Thread: Hearing protection for low frequencies - what is there?

Originally Posted by harry wall

Some further research has given a couple of options so for the benefit of readers who may have similar issues:
- these ear muffs, according to a couple of reviews, may be better than others for low frequency noise... 3M XA007707954 (X5A) PELTOR X Series Premium Headband Ear Muffs (sydneytools.com.au)
- inserting ear plugs (like foam plugs for example) are good but they must be inserted correctly; that is, deeply within the ear canal.

Still keen to hear from other forum members on their experience. (I've also started the same topic in the metalworkers forum).

Harry
Just a caution for your consideration ...

the "doof doof" sound you are trying to cancel out is produced by a subwoofer speaker with a frequency range of 35 to 200 Hz, or a sub-base speaker with an even lower frequency range of 20 to 50 Hz.
Unfortunately I know of no hearing protector that is certified to work in the sub 200 Hz sound range where the "noise" is more felt than heard.

The last two audiograms I have kept records of START their measurement at 250 Hz and go up to 8 kHz.
Hearing aids and hearing protectors are designed to protect your hearing from higher frequency noise >1 kHz, not the very low frequency stuff.


sorry

Ear plugs and head-sets do not work.
To cut down transmitted noise at bass and mid-bass frequencies you really need to soundproof the room itself. If there are any threads on making home theatre rooms you need to read as many of these as you can.
But as a start you need to infill and seal any gaps in your house framing around windows and doors; make sure that you have enough insulation in the roof space; get decent thick and dense bulk insulation into the floor if you are on stumps and if you don't have any insulation in your walls and adding any is in the "Too-Hard" basket think about adding extra heavy curtains to the windows [ if not double glazed windows then even heavier and in more than one layer] and adding thick heavy wall hangings to as may walls as you can. You might even need to change doors for heavy paneled doors stuffed with rockwool, lightweight internal doors are a big exciter panel at certain frequencies and they still need sealing around the edges with rubber mouldings to work
To do it properly costs a lot of money as a retrofit but nothing else really works.

The slightly subsonic stuff irritates me. Compactors and such that you can't actually hear -but you FEEL it. don't think anything really works at this level.

A while ago I had my phones "noise" app open and looking at the plot while listening to music to see how much bass my little speakers were actually producing. There was a 3 to 8 Hertz spike on the display.
Eventually I figured out that it was the pile driving happening at the new Ferry terminal for the Tasmanian boat, we couldn't hear it and couldn't really feel it but it was there. The dock is only about two kilometres from us here but VLF sound travels a long way through rock.
After all some whale song travels all the way around the world through water.
Bass being the sound below 80 Hz and sub-bass being that below 16Hz is really hard to keep out and/or to keep contained.
I didn't think that sub-bass noise levels were much of a hearing health problem because our ears aren't useful for communication at these frequencies.
Annoying? A definite yes but not I think a safety issue as such.