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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poette

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Speaker 1: and I am an editor here at how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot com and sending a cross from me as usual

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Speaker 1: as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. What so early in the podcast? Okay, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I had I had predetermined that I wasn't going to

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Speaker 1: make our classic joke. Right. Well, let's let's clue in

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Speaker 1: our our listeners to what we're talking about, and we'll

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Speaker 1: do that through a little listener mail. This listener mail

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Speaker 1: comes from Christopher, and Christopher says, hey, guys, I was

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Speaker 1: mowing the lawn the other day when I thought I

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Speaker 1: would break the monotony and listen to my iPod. Then

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Speaker 1: I thought how I would need to crank up the

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Speaker 1: volume super high in order to hear anything over the

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Speaker 1: sound of lawnmower. I decided that this probably wasn't the

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Speaker 1: best idea and went on mowing the lawn in complete boredom.

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Speaker 1: That got me wondering how do earbuds affect a person's hearing?

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Speaker 1: I know it can't be healthy to listen through earbuds

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Speaker 1: at a volume level where someone across the room can

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Speaker 1: tell which A C D C song you're listening to,

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Speaker 1: But I'm sure earbuds will still have a negative impact

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Speaker 1: at lower levels. How do I know what a safe

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Speaker 1: listening level is? What, if anything, our company is doing

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Speaker 1: about this? Thanks a much, Christopher Chris So obviously my

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Speaker 1: joke at the beginning was a joke in poor taste

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Speaker 1: about hearing loss which I actually have. What Yeah, nice,

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Speaker 1: I was putting it in context there, so and and

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Speaker 1: polite of course is a percussionist. Now, just a quick question,

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Speaker 1: do you do you actually have hearing loss? Not that

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Speaker 1: I'm aware of, But then again I've been I've been

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Speaker 1: practicing and actually performing with ear plugs in for years now,

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Speaker 1: very very wise. And as a matter of fact, to

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Speaker 1: to Christopher's point, I mow the lawn of ear plugs

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Speaker 1: because I don't even the sound of the lawnmower by

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Speaker 1: itself without adding music or something else on top of it.

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Speaker 1: You know, that's that's pretty loud. So that is Mr

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Speaker 1: Pillette's version of the rock and roll lifestyle. Yeah, if

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Speaker 1: it's more like the soft rock lifestyle. Nice nice, Well,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Colton has a song for you. Um, So I

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Speaker 1: was going to talk a little bit before we really

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Speaker 1: get into the whole earbuds thing. Yeah, I'm gonna talk

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Speaker 1: a little bit about how hearing works. Oh, that's a

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Speaker 1: good idea, so that we can kind of get a

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Speaker 1: handle on why loud sound can be a problem. So

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Speaker 1: here's the general process that happens when we hear a sound. So,

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Speaker 1: of course sound travels and waves right there, sounded as

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Speaker 1: created as a longitudinal wave and as it crashes into

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Speaker 1: the medium, they create a uh different kind of wave, right,

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Speaker 1: you know, longitudinal waves right right, So you've got these

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Speaker 1: these waves. Essentially you have air molecules banging into each other, right,

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Speaker 1: and then those travel they get captured by your ear.

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Speaker 1: Your ear is shaped in the way that is, it's

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Speaker 1: kind of like a funnel sort of funnels sound into

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Speaker 1: the canal of your ear um. The sound travels down

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Speaker 1: and it it makes contact with your your ear drum

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Speaker 1: right right, So this causes the ear jump to vibrate. Now,

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Speaker 1: the ear drum is connected to a little bone that

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Speaker 1: we call the hammer um. It's one of three tiny

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Speaker 1: bones that are in your middle ear. There's the hammer,

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Speaker 1: the anvil, and the stirrup, all right, right, So the

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Speaker 1: hammer is connected to the anvile anivivals connect to the stirrup,

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Speaker 1: and the stirrup is connected to the cochlea, which is

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Speaker 1: the snail shaped element in your inner ear, all right.

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Speaker 1: So the ear drum vibrates. This in turn causes those

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Speaker 1: bones to vibrate and it kind of presses against the

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Speaker 1: little Think of it like a little window in the cochlea. Now,

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Speaker 1: the cochlea is filled with fluid and actually has two

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Speaker 1: chambers separated by a membrane, and the membrane has a

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Speaker 1: tiny little hole in it which allows the fluid to

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Speaker 1: move back and forth between the two chambers. And inside

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Speaker 1: the cochlea are thousands and thousands of little cells with

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Speaker 1: tiny little hairs in them. Now, as the fluid vibrate

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Speaker 1: or moves through the cochlea, that causes those hairs to vibrate.

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Speaker 1: These these vibrations get converted into electrical impulses which go

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Speaker 1: to your brain, and that's how you perceive sound. Your

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Speaker 1: brain receives that that those electrical impulses and says, ah,

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Speaker 1: that's a dog barking. All right. So that's that's it's

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Speaker 1: kind of a it's actually a really fascinating process. I mean,

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Speaker 1: anything that involves that kind of level of biology to

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Speaker 1: me is fascinating. Um. And if you remember when we

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Speaker 1: did our Cyborgs podcast, we talked about cochlear implants and

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Speaker 1: cochlear implants bypassed the ear drum, bypass all of that.

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Speaker 1: They they have electrodes that actually go against the cochlea

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Speaker 1: so that it it simulates those electrical impulses that would

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Speaker 1: otherwise have been created by those little tiny hairs. Here's

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Speaker 1: the thing. Those cells inside the cochlea are both delicate

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Speaker 1: and they do not heal if you damage them. If

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Speaker 1: you damage those cells, if they they they stop working,

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Speaker 1: you start to lose hearing and there's no way to

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Speaker 1: get it back. Right now. That's a bummer. Yeah, So

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Speaker 1: I mean to put it mildly, I was trying to

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Speaker 1: be sort of something facetious, but yeah, I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: that's serious. It's something that you don't want to mess with,

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Speaker 1: right And I mean there's like twenty four thousand of

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Speaker 1: these cells in your in each cochlea, and like I said,

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Speaker 1: you know they are easily damaged. And once they're damaged,

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Speaker 1: that's it. And loud noises can do that. It's you know,

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Speaker 1: you think about it. The vibrations of your urge from

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Speaker 1: are fairly small, but they're magnified by those three little

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Speaker 1: bones because they're they're pressing against a very very tiny

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Speaker 1: spot on the cochlea. So everything that happens to the

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Speaker 1: ear drum is magnified once you get down to the

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Speaker 1: cochlea level. So if you're playing really or listening to

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Speaker 1: really loud sounds, or you're subjected to really loud sounds, um,

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Speaker 1: you're really given it a workout. So that's what can

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Speaker 1: actually cause damage to those cells. And we're not talking

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Speaker 1: about just using earbuds. This can be any kind of

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Speaker 1: loud sound, right, that could damage You're here, you don't

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Speaker 1: even have to have headphones on, I mean if you were.

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Speaker 1: That's why you see people who work at airports having

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Speaker 1: ear protection on at all times, because if you know

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Speaker 1: those jets make up, they make really loud noises. And

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Speaker 1: of course we we measure these noises and decibels and

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Speaker 1: uh and in general, once you get over a hundred decibels,

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Speaker 1: you're starting to get into the dangerous area. And it's

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Speaker 1: it's a matter of not just the intensity, but the

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Speaker 1: time that you spend listening to that sound. Right, So,

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Speaker 1: if you hear like a really loud noise, it's not

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Speaker 1: like you're going to necessarily suffer damage just from one

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Speaker 1: I slated incident. But if you're hearing a series of

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Speaker 1: loud noises, for example, an A C D C concert

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Speaker 1: for a nice long time, that's more likely to over

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Speaker 1: the course of the evening cause hearing loss. And it

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Speaker 1: may not be perceptible immediately thereafter. It just might mean

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Speaker 1: that you will experience more dramatic hearing loss faster than

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Speaker 1: you would otherwise. Yes, so let's get down to earbuds

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Speaker 1: now that we've covered those bases well at the answer

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Speaker 1: to the question that that Christopher post this is actually

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Speaker 1: fairly simple, depending on whom you ask um for me,

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Speaker 1: I would have I would have asked Dean Garstecki, Northwestern University. Guy. Yes,

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Speaker 1: the professor in the chair in the rox Lyn and

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Speaker 1: Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Audiologist is

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Speaker 1: what is one of his titles, that's the shorter one. Yes, anyway,

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Speaker 1: he deals with here and hearing loss and knows a

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Speaker 1: lot of people who do. Um and uh, which will

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Speaker 1: be important later. Um. And the thing is, he says,

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Speaker 1: um frankly, he has what he calls a sixty sixty rule.

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Speaker 1: Have you I think you've seen this. I got mine

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Speaker 1: my information from a Science Daily article. Um. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: apparently he believes that you should listen to music on

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Speaker 1: a set of earbuds no more than sixty minutes a

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Speaker 1: day in twenty four hour periods, at no more than so, uh,

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Speaker 1: that's pretty simple. Don't listen to your earbuds for more

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Speaker 1: than an hour a day at just a little bit

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Speaker 1: more than medium volume, right and uh. And he bases

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Speaker 1: this mainly as far as I can tell off of

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Speaker 1: a typical iPod player. And now the article that you

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Speaker 1: are referring to, I read the same one exactly. I

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Speaker 1: think it was written in around two thousand five. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it was the iPod that was built in two thousand

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Speaker 1: five that they were talking about. Had a maximum volume

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Speaker 1: level of around a hundred thirty decibels, which is above

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Speaker 1: the threshold for what could cause hearing loss if you

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Speaker 1: listen to it for for any extended amount of time.

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Speaker 1: So six of that would be presumably safer as long

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Speaker 1: as you listen to it for an hour or less. Um.

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Speaker 1: Here's here's another thing about earbuds. It's interesting. Earbuds can

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Speaker 1: actually boost up the the decibel level. Um, Like, if

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Speaker 1: you were to measure the decible level by just say,

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Speaker 1: hooking up a regular pair of headphones and measuring it

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Speaker 1: that way, a pair of headphones that would actually go

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Speaker 1: over over your ears over the ear headphones or even

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Speaker 1: just the padded kind not necessarily over the ear, but

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Speaker 1: you know they don't go into the ears. Yes, on

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Speaker 1: your airphones headphones rather, um, those might come in at

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Speaker 1: let's say that you measure it and it comes in

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Speaker 1: about say eighty decibels, all right, earbuds can boost that

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Speaker 1: up up to uh up to nine decibels more than

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Speaker 1: the equivalent headphones. And part of that is because it's

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Speaker 1: closer to your your actual ear drum, so the sound

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Speaker 1: waves are traveling a shorter distance and they aren't dispersing

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Speaker 1: as much. They're there the intensity is higher. So the

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Speaker 1: eighty decible sound you would get out of a normal

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Speaker 1: pair of headphones is gonna jump up to eighty nine

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Speaker 1: decibles in earbuds. Now, if you're listening at one of

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Speaker 1: the higher levels, then you're you know, each you have

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Speaker 1: to remember that as you get closer to that threshold,

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Speaker 1: each time, each increment you go over the threshold is

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Speaker 1: it's not it's not a linear um uh progression of

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Speaker 1: how much more dangerous it is to your hearing. It's

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Speaker 1: it's greater than linear. It's not quite you know, lagarithmic,

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Speaker 1: but it's somewhere in between. You just wanted to say logarithmic.

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Speaker 1: I bet often at any rate. So, yeah, so he's

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Speaker 1: got the sixty sixty rule. But you also have to remember,

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Speaker 1: if you're using earbuds, you need to make that um

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Speaker 1: take that into effect. And of course today you can

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Speaker 1: find MP three players that have kind of self imposed

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Speaker 1: limits on how loud they can get. Yes, some of

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Speaker 1: which you can work around. Right. Well, now, I was

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Speaker 1: going to get to to that in and but the

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Speaker 1: friends thing. The reason I brought that up was in

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Speaker 1: that article he cited a friend of his who worked

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Speaker 1: at Wichita State University. And apparently, what this friend will do,

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Speaker 1: another professor will walk across campus and and as this

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Speaker 1: friend is doing so, um, we'll find students wearing earbuds

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Speaker 1: and we'll ask, we'll stop them and ask them take

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Speaker 1: out the earbuds and we'll check to see how loud

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Speaker 1: they were playing. And in a lot of cases, the

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Speaker 1: students were listening to music at a hundred ten or

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Speaker 1: a hundred twenty deils. Yeah and uh and Osha recommends

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Speaker 1: that you don't listen to any uh, any sound level

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Speaker 1: greater than a hundred and ten decibels for more than

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Speaker 1: half half an hour a day. Right, So if you're

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Speaker 1: listening to music at a D twenty and chances are

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Speaker 1: you're listening to it for more than half an hour.

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Speaker 1: Most of us, I think probably listen to you know,

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Speaker 1: I'd say half hour is a good minimum amount of time. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's the thing is, according again to this article, UM,

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Speaker 1: all volume at that level can cause hearing loss after

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Speaker 1: only an hour and fifteen minutes, which is a pretty

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Speaker 1: short period of time. When you think about it, that

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Speaker 1: that probably factors into the UM and UM you know, basically, uh,

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Speaker 1: the thing is you you there are factors that you

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Speaker 1: can and take into account, like the distance between your

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Speaker 1: ear and the source of the sound and the volume

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Speaker 1: of course, but one thing that the iPods and other

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Speaker 1: music players have today that say the early the Walkman

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Speaker 1: and UH sound players of the nine eighties and nine

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Speaker 1: ninies don't have is a much longer battery life, and

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Speaker 1: that's a problem because, um, they will last for hours

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Speaker 1: and hours, especially when they're new, and if you're listening

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Speaker 1: to music UH within ear bud in your ear at

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Speaker 1: that volume for an extended period of time, you're more

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Speaker 1: or less guaranteed to cause hearing loss. If nothing else,

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Speaker 1: you have the ear fatigue, which you know, that's when

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Speaker 1: you when you take them out and you just feel

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Speaker 1: like like things just don't sound right to you anymore.

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Speaker 1: Everything's kind of muffled. That's a good indication that you've

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Speaker 1: caused some some damage to your hearing. It may not

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Speaker 1: be it may not stay that severe for forever. It

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Speaker 1: may be that gradually you start to, you know, notice

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Speaker 1: that you've got your hearing back. But what it means

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Speaker 1: is that those cells, even if they aren't dead, are damaged,

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Speaker 1: and that over time they can get more damaged until

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Speaker 1: they stop working entirely. So it may not mean that

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Speaker 1: you lose a perceptible amount of hearing at that time,

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Speaker 1: but it means that over the long run, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: lose your hearing. Faster than you would have otherwise. Um.

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Speaker 1: And it has been going on since the the ear

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Speaker 1: the headphone phenomenon of portable music players, having your your

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Speaker 1: music with you anywhere and everywhere. Um. You know, the

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Speaker 1: research I I had seen basically said, you know, yes,

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Speaker 1: there there have been more people losing their hearing before

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Speaker 1: you know, old age, when you might expect people to

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Speaker 1: start losing their hearing. Um, since people have been carrying

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Speaker 1: around their music with them and using portable music players.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, it's it's certainly an issue. The Center for

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Speaker 1: Disease Control and Prevention out here in Atlanta actually reported

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Speaker 1: that noise induced hearing loss. Uh, they found noise induced

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Speaker 1: hearing loss in nearly thirteen percent of Americans between six

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Speaker 1: and nineteen. So you think about that. I mean, yeah,

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Speaker 1: hearing loss is usually one of those things that comes,

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Speaker 1: like you said, along with aging. But between the ages

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Speaker 1: of six and nineteen, you know, these are these are

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Speaker 1: when you're still growing. Yeah. Um, well maybe not nineteen,

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Speaker 1: I mean, but I was growing at nineteen. I was

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Speaker 1: just growing out. Uh. Also, I thought i'd ask you

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Speaker 1: you're familiar with the term tenitus. Oh yeah, Oh, I

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Speaker 1: was thinking of it from that Beatles song you know,

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Speaker 1: the girl with Tenitus goes by anyway, So, um, so

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Speaker 1: about forty to fifty million Americans experienced some degree of that,

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Speaker 1: and uh, hyperacusis or I'm just gonna say hyperacusus because

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Speaker 1: I have no idea if that's the correct pronunciation, and

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Speaker 1: I don't even want to try a different one. Um.

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Speaker 1: But yes, the tenetus or tenitus is that it's kind

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Speaker 1: of it's it's a it's a persistent sound that you

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Speaker 1: hear that's not generated by any external um source. So

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Speaker 1: usually it's like it's normally described as kind of a

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Speaker 1: high ringing noise, but it can also be a buzzing

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Speaker 1: or a worrying noise UM. And then there's uh, it's

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Speaker 1: it's one of those things where it can it can

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Speaker 1: actually interfere with your hearing of normal sounds, even though

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Speaker 1: there's no perceptible like someone who's staying next to you

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Speaker 1: is not going to hear it because it's all in

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Speaker 1: your in your here ing. Yeah. As a matter of fact,

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Speaker 1: a number of rock stars have come forward um to

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Speaker 1: talk to young people about listening to music to live

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Speaker 1: because they've said, you know what, listening to the loud

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Speaker 1: music like I have been every day, you know, with

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Speaker 1: these large amps behind me. Uh, well, damage your hearing

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Speaker 1: because it's damaged mine. And you know I'm thinking specifically,

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Speaker 1: you know, people like Pete Townsend. Um you know who.

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Speaker 1: I think he actually suffered a burst ear drum due

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Speaker 1: to a certain Keith Moon and his exploding uh drum kit. Well, yes, however,

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Speaker 1: I don't think a small explosives count in the earbud department.

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Speaker 1: But yes, those are also bad for your ears. So

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Speaker 1: so here's a hint, be careful with earbuds and don't

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Speaker 1: play directly in front of Keith Moon. That second one

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Speaker 1: actually be pretty easy. One's pretty easy these days. Um,

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Speaker 1: thanks a lot, it's that Um okay, So I was

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Speaker 1: going to make Keith Moon jokes to a drummer, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: no kidding. Uh yeah, he's one of my favorites too.

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Speaker 1: Um Joseph birds Song and Bruce Wagoner. Did you run

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Speaker 1: across these names? They are? There are two people who

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Speaker 1: filed suit against Apple, uh specifically against Apple, saying that

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Speaker 1: it's ear drugs. The earbuds were designed to be put

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Speaker 1: deep into your ear canal and uh is you know,

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Speaker 1: are specifically going to be a problem. Um, you know

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Speaker 1: They also argue that there is no visual representation of

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Speaker 1: the volume. Of course there is when you're actually speaking

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Speaker 1: of somebody who's owned two different generations of iPods. Yes,

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Speaker 1: you can see roughly how loud it is as you're

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Speaker 1: you know, making a change to the volume or stopping

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Speaker 1: or pressing play. But you know, if you're not looking

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Speaker 1: at it, and you know, the screen goes blank. No,

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Speaker 1: there's no longer a visual representation of volume, nor is

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Speaker 1: there sound isolation. And they were asking for for monetary damages,

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Speaker 1: not because they had actually lost hearing themselves, but basically, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, to get Apple to improve safety, raise awareness. Um,

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Speaker 1: it was better headphones. Right, It was more of a

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Speaker 1: a a way to try and convince Apple to change

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Speaker 1: there there processes and their systems so that people would

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Speaker 1: not suffer hearing damage down the road. Right, right, Well,

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Speaker 1: the uh, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who has

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Speaker 1: come up many times in our podcast in California, UM

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Speaker 1: had affirmed a two thousand district court ruling about this

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Speaker 1: membread an article and Reuter's about this that basically the

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Speaker 1: planiffs didn't show that the use of the iPod poses

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Speaker 1: an unreasonable risk of noise induced hearing loss. Um and

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Speaker 1: uh basically said that they didn't really have because they

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Speaker 1: hadn't lost hearing themselves as a result of using the iPod,

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Speaker 1: they didn't really have the legal footing to to bring

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Speaker 1: a case against Apple. But you know, if they have

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Speaker 1: raised awareness, um, you know, they I imagine they would

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Speaker 1: say that they have achieved some measure of success. Although

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Speaker 1: you know, certainly Apple is not the only one to

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Speaker 1: be packaging earbuds with its products. No, No, there are

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Speaker 1: plenty of independent earbuds out there that work with just

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Speaker 1: about any kind of device that has you know, essentially

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Speaker 1: a three and a half millimeter headphone jack Um and Uh,

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Speaker 1: I was gonna mention that, you know, it's really it's

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Speaker 1: not difficult to create a product that that would uh

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Speaker 1: minimize the risk of hearing loss. You just create one

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Speaker 1: that has a maximum output beneath the danger zone. Really, Um,

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Speaker 1: what should be bad because he wouldn't be able to

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Speaker 1: play that? Okay, you beat me to it, um, But

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Speaker 1: at any rate, Uh, I'm amazed. You know, we've had

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Speaker 1: what like three different three or four different music references,

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Speaker 1: oh four because of a c D c um at

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Speaker 1: any rate, the h it wouldn't be difficult to do that.

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Speaker 1: But I think that the the outcry, weak as it

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Speaker 1: may be, from the hearing impaired, um, the outcry from

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Speaker 1: the they outcry, the outcry from from people who the

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Speaker 1: customers who are purchasing this and saying, you know, no

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Speaker 1: matter how loud I turn it up, it's not loud enough. Um.

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Speaker 1: I mean I know that. On my iPod. I actually

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Speaker 1: bypassed the the safety because there is a safety on

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Speaker 1: on Well. The reason I did was not because I

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Speaker 1: want to listen to music at a you know, an

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Speaker 1: ear drum blasting level. The problem is that sound files

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Speaker 1: aren't all recorded at the same volume level. So you

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Speaker 1: listen to two different sound files and you you haven't

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Speaker 1: even touched the volume, and one might be whisper quiet

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Speaker 1: and the other one might be blistering lee loud. Yes,

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Speaker 1: the way that people have recorded sound over the past,

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Speaker 1: uh you know, a few decades has changed dramatically, especially

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Speaker 1: in the last years, and even the way that it's

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Speaker 1: converted into the MP three format can that can be

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Speaker 1: affected that way too, depending on on your on how

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Speaker 1: you're converting things. Oh you know what I wish I

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Speaker 1: had done research on and it just occurred to me

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Speaker 1: just now. I hate I usually have one of these

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Speaker 1: in every podcast, and and normally I keep it to

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Speaker 1: myself because I feel uh sad that I didn't think

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Speaker 1: of it. But uh, I had read somewhere that um

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Speaker 1: that basically because they are trying to improve the hearing

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Speaker 1: of certain frequencies in music on recordings they want you

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Speaker 1: to hear, UM basically enhance their accenting the parts that

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Speaker 1: they want you to hear. Let's say that they're accenting

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Speaker 1: the frequencies because they're you're using compression and other techniques

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Speaker 1: to make this work, make things seem louder. Um. I

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Speaker 1: had read somewhere that, uh that it may cause people

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Speaker 1: to lose the ability to hear in other frequencies as

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Speaker 1: a result of that, basically, that we won't be able

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Speaker 1: to hear anything between twenty and twenty thou hurts. Now.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if that's true. I wish I've looked

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Speaker 1: that up before this podcast, So don't write in and

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Speaker 1: say you didn't say whether it was true. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna want to go look it up, and I

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Speaker 1: might report back because that would be interesting to to know,

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Speaker 1: and and maybe something that they have to do a

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Speaker 1: lot of study on before they can really tell for sure.

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Speaker 1: But that's sort of like the vestigial toe thing. Like

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Speaker 1: I do remember hearing about audio engineers who complained that

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Speaker 1: we're losing a lot of the nuance of of music.

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Speaker 1: We're losing a lot of the the high highs and

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Speaker 1: low lows and and the subtle stuff, and everything is

390
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Speaker 1: just becoming equally loud, which is also why you can

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Speaker 1: suffer your fatigue as you listen to music, because it's

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Speaker 1: all being blasted at you at the same intensity. There's

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Speaker 1: no variation. And then you have, for example, headphones that

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Speaker 1: limit you to say twenty to twenty hurts, and then

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Speaker 1: you know all the things that theoretically you can't hear,

396
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Speaker 1: but you sort of feel more than here, Um, you don't.

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Speaker 1: We really don't get that sort of an experience like

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Speaker 1: you would say, if you were at a live concert

399
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Speaker 1: and listening to it in in person. So it's it's

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Speaker 1: really kind of fascinating. We think about the science of

401
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,720
Speaker 1: sound and how all that works, and and how our

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00:22:55,000 --> 00:23:00,439
Speaker 1: electronics are changing that and either enhancing or harding that

403
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:03,320
Speaker 1: in some degree. Sure, And on a related note, that

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Speaker 1: actually brings me to a second round of listener mail.

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Speaker 1: This listener mail comes from Daniel, and Daniel says, high, guys,

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Speaker 1: So I'm looking at buying the brand redacted headphones and

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00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:22,800
Speaker 1: was wondering, how are they stereo if they're binaral? What

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00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:25,679
Speaker 1: does binaral actually mean? Anyway? I thought it meant a

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Speaker 1: single channel with two earpieces. Come to think of it,

410
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Speaker 1: how do headphones work in general, especially the noise canceling time?

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Speaker 1: Thanks Daniel, Well, we figured since this was kind of

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Speaker 1: on the same subject, I would I would tackle this

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Speaker 1: really quickly. Binaral is actually a method of recording, it's not.

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00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:45,160
Speaker 1: It's not a method of playback. Alright, So you're familiar

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00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,960
Speaker 1: with the stereo recording system where you're using at least

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Speaker 1: two microphones, right, essentially two microphones space channels two channels

417
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:56,680
Speaker 1: a channel per microphone. I've got one microphone. Let's say

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Speaker 1: let's say you have one setup near like a speaker

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Speaker 1: where it's the lead guitarist, and then another one that's

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00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,920
Speaker 1: over by the drums or whatever, and then by recording both,

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00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:12,159
Speaker 1: you know, the microphones are a good space apart. You

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00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 1: can get two different channels of sound, mix them together.

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Speaker 1: And then you get this, uh, this more complex sound

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Speaker 1: than you would if you use just one microphone, right,

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00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,919
Speaker 1: all right. Binaral takes that an extra step. Binaral. What

426
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:26,600
Speaker 1: they do is they take an analog of a human head,

427
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:31,720
Speaker 1: and by that I mean like a human head, usually

428
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:36,720
Speaker 1: a dummy, UM, sometimes a porsche lub who no, no dummy.

429
00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 1: They get a dummies head instead of ears as microphones

430
00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:44,359
Speaker 1: on the directional microphones. UM. Sometimes they go to great

431
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:49,240
Speaker 1: links to try and uh and and and simulate human ears.

432
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 1: The idea here being that you set this down in

433
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,159
Speaker 1: a recording area, you play whatever the sound is, and

434
00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:58,760
Speaker 1: it picks up sound as if it were a person

435
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,639
Speaker 1: standing in that exact location. So when you listen to

436
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,920
Speaker 1: the recording, the two tracks are never mixed together into

437
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 1: a single track. It's you're you're you're getting one track

438
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:11,479
Speaker 1: in the left ear and one track in the right ear. Um,

439
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,680
Speaker 1: and ideally you would be hearing the sound as if

440
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 1: you yourself had been standing at the recording session at

441
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 1: that one time. It's kind of a neat idea that

442
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:23,640
Speaker 1: works really well for things like classical music. I've heard

443
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:27,200
Speaker 1: it for audio drama, where you are essentially inserted into

444
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 1: the audio drama as a mute participant. So you hear

445
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:33,680
Speaker 1: people walking around you and leaning over and whispering things

446
00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: in your ear and that kind of thing. And what

447
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:38,479
Speaker 1: they're doing is they are physically walking around this dummy

448
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 1: head and physically whispering things into this microphone, and you're

449
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:44,280
Speaker 1: hearing it as if you were you were there, I mean,

450
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 1: the two microphones are spaced apart as if they were

451
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:49,320
Speaker 1: human ears, so you get the sound at about the

452
00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:52,160
Speaker 1: same speed as you would if you were actually there. Impressive.

453
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 1: So that's binaral. So really, any pair of headphones can

454
00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 1: do it, and and any pair of stereo headphones can can

455
00:25:57,640 --> 00:25:59,440
Speaker 1: do this sort of thing, and you could even listen

456
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,280
Speaker 1: to it on regular speakers, but you would lose that

457
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:07,359
Speaker 1: stereo effect unless you had really a good surround separation. Yeah,

458
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:11,440
Speaker 1: separation is very important with that. And as for noise canceling,

459
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 1: that's also kind of interesting. The way noise canceling works

460
00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:18,400
Speaker 1: is through a method called destructive interference. Now you talked

461
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: about the longitudinal waves. Yes, sound is created. The information

462
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 1: I actually got from our article on how noise canceling

463
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,000
Speaker 1: headphones work, right, So what noise canceling headphones do is

464
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:30,640
Speaker 1: they have a little microphone in them that detects the

465
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:33,639
Speaker 1: noise and the environment, at least the active ones. The

466
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:35,760
Speaker 1: active ones, so passive ones, all they do is cover

467
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 1: up your ears, right, So it's it's essentially the same

468
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 1: thing as the same method as sticking the fingers into

469
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:46,680
Speaker 1: the ears. That's essentially what the last I can Active

470
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:48,639
Speaker 1: ones have a microphone in them that picks up the

471
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 1: sound in the environment and then it generates a sound

472
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:56,879
Speaker 1: with the same frequency. But um, but turned a d

473
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:03,120
Speaker 1: eighty degrees, all right, So they the troughs and valleys,

474
00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:05,000
Speaker 1: peaks and trops, I'm saying the same thing, the troughs

475
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 1: and valleys, the depths and the valleys and the troughs,

476
00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:10,479
Speaker 1: you know, the peaks and the trops, thank you Pullett,

477
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 1: Uh match up so that you get one kind of

478
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:17,120
Speaker 1: solid bar and essentially the two sounds cancel each other

479
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 1: out right. Um. They basically sort of make a form

480
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:22,679
Speaker 1: of white noise, if you will. Right. And since they

481
00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 1: are active headphones, they require power. So that's why they

482
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 1: need to have batteries in them, uh, because otherwise it

483
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 1: can't generate that signal. Right, And you know, I've listened

484
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:35,000
Speaker 1: to music on noise canceling headphones, and the nice thing

485
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:37,119
Speaker 1: about them is that you don't have to turn the

486
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:39,760
Speaker 1: volume up nearly as much to try and drown out

487
00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 1: all the ambient noise. That's the other problem with earbuds, right,

488
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:45,359
Speaker 1: is that they aren't good at canceling ambient noise, so

489
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 1: instead of canceling it, you're just trying to overpower it,

490
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: and that that in turn ends up causing damage to

491
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 1: your hearing. Yes, and and as Garstecki said, um, noise

492
00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:59,240
Speaker 1: canceling headphones or any kind of headphone that you can

493
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,879
Speaker 1: use to you, uh, you know, prevent to get it

494
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:05,480
Speaker 1: farther away from your ear, the source of the sound

495
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,840
Speaker 1: farther away from your ear. That's going to help. And

496
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,119
Speaker 1: I assume that that's part of it too, is that

497
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:13,440
Speaker 1: you're not trying to drown out the outside noise such

498
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:17,320
Speaker 1: as I want to know, say, a lawnmower, right, so

499
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 1: I drowned it out with more noise. So well, thanks

500
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:24,480
Speaker 1: a lot, Christopher and Daniel that those were great questions.

501
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 1: Had a really good conversation there about the hope you

502
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,560
Speaker 1: heard it. Uh. If any of you have any questions,

503
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:32,000
Speaker 1: you would like to send us our email address is

504
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 1: tex Stuff at how stupports dot com. Remember, we have

505
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 1: a Twitter feed, an official tech stuff Twitter feed. Now

506
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,480
Speaker 1: you can find us on Twitter. Our our handle is

507
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 1: text stuff h s W all one word, and we

508
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: also have a Facebook fan page, so do a search

509
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:50,480
Speaker 1: for tech stuff on Facebook. Come on and join the fun, guys.

510
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,480
Speaker 1: We're actually having some good conversations on there, so the

511
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 1: more the merrier, and Chris and I will talk to

512
00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:03,080
Speaker 1: you again really soon. If you're a tech stuff and

513
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 1: be sure to check us out on Twitter tech stuff

514
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 1: hs wsr handle, and you can also find us on

515
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:12,560
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516
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:16,760
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit

517
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,240
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518
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:21,280
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519
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