How loud is too loud
Hearing damage is a dose: level multiplied by time. That one idea explains every safe-listening rule worth following.
Decibels are not linear
The decibel scale is logarithmic, so an increase of 10 dB is roughly twice as loud subjectively but ten times the sound energy. That mismatch is why volume feels safe long after it stops being safe: your perception rises far more slowly than the power reaching your ears.
| Level | Roughly |
|---|---|
| 30 dB | A quiet bedroom at night |
| 60 dB | Conversation at a metre |
| 75 dB | A busy street; a vacuum cleaner |
| 85 dB | Heavy traffic; the level occupational limits are built around |
| 95 dB | A loud bar; headphones turned well up |
| 105 dB | A nightclub; the front of a concert |
| 120 dB | A siren nearby; the threshold of pain for many people |
The exchange rate between level and time
Occupational limits are written as a dose. A common formulation allows about eight hours at 85 dB, and every additional 3 dB halves the permitted time: four hours at 88 dB, two at 91, one at 94, and only a few minutes at 105.
Two consequences follow, and both are more useful than any single volume number. An hour at a loud concert can exceed a full working day of moderate noise. And turning down slightly buys a great deal of time — a few decibels is barely noticeable and doubles or quadruples what you can safely listen to.
Headphones specifically
Headphones deliver sound directly into the ear canal with nothing between the driver and the eardrum, so the level at the eardrum is higher than the same setting through speakers in a room. A phone at maximum with sensitive earbuds can exceed 100 dB, which on the exchange rate above is safe for minutes rather than hours.
Two practical rules survive scrutiny. If someone at arm's length has to raise their voice for you to hear them, you are too loud. And the 60/60 guideline — about 60 percent of maximum for about 60 minutes at a stretch — is a reasonable default for most phones and headphones, though it is a rule of thumb rather than a measurement.
Noise cancelling helps for a reason that is easy to miss: it does not protect your ears directly, but it removes the background you were competing with, so you choose a lower volume without noticing.
Test tones are a special case
Everything on this site is a generated tone, and a continuous single-frequency tone concentrates all its energy at one point in the spectrum rather than spreading it as music does. At the same apparent loudness it puts more sustained stress on one small region of the cochlea, and on one part of a speaker.
So keep test volume at about a third, and treat the two extremes with particular care. Low tones require the most driver movement and are the easiest way to damage a small speaker. High tones near the edge of your hearing feel quiet while arriving at full power, which is the least intuitive risk here.
Warning signs worth acting on
Ringing after a loud event, muffled hearing for a few hours, or a feeling of fullness in the ears are all signs that you had too much. They usually pass, but each episode leaves a little permanent loss behind, and they accumulate.
Persistent ringing, a sudden change in hearing, or hearing that is clearly worse in one ear should be assessed by a professional rather than monitored at home. Sudden hearing loss in particular is treated as urgent.
What protection is worth
Foam plugs cut 25 to 30 dB but muffle everything, which is why people take them out. Musicians' filtered plugs cut 15 to 25 dB fairly evenly across the spectrum, so music still sounds like music and you keep them in — which makes them the more effective choice in practice, despite the lower number.
No amount of protection restores hearing already lost. If you want to see where your own range sits, the hearing range test gives a rough reading, and the hearing range by age guide puts it in context.
Last reviewed 2026-09-22.