 
Re: only one in ear in

Aaron "Sharon" Buck said:
And that maybe 4 wedges and ridiculous sidefills, with the possibility of feedback will damage a lead singers ears more than a one-in, one-out IEM situation.
Click to expand...


Aaron "Sharon" Buck said:
And that maybe 4 wedges and ridiculous sidefills, with the possibility of feedback will damage a lead singers ears more than a one-in, one-out IEM situation.
Click to expand...

wedges vs iems in this case, comparatively, are not the same thing.
the wedge/fill scenario you describe may lead to progressive hearing loss over time, based on exposure. however, the irreversible hearing loss/damage resultant from use of a single iem is more probable with each occurance.

R~
 
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