3 Ways to Protect Your Teen from Hearing Loss

We gave this a lot of thought, having a child who has a serious interest in playing (classical) music.

Ear bud headphones are nice and small, fashionable, and convenient, but they allow so much ambient noise in that it is more or less standard procedure to turn the volume level way up to hear the music over the noise. They are a waste of time (or worse) on a school bus or in other noisy environments.

Headphones that cover the ear are inevitably going to be larger, but for that you usually get a much quieter listening environment, and can listen at a lower volume (and often with better sound quality). My favorite choice is an over the ear headphone with a noise cancelling feature that goes even further in blocking outside noise. Either way, the goal is to use the headphone design to block external noise, not the volume level.

A light weight pair of noise canceling headphones did the trick for our son, who can now listen in peace almost anywhere, without setting a high volume level. The sound quality is quite amazing as well, so too benefits for the price of one. For completeness, this is someone who is picky enough about this to regularly wear musician's ear plugs during orchestra rehearsals due to the high sound pressure levels.

Hope this is helpful information.

David of NC 7:08PM July 27, 2011