Please take heed all. There are threads about this but if you don’t protect it you’ll lose it.
Was playing a gig last night and for the first time after 20 years of audio abuse i couldn’t pick out a beat with my open ear. I found this quite alarming and after switching the cup from my left to right ear it became abundantly clear that my hearing to my right ear was significantly damaged. In the left ear (which is always covered by a headphone) all was crisp and loud with clearly defined highs. In my right ear (which is always open to the monitor) all i could hear was a dull, quiet and muffled sound with absolutely no highs. At 38 it looks like it may be time to call it a day. Ater all, what use is a partially deaf DJ?
To say i’m upset is an understatement. I adore music and to not hear it how it should sound is a bit of a heartbreaker. Im planning on making an appointment with the doc soon to assess the damage although there’s probably an online test to check frequency loss.
If you’re a young DJ and reading this you’re probably thinking, as I did, that it won’t happen to you or it will spoil your enjoyment of the music if you wear ear attenuators. Trust me when I say that the consequences of exposure to loud music far outweigh wearing some attenuators.
Please, for your own sakes, protect your ears. If not you can guarantee that somewhere down the line all you will be left with is a dull muffled sound and lots of regret.
Edit; I also forgot to add that socialising with your mates becomes very difficult too unless you can lip read.
Im only 22 and can say one thing to this… Re read the first message of the thread 2 or … 7 times… Make pause every hour, if you go often in club for gig or pleasure go for a professionnal attunation earplug pair which cost around 300 $ and worth 5000 times its price.
I suffer from occasional intermittent tinnitus so that’s not too bad. It’s more the fact that i’m going deaf that bothers me, particularly when I could have prevented it.
Yeah I doubt I’ll be able to wear the ER20s for DJing seeing as they stick out so much. Gonna try the Alpine ones until I can go for customs. Sorry to hear about your hearing mate
I’m blessed that I still have superb hearing after 15 years of serious abuse and working as an LJ in a notoriously loud club with even more notoriously loud monitors banging off my left ear (why was the monitor installed beside the lighting desk and not the dj is beyond me!)…
Been wearing Protection of some sort since 2002 when I’m out and about (even if its just tissue paper sometimes it works and you’ll notice no ringing ears next day!) .. I don’t however when I’m DJ’ing, I just cant get enough of a feeling of whats “actually” going on with the floor.
But seriously too many of my mates are partially deaf due to clubs at this point and they aren’t even dj’s!
Your ears are your career at the end of the day - and we don’t want anyone ending up like ol’ frankie wilde.
I’m 20 and because of bad genetics, my dad is 50 and has been saying for the past 15 years that he’s deaf on a side and can’t hear from the other, it is affecting me already. I’ve been listening to louder music since I’m 18, since I can step into a club legally. Before that, I’ve always wear good quality headphones that would reduce the outside noise so I don’t have to crank it up. I’ve been wearing cheap but good enough earplugs since I started DJing and going out more. I don’t leave the house without them. It’s to the point that I’ve worn them just with friends on a car ride because we were blasting music.
But still, it’s affecting me.
I would say I probably lost 15 to 25% of my hearing capacity in both ears (appointment with a specialist is taken but it takes forever here in Quebec). And imagine, I’m 20. Yes, in my case, it’s genetic, we’re more sensitive. But who knows if you’re not more sensitive too (and I’m not talking to the OP here, I’m talking to everyone my age). Get some protection. As people said before me, it is worth the investment.
And seriously, good earplugs are a better investment than any other piece of equipment, and it’s something I should have bought already. You can have some CDJ-2000s or some 1200s or an S4 or whatever else, but if you can’t hear what you play anymore, where’s the fun?
I started going out at a young age (14 years old) and even used to listen to music at high volumes through ear buds at a younger age. I also had serious issues as a baby with my ears but non of it even crossed my mind until a flight from UK to Norway trigger some serious ear pain that has now been continuous for around 3 years now. I started to see that my hearing was important and booked into a specialist for 2 and a half years and all i can say is, that it isn’t nice knowing that you could have prevented damage.
After 2 months of the ear pain i splashed out on the ER15’s (about £180) and it has been worth every single penny. Everytime i’m going for a night out now or to DJ i carry these with me. If i am out and unexpectedly find myself heading towards a club i won’t go in.
Luckily for me i have only dropped about 25 dB on my right ear but that happened as a baby so i have been fortunate but i have aquired a minor form of tinnitus from DJ’n every weekend.
its not the end of the world yo. there is an actual dj that was born deaf and hes doing good for himself. his name robbie wilde and he was in an hp commercial for their touchscreen laptops.
Tinnitus is the worst - you really don’t want to damage your ears unless you like to hear a constant pitched sound all the time. Wish I would have followed a lot of the advice that is being talked about here but alas this was many many years ago before the internet came into its prime.
You know it ashame that you would ruin something you only get once in your life time and I found it very interesting to see as many young and old falling for that myth attitude ‘Oh it won’t happen to me’.
I’m hard of hearing myself from birth totally different from those that had their perfect hearing ruined because of their stupidity that their hearing are like Super man never going to be damaged.
Yeah I’ve been to a couple of rave concerts with so many bass speakers pumping those kicks and I’ve witness many young and old getting up close to stage with no protection on at all. While at these concerts I’ve always ended up turning off my aid with my ear mold acting as my ear plug for protection and wearing a plug in the other ear.
I’ve grown up with this hearing lost all my life and yes it sad that those would risk damaging theirs.
Once it gone you’ll be wishing u protect it in the first place.
