Maybe not deaf, but hearing loss to say the very least. Check this out:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/10/13/m....ap/index.html

Lets sue Sony for this haha

Nothing new, it's been on headphone and mp3 player packages in europe for years.

if you are stupid enough to listen at maximum volume then you deserve what you get.

But I hate these articles, they tell you to turn it down, but they don't give you a fucking rule of thumb for a healthy level. we can't calculate decibels with our ears!

I lost hearing in my right ear by 40% over 2 years, due to ear phones and going to clubs / raves

This isn't news. All headphones come with a warning explaining that you should turn the music down to where you can barely hear it, then turn it up one or two.

I wish they had those warnings when I was a kid... maybe they did, who knows, but regardless with the combination of listening to music slightly loud AND having a gun shot off near my head, the hearing in my left ear has decreased.

Also it is good to invest in some decent headphones. I used to have the large studio like ones... twice, both times they were stepped on. I now use the premium zune headphones with noise isolation. They go in your ear (different than the standard ear buds that come with mp3 players) so going past sound level 9 on my zune is pointless.

I agree, I used to have Bose tri-ports (Around Ear)---When i first started at best buy I used to buy all tons of shit and then return it (i'd get half off of bose headphones), so i basically rented shit for a month. I LOVED THEM. but after returning them and buying headphones I could afford (some other shitty over-ear ones), I couldn't stand them. the bose ones were amazing, and now I can't find a damn pair of headphones anywhere in my house because i never bought any when i worked at best buy because i couldn't stand any besides the bose ones! and i hate in-ear ones. they hurt after awhile.

http://www.bose.com/assets/images/shop_online/ae_headphones/ae_headphones_si_lg.jpg

now, this maybe a small problem. but, if something like this has popped up, how many more "surprises" do we have in store related to new, innovative products (within the last 2 decades anyway)? I have a big fear about cellphone use, as there have already been reports of decreased sperm levels (from having phone in pocket daily) and relation to tumors. but the big thing is cell phones havent been around that long, especially not in mass use. 20 years from today, we might be in an epidemic of brain surgery patients haha

Hey man gimme a email some time

well its not too hard to find a suitable listening level.

if you have ear buds, turn it up to a level that people around CANNOT hear.

as for the better sound canceling headphones. if you think your good enough for these then you should know what a good level is.

Otherwise just use common sense (although its getting less common).

But i believe it should be standard across the board for all digital listening devices to use dB FS so the more dense among us know what level they should be listening at. Unfortunately because this dB scale is all negative values (except for 0 which is the highest), these same people will want to turn it up to be 'cool'

But I like my music loud.