Headphones and ears - bad?

[stormx]

Hi !!

i find disturbing the click mechanical noise of many keys on my CASIO PRIVIA piano (particulary when playing fast passages). Service say it is NORMAL noise, and that i have to live with it  , or switch to another piano brand (altough they prevented me that even more expensive ones as YAMAHA or KAWAI make some noise, and that i have to evaluate whether it is worth the change...).

So far, so good...But my point here is not to complain about the keys's noise, but about intensive playing trough headphones.

I find a real pleasure when playing trough them, because i do not hear the annoying CLICKs !!!

But, on the other hand, i am worried about headphones abuse 
Let say you play 2 hours a day, allways trough headphones (at a moderate volume, of course). Do you think that ears can be damaged this way?
Or, put it in another way, do you consider that headphones use should be only occasional, because too much is definitively nocive for your auditive system?


Thanks !!!

[mound]

Do you think that ears can be damaged this way?

Yes, they absolutely can be damaged this way. Be very careful if you are doing extended practice with headphones. It's a great tool, but you have to keep the volume very low. I spent almost a whole year practicing around 2 hours a day through closed style studio headphones. I was aware that I needed to keep the volume down, but didn't always. I had some tinnitus before this, but it has gotten worse, I have constant ringing in both ears, and it is very annoying. Not debilitating (yet, cross your fingers) but it's an annoyance.   I only use the headphones now when I need to, and when I do, I keep it so low I can still hear people talking around me (and my headphones are studio quality, outside noise reducing.)

You said "moderate volume, of course" but you also mentioned "intensive playing through headphones". Be very careful. There is very real change for damage to youe ears. That's all I can really say.

-Paul

[stormx]

Yes, they absolutely can be damaged this way. Be very careful if you are doing extended practice with headphones. It's a great tool, but you have to keep the volume very low. I spent almost a whole year practicing around 2 hours a day through closed style studio headphones. I was aware that I needed to keep the volume down, but didn't always. I had some tinnitus before this, but it has gotten worse, I have constant ringing in both ears, and it is very annoying. Not debilitating (yet, cross your fingers) but it's an annoyance.   I only use the headphones now when I need to, and when I do, I keep it so low I can still hear people talking around me (and my headphones are studio quality, outside noise reducing.)

You said "moderate volume, of course" but you also mentioned "intensive playing through headphones". Be very careful. There is very real change for damage to youe ears. That's all I can really say.

-Paul

Thanks Paul.
I already supposed this, that is why i was reluctant to use them very often.

By the way, the same applies to music listening trough headphones, that is so common nowadays 

[mound]

Yup, and spending 5 hours on a driving at 70mph on a highway with your window down.  Anytime you are exposing your ears to high volume for an extended period of time, you are risking damage.

[hogifu]

In any case you should use closed headphones so that you do not have to increase the volume too much for drowning the mechanical noise of the keys. But playing over headphones for several hours is always problematic because the ear adapts to the volume level. This often leads to people inadvertently increasing the volume in small steps over practice time, without really noticing that the volume is actually pretty loud after 2 hours... In any case, if you notice any kind of ringing or beeping in your ears after practicing with headphones it was definitely too loud!
I use headphones in combination with small earplugs - this dampens especially the high frequencies which are more likely to damage the ear and you don't hear the mechanical noise of the keys anymore. Of course, the sound is quite bad, but for practicing this is IMHO not a big issue. If you don't like to use earplugs for several hours I would advise to use an external equilizer for dampening the high frequencies.

[mound]

I've also put my digital in a room that I treated acoustically, you know, like a mini home studio. A couple thick carpets on the floor and damping on the walls. This keeps the "thud thud thud" of the keys from bothering somebody sleeping in the next room over, but I can play through the speakers at very low levels and not disturb anybody (ie. remove the need for headphones all together)