Keeping Safe and Legal : Protecting Your System and Yourself

In This Chapter

Protecting your hearing 

Knowing when to turn it down Keeping your eyes on the road

There’s nothing quite like cruising down the road listening to your favorite tunes. When you’re driving a cool car with a great car audio system on a fun road, it makes you want to reach over and crank up the volume.

It’s one of the primary reasons someone would want to install a custom car audio system in the first place — and one of my favorite feelings in the world. Although it’s great to crank it up, and great to own a system that lets you do that, it’s equally important to know when to turn it down. In this chapter, I talk about how overdoing it can cause problems ranging from hearing loss to driver distraction.

Exposure to extremely high sound pressure level (SPL) can cause immediate damage to your hearing. But even moderate SPL at or above 85 decibels, which a car audio system is easily capable of, can cause Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) with repeated exposure. And although being aware of the SPL of a sound source is important in protecting your hearing (see Table 22-1), the distance from the source of the sound and duration of exposure are equally significant. 

Table 22-1 Noise Level of Various Environments

Activity Noise Level in Decibels (dB)
Rocket launching 180
Jet engine taking off 140
Hydraulic press (10 ft. away) 130
Car horn 120
Typical nightclub 110
Amplified rock music 110-130
Helicopter 105
Loud shout 90
High-performance car audio system 85-90
Electric shaver 85
Busy traffic intersection 80
Noisy restaurant 70
Washing machine/dishwasher 65
Normal conversation 60
Quiet office 50
Refrigerator 45
Public library 40
Leaves rustling 30
Threshold of sound perception 10
Threshold of hearing 0

                   Table courtesy of Audio Control

According to the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, a good rule of thumb is to avoid noises that are too loud and too close and last too long. Unfortunately, this sounds like an apt description of a long drive in a vehicle with a car audio system. But you can enjoy your system and preserve your hearing if you play it smart and know when to turn it down.