Earbuds vs Headphones: Which causes hearing loss?

We’re living in a time where our headphones are in-ear more often than not, so it comes as no surprise that our hearing is being affected by our day-to-day listening habits. But what we really want to know is, what’s worse: earbuds or headphones?

According to Medical Daily, earbuds are more likely to cause harm due to the sound level, but headphones can also hurt your ear health.

It seems that quiet sounds aren’t the issue (that’s 85 decibels or below), it’s high volume sounds that we should all try and avoid. Hearing specialist, Dr David Schessel, says that the amount of hearing loss you can expect from such devices comes down to both volume, measured in decibels (dB), and how long you’re exposed to this sound.

Schessel believes that if you listen to sounds louder than 90dB for about 8 hours a day, you’re most likely to have hearing loss. And the more you turn up the volume, the more harm it will have.

To help put things into perspective, a soft whisper is at 30dB, busy traffic at 75dB, subway train at 90dB, and a gunshot blast as 100dB. And with most music players today being able to produce sounds up to 120 decibels, it might be a good idea to turn it down a notch.

Source: bodyandSoul