What?
EU consumer affairs commissioner Meglena Kuneva has taken a mere nine months to deliver on her promise to protect our ears from the ravages of personal music players.
Only last January, Kuneva spoke about the needs to do something about the maximum volume produced by MP3 players and how that can permanently damage our hearing. Now, in just the time it takes to gestate a human being, she has converted this concern into a proposal.
"It's easy to push up the sound levels on your MP3 player to damagingly loud levels, especially on busy streets or public transport," revealed Kuneva. "And the evidence is that particularly young people - who are listening to music at high volumes sometimes for hours each week - have no idea they can be putting their hearing at risk."
What seems to be proposed is that the ‘default' volume setting for MP3 players be set at either 80db or 89db - which isn't clear. However, that default can still be over-ridden by the user, so long as there's some kind of cigarette packet style warning about the suicidal course of action they are about to embark upon.
While it's laudable that the EC should want people to be aware of the potential consequences of listening to loud music for prolonged periods, this proposal seems to be token at best, given that it only seems to affect the volume of your player when you first start it up. Still, what do you expect after a mere three quarters of a year?
Our personal experience is that the maximum volume of most MP3 players is too low. Apparently the ambient noise on the tube is around 90db, so you're bound to turn it up well above that anyway. The best solution to this we've found is for bands to follow the example of Metallica with Death Magnetic and record their music much louder. Well played lads.
