News - Europe acts to cap the volume of MP3 players

[Nick]

Obviously, those larger ones and zeros take up more room on a CD, hence the run time of Death Magnetic is only 1hr 14mins.

Conversely, a James Blunt CD is around 5hrs 45mins, though no-one has ever listened longer than an hour before discarding the CD out the window... which is why no-one knows about the loudness versus length issue.

But I'm glad you're all clear now.

[Uriel]

Forget the volume limiter. They just need to have a volume control where it only goes up to 8. Eight is 2 less than 10...

[funke_munke]

I've found Death Magnetic to sound best when pumped through a huge amp and then fed to the speakers with Homebase doorbell wire... this removes a lot of the dirt from the sound signal.

I find it sounds best when pumped through a blender.

[Arthran]

have been stating that we should remove all safety labels from EVERYTHING and let nature clear out the gene pool of all the low quality genetic material knocking around at the moment

For years I've been saying the standard:

Remove the safety labels from everything and let evolution take its natural course.

Survival of the fittest seems a dead idea in the human race.

[kingpotnoodle]

Surely the maximum safe volume also depends what earphones you use?

I use the in ear ones that block a lot of ambient noise so that I can actually hear my music on the tube... but when much closer to my drums that safe volume must be lower than ones which are outside my ears???

[SirLamer]

Haha, wow. Who wrote this article?

You suggest mastering albums like Metallica? Are you joking? Maybe you should listen to Death Magnetic first - it's a muddled mess that's just frustrating to listen it. The sound clips 10 times as much than I've ever experienced with any other album. Albums should NOT NOT NOT be authored with that much dynamic range compression.

Instead, MP3 players should have proper volume management features, especially support for the ReplayGain normalization algorithm and real-time range compression, for when you're in noisy places. The user should also not use the cheap crappy headphones that come with players, as they have to be played much louder than good headphones.

However, arguing that people need to turn the headphones up louder than the 90 dB background noise of the tunnel seems to ignore the horrible hearing damage people would be getting from listening to their music at 100+ dB all the time.

I like this site because it usually knows what it is talking about when reporting the news, but in this case... not so much.

[Stoo]

All mp3 players, by law, should have a volume level which goes to 11, and must contain the track "Back in Black" by AC/DC

Job done

[MadduckUK]

Survival of the fittest seems a dead idea.

oh the ironing

[TheAnimus]

There is a VERY simple solution for problems like this.

The ambiant noise on the underground is 90db. Who cares.

Wear good quality headphones, simple ear canal ones for £20 will let you hear the music better, and at a lower volume on the tube.

Or you can go the whole hog, and if your really in to your music you buy something like the sony walkman X with active noise canceling.

Does the job for me.

[Roobubba]

If a hardware limit is imposed, I can see a big rise in earphone/headphone in-line amplifiers. Personally I don't listen to my music *that* loud on earphones, but then I'm a guitarist who plays in a VERY loud hardcore/metal band and I'm acutely aware of the damaging effect of high volumes on the ears! It's musician's earplugs for practice all the way

Oh, and the GH version of death magnetic definitely sounds better. Plus, you can turn the volume up on the tube if you really have to.

Roo

[Saracen]

I resent the nannying implication that I can't be trusted to use a sensible volume. It's about time the state (or worse yet, EU bureaucracy) butted out of trying to run e3very aspect of our lives.

I've been using headphones for about 50 years and haven't damaged my hearing yet. And they're my damn ears. It's like smoking .... I don't smoke, can't stand the foul stench it leaves behind and (with one exception, that being a disabled friend) won't allow it in my home. But as long as you aren't causing anybody else problems, if people want to damage their lungs or increase their risk of cancer by smoking, that's their right.

If we accept the premise that the EU can determine how loud we listen to music, then what else in our lives can they run for us? Next, they'll have thought police in our homes making sure we don't eat too much chocolate, or that alcohol causes liver disease, or that some of us are too fat and have to go on state-controlled diets.

They already interfere all over the place. The bloke we used for years as a window cleaner gave up and changed careers because EU legislation meant he couldn't use his ladders on upper floors and couldn't do a decent job without it. A double glazing firm I know is redesigning their units so that the glass unit fits from the inside, because EU legislation says they can't use ladders on second floor (as in ground, first, second) windows because EU rules require scaffolding at that height (which costs around £1000 per installation and customers won't pay that). And that redesign, by the way, makes problems with water-proofing that much harder, especially with windows facing into prevailing winds. I've lost track of how much electrical work I've done over the years and never had any problems, but now I'm told I need to get it certified to comply with EU rules.

You can't, and shouldn't micro-manage people's lives. Some things ought to be left to common sense. I don't, for instance, need an EU crossing guard holding my hand when I cross the road (and my dear ol' mother would get jealous anyway ), and I don't need to be told how loud to listen to music. If the EU has nothing better to do with its time than to dream up legislation on earphone volumes, well frankly, it's proof positive that that hugely expensive gravy train has outlived whatever marginal usefulness it ever might have had. So here's hoping that the Irish have the good sense to detect that the Lisbon treaty has merely had minor cosmetic surgery and a new hair-do but that underneath it's the same old cobblers they had the good sense to reject last time, and that they do so again.


PS. How's that for a segue .... earphone volumes to alcoholism to the Lisbon treaty all in one post.

[Saracen]

If a hardware limit is imposed, I can see a big rise in earphone/headphone in-line amplifiers. ....

So can I. In my case, just to flip the EU the proverbial old 'digitus impudicus', the 'bird', the single-finger salute, if nothing else.