I'm referring to ear protection. How many of us use it? For a lot of us, our ears are our livelyhood and without it, we'd be out of a job. Have you ever experienced (temporary) tinnitus? I have a time or two, and it's not fun (headphones fell off during playing in church) Imagine hearing a high pitched ringing for a few days, even in complete silence.
With that said, keep in mind that hearing loss is not reversible, and as you get older, you naturally lose some of your capabilities in hearing the higher frequencies. Why cause it to occur prematurely? I see a lot of the vlips posted and hardly anyone utilizes hearing protection. Why? Perhaps you don't want to miss out on the subtle nuances in the music, but you'll miss out later in life if you continue abusing your ears. The cilia (look it up and research) does not grow back when it's damaged.
What do I use? I use Shure's E5 model with custom molds. Go to
http://www.shure.com to check out the various models or go to
http://www.ultimateears.com/_ultimateears/ to check out their product. For the molds, I visited a local audiologist that was recommended by Sensaphonics. Visit them at
http://www.sensaphonics.com/audiologist.html.
For 'non Aviom' or 'non Hear Technologies' scenarios, you can check out a plethora of products. One in particular that I also own is the Vic Firth Isolation Headphones (model dB22). It brings out the lows in the drums, which makes performance/practice time less painful to your hearing. Check them out at
http://www.vicfirth.com/products/headphones.html.
Here is a good study on hearing loss:
http://www.sensaphonics.com/kresge.html. Please take the time to read it in its entirety. Thank you for your time.
