We are not trying to give you the entire run down of ear problems but we would, at this point, like to draw attention to a couple of the nasty symptoms that can result from the main thing we can control, excessive noise induced hearing loss.

Hearing loss
Your brain is a fairly tricky piece of equipment (so we are told). It's quite sophisticated and is constantly trying to compensate and recalibrate itself. That's why we can be loosing out hearing and not realize it until it's well past the point of being able to do anything about it. Bit like your eyes. If you've ever spoken to somebody who has just started wearing glasses, they will always tell you that suddenly, almost overnight, they lost their perfect vision. Fact is, they had been loosing it for a long time but their brain had simply been adjusting and coping with it. The same people can convince themselves that old age only happens in the last ten minutes.

Sound systems
Big powerful sound systems are obviously a real trap for people who have chosen to make loud noise their living and we all know the answer is obvious. Use ear plugs and avoid any really loud noises. If you are running the system at un-naturally high levels, for reasons of testing or other, insert ear plugs and wear muffs as well. If you are responsible for foldback or front of house during the running of shows, it may pay for you to invest in a pair of special acoustic earplugs. You will need to get these from specialists. They are molded to your ear and contain a series of small baffles. They do not change the character of the sound but simply reduce the acoustic level. Not cheap but certainly better than going deaf.

Headphones
One of the more sinister dangers is the inappropriate use of headphones. Those things are a trap. They can have enormous SPL and yet you don't notice because they seem quiet enough when you take them off and when wearing them, you have no other point of reference to compare them to. This is particularly relevant to sealed headphones.

Especially dangerous are single sided headsets. It's a wonder television camera staff are not all totally deaf. The brain has this problem whereby it tries to sum the signals from both ears. If you run high SPL in one ear and no signal in the other, the brain tries to average the two. You then need to drive the single ear a lot louder to get the same perceived effect. The other problem being that, in a noisy environment, such as a live TV music show or very enthusiastic game show, the level in this single ear needs to be at ridiculous levels before talkback instructions can be heard. Our suggestion is, rather than turn the level up, try finding a set that has better noise rejection. Spend the money and get some oil filled units or something better, like the electronic noise attenuation units, which are becoming more common.