Ears at raves: how to not wreck yours

Wearing earplugs to listen to loud music sounds counterintuitive. The whole point is to experience the music, right? But can a few hours in front of a rig actually damage your ears? And more importantly, how can you look cool if you've got earplugs in?

Your hearing depends on delicate hair cells in your ears that transmit the energy from the sound to your brain. Loud noises irreversibly damage these cells. Hearing loss and tinnitus can be the result. Tinnitus is a nasty condition in which you hear continuous ringing sounds that you can't switch off.

The risks of damaging your lugholes come down to how loud the noise is, how close you are to it and how long you're exposed to it.

Under 75 decibels (db) and your ears are safe. Everyday conversation is around 65db. An event-grade speaker stack generates around 100db to 120db so the risks for regular ravers are very real.

If you're at a concert or any place where you can't hear someone talk to you from two metres away or your ears start hurting, then you’re damaging those cells in your ears. That ringing or slight tenderness in your ears after leaving a gig? That’s a sign you’re damaging your ears.

So what to do? Dance away from speakers, take 10 minutes out from the music every hour and wear earplugs. Decent ones (not foam, which will only block out some of the frequencies) will evenly filter the sound across the bass, mids and treble meaning that the volume is reduced but the quality of the sound isn’t messed with. There are now plenty of discreet plug designs out there meaning people won’t even notice you have them in most of the time.

Ears at raves: how to not wreck yours

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