It’s nuts to me how loud public space music is by default these days (at least here in america.) We stereotype Californian cities like SF as being more health conscious, but even the Academy of Sciences puts their DJ every Thursday evening in a concrete and glass box with the volume cranked to instantly-dangerous levels. Like you I’ve been especially astounded by the cavalier attitude to audio safety at events targeted towards children, but imo even many bars and adult oriented venues are simply not being at all considerate of the immediate risks to their patrons from the music volume. Phonobar recently opened in SF as an “audiophile bar” and the listening room volume is usually so loud your hearing would almost instantly be damaged from stepping inside…so of course you aren’t hearing any “audiophile” quality sound even with earplugs.
At this point I just bring my earplugs everywhere, but everywhere I look around and I’m surrounded by people my age who are actively destroying their hearing and seem oblivious to it.
It seems like there should be a lot more public health education about hearing loss. That’s why it was especially disappointing to see CalAcademy not even have earplugs for sale when they operate as a music venue, along with the plainly unsafe (and poorly mixed, frankly) PA system volume.
Comments
It’s nuts to me how loud public space music is by default these days (at least here in america.) We stereotype Californian cities like SF as being more health conscious, but even the Academy of Sciences puts their DJ every Thursday evening in a concrete and glass box with the volume cranked to instantly-dangerous levels. Like you I’ve been especially astounded by the cavalier attitude to audio safety at events targeted towards children, but imo even many bars and adult oriented venues are simply not being at all considerate of the immediate risks to their patrons from the music volume. Phonobar recently opened in SF as an “audiophile bar” and the listening room volume is usually so loud your hearing would almost instantly be damaged from stepping inside…so of course you aren’t hearing any “audiophile” quality sound even with earplugs.
At this point I just bring my earplugs everywhere, but everywhere I look around and I’m surrounded by people my age who are actively destroying their hearing and seem oblivious to it.
It seems like there should be a lot more public health education about hearing loss. That’s why it was especially disappointing to see CalAcademy not even have earplugs for sale when they operate as a music venue, along with the plainly unsafe (and poorly mixed, frankly) PA system volume.