Playing with Ear protection

[Donn]

I get what bloke and MaryAnn are talking about. We talk so much about protection during rehearsal. But I'm talking about practicing on your own at home. I wouldn't have believed it would clock in anywhere near 100 dB, but for anyone who is doing a few hours of more at home, that is well above the threshold at which damage can occur.

Would love for an audiologist to chime in as I was once told that low pitches do not incur as much damage as high pitches, even at the same db.

Anecdotally, I sometimes notice some feeling of temporary hearing loss after practicing - but only saxophone, have never noticed it with tuba.

[Tom]

I get what bloke and MaryAnn are talking about. We talk so much about protection during rehearsal. But I'm talking about practicing on your own at home. I wouldn't have believed it would clock in anywhere near 100 dB, but for anyone who is doing a few hours of more at home, that is well above the threshold at which damage can occur.

Would love for an audiologist to chime in as I was once told that low pitches do not incur as much damage as high pitches, even at the same db.

I am not an audiologist, but as a hearing aid wearer (as mentioned above), I work with one. I have asked this exact question of them if for no other reason than I was curious to hear the answer from an expert. I am paraphrasing here, but basically it is this:

High frequencies cause more damage since energy in a sound increases with frequency.

BUT...the energy depends on amplitude, since energy is proportional to the amplitude via some formulaic relationship. Amplitude, as I understand it, is basically the "loudness" in a sound which makes the amplitude factor more damaging than the overall frequency. So, a "loud" low frequency wave could be more damaging than a "softer" high frequency wave but to address your question of what is worse: high frequency or low frequency at the same dB, the answer would be that the high frequency sound does the most damage because it carries the most energy. That isn't to say the "loud" low frequency sounds are safe, just that between the two in a scientific sense the highs are worse for you.

[jbaylies]

I was born with high frequency hearing loss and get my hearing checked about once a year, and even after studying music in college and playing sousaphone next to ridiculous snare drummers my hearing hasn't gotten any worse... I think most hearing loss nowadays stems from listening to headphones at visceral levels. That's something I always avoid. I bought "flat-liner earmuffs" to use in ensembles but they make my tuba sound so dead that I don't bother. They are really useful for loud concerts, though. It's nice to be able to set my hearing aids to their music setting while wear the earmuffs over them.