Considering I'm on the design team that creates the chips for the iPod ... I hope that this is total BS
Can I sue you if I go deaf? or must I buy one first?......
nothing new. playing any sound at significant volume directly into the ear canel will obviously cause problems. to compensate, better headphones should be produced that would block the outside audio instead of trying to play over it. full ear headphones are the answer (unless you can use white noise to counter the other external audio.. which would be very cool)
Listening to anything too loud for long periods of time can make you deaf. It's not just ipods, and it's never ever been just ipods!
It's probably true. Think about it.
Life is noisy enough. Now, many Ipod users plug earphones into their ears, especially during urban commutes, during long workouts, etc. and crank up their music.
They are inflicting their eardrums to continuous above avergae noise.
I've often wondered
about MP3 music
in the big picture.
The compression and
decompression schemes result
in frequency spreads
that are not "normal."
(If I understand it right,
certain highs and lows
are emphasized and
mid-ranges can get muted.)
Now, the human ear
is an active thing --
it internally creates
reference tones for
comparision to
"incoming" sounds. But humans
have never before
had their ears respond
to sounds as decompressed by
MP3 systems.
I sometimes wonder
if the ear's active nature
coupled with the sounds
from MP3 things
might or could have an effect
nobody's thought of . . .