Im glad im VERY sensitive to loud volumes, less risk of that. Although it is a pain when im outside using my tws iem and some teenagers blasting their music with their car is literally louder than my own music lol.
Yeah I get ya man. I’ve played guitar for years with a Marshall stack, and nearly 50 years old. I’m pretty sensitive to levels getting painful and reel it back. Generally I go for quick 20-30 min seshs if I cranking it. Maybe i’m lucky, hard to say. I do test my ears occasionally and can hear pretty well to 15k which I’ll call good enough.
My tunings are pretty good at high volumes and don’t feel hurty, in fact I put a ton of time into making sure they scale how people would want. No pain, just big bombastic tunes.
Most of my damage was from motorcycles (wind noise even with helmet and ear plugs in) and tools (right-handed)
I do find that my tinnitus ‘goes away’ for a short time after 80-85dB listening but I’m typically much lower <75dB.
Someday we’ll be able to fix these hearing issues caused by life but I’m happy to say it doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of music one bit.
I was a plumber for awhile and man power tools will wreck you. I used to shove cigarette butts in my ears when i had to do hammer-drilling. Fun times. lol
They are pretty good - I have a few bits of their stuff - voltage tester, clamps, etc… So I expect it to be pretty accurate for this grade of SLM. Two other companies that are not bad for these hand held meters are Tasi & Uni-T.
I use a calibrator though to set my mics and particularly my IEC711 and my SLMs
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJ2Di7E
(There are better ones but it’s a balance of cheapness v required accuracy - I think the 8930B is also cheaper and adequate but I don’t have experience with it or it’s fittings)
Earfonia documented his testing setup on ASR in far more detail than Crin - it’s pretty thorough but I haven’t got the link to hand but 100% worth a read.
Here is a video of the calibration process:
I think the University of Manchester publish a document on SPL readings using IEC711 and SLM - been awhile since I have looked if I am being honest so there may be better documentation now.
I then use a coupler without a mic to insert the SLM into so I can run a transducer through the SLM & IEC711 at the same time and same depth.
For DB readers I use one of these as its a class 2 SLM device
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EwafZxO
And one of these for portable as it’s a class 3 SLM so not really technically appropriate for calibration due to the tolerances - but for all intents and purposes it works fine and is just outside of those bounds.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ey4CupI
Have this on the wall to monitor ambient noise levels to offset the readings
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EyLYYMM
I dig that wall monitor but would like it in 2" instead of 12".
I still use one of these I picked up in the ~early '90s along with my iPhone.
That’s awesome - I’m a simp where Vu meters are concerned - they are just so damn cool.
hah, thats exactly what I have. Seems pretty good!
also: I’ve been testing music with the big bass shelf all day. Its blowing my face right off. Absolutely some of if not the best bass i’ve ever heard!
Damn, this is awesome info. I’ve been wanting to buy a 711 coupler for a while to do measurements, and mess around with tuning a bit.
I’ve been using UMIK 1 and REW with my stereo, also as dB meter. I may try it out as a dB meter for my IEMs, just coupling with a silicone tube and using the 0deg calibration file.
This is great. 90dB is way above my usual listening levels, which rarely exceed 75db. I’m sure the tunings (expecially the bassier ones), work well for this too.
The nice thing is having the choice, so you can play around with it and match according to mood, genre etc.
I’ll take one
My money is so ready for these to be available. It’s beginning to burn a hole in my pocket.
It probably wont be for everyone bro, but I appreciate the mojo very much. I think it’s a bit too perfect for lack of a better word. Boring?!
Ah no love brotha. I’m MMagTech over in discord. Been backing your releases for a good while now when I can.
I’m fully aware these will be more neutral than my normal listening. It’s exactly what I need to round out my collection.
Further refinement. Actually made a large change to the shell design. Someone told me the air factor is poor for the price im asking so…
Price factor aside trust your ear. Hasn’t been a let down on any of your retunes/mods. Your ear is the magic of Shortbus Audio. Trust it and go with the one you think sounds better.
This is a fully open back iem isnt it? In that case it would be fine for it to not graph with that much upper-treble, they still sound pretty damn airy due to being open back.
Nope. It’s not open back and in fact the opposite. An analog would be a ported high end speaker with a back volume transmission line for bass.
aaa ok then yeah maybe it does lack a bit of air there if going purely by the graph. But if this is meant to be for high volume use, you get your air via equal loudness curve anyway.