Considering the risk to hearing from listening to music on earphones from IT Equipment

摘要

In order to provide protection to users from long term exposure to loud music, sound pressure level and voltage limits have been established for earphones and audio output from portable audio equipment in EN 50332-1 and -2. These two standards are limited to portable audio equipment, which are small battery operated devices and whose main function is the listening of recorded media such as music while the user may be mobile. Since users of notebook computers and PCs could listen to music through headphones or earphones, there have been proposals to have the requirements of EN 50332-1 and -2 apply to information technology (IT) equipment such as personal computers (PC), notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDA) and pocket computers. However, one must consider the many factors of listening to music on earphones from IT equipment that are different from portable audio devices: product usage, duration of exposure, average listening levels, and differences in equipment (software equalization). The authors suggest that if criteria on headset output are desired for IT equipment, then a new part to EN 50332 should be developed to consider the lower risk of hearing loss while listening to music from IT equipment.