I think we can all agree, that when we started riding motorcycles, we didn’t expect the wind noise on the highway to be deafening, but yet, here we are… and for me, the noise on the highway is so loud that when I stop at the end of the day, I can hear ringing in my ears. But, like many of us, I didn’t realize that this noise is actually damaging, and this is where Audyse began.
The noises we hear on motorcycles fall very low in the auditory range, well below 500Hz. And because of this, when we hear these noises, our auditory spectrum doesn’t register them as loud as we would in a higher range.
In fact, on the highway, we are exposed to noises in the 100 to 120 decibel range, and because of the frequency of this noise it actually sounds like noises between 60 and 80 decibels in the higher range. In short, the noise that we perceive as quiet (even though it isn’t that quiet), is actually damaging, and this noise causes us to experience hearing loss in the upper range of our hearing.
So, the next time you are on your motorcycle, or any motorized device for that matter, just think, that the wind buffeting you are hearing, and that constant noise is increasing your risk of hearing damage. And then if you play music over the wind noise to drown it out like many do – myself included, you are just adding to the damage.