Re: [microsound] do mp3's cause hearing damage?

[dbuchwald <dagmar.buchwald@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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The gist of the argument seems to be that mp3 compression reduces the work usually involved for
the cochlea to "sort things out" (i.e. to keep the subconscious subconsious, the 'negligeable'
negligeable etc.).  The argument is similar in structure to the theory that eating only highly
processed food (without fibres etc.) makes the digestion tract so lazy that after a while it is
no longer able to do the breaking down of nutrirional elements itself -- culminating in the
conclusion that sugar can become a dangerous drug (almost like heroin) because it gets the body
addicted to instant flashes of extremely highly concentrated carbo hydrates up to the point
where it will not be able to do the work itself.  Now while I would agree to the thesis that
our culture tends to concentrate extremely on "gists" and "clean instant flashes" (or "instant
gratification") reducing the amount of time and 'labor' involved to get there in the first
place, I don't see the analogy  working for audio compression.  The point is: it might make
sense if you listened to mp3s in an environment completely devoid of any other sounds (then the
parallel to highly processed food and its dangers would hold).  But whoever listens to mp3s
without other sounds around?  The ear will still select, foreground or whatever it does,
because there is such a hum of other noises.  So I really don't see the point here, unless one
would listen to compressed sound exclusively via headphones hours and hours on end (THAT might
explain tinnitus).

There are no research results given in the article but if there were I bet they would be based
on experiments in rooms completely emptied of other sounds or on listening with headphones.
And then the results would be the same humbug as most other results of reductionist lab science
(life excluded, value of results: true -- if the same setting of the experiments is given).

Dagmar

BJM wrote:

> Saw this on slashdot...
>
> http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/20/2029212&mode=nested&tid=134&threshold=0
>
> I don't think there's much to his theory, but you never know. Of course,
> if the missing sound in an mp3 causes hearing loss, I wonder what all
> the "mistaken sound" in microsound does to us? ;o)
>
> b
>
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