Is listening to bright speakers or IEMs bad for your ears?

[Kain]

If you find a certain IEM bright but continue to listen to it, is it bad
for your ears? When I first got the Sony MDR-NC22, they were EXTREMELY
bright. They would make me cringe. However, I continued to use them
because they were the only set I had. Over time, the brightness sorta
died-out and they started to sound "normal." I am pretty sure it was not
because of break-in but because my ears adjusted to them. Why? Because
my home theater speakers are also quite bright and stopped finding them
bright too.

If my ears adjusted to the brightness, does this mean I have lost some high-frequency hearing? Will I ever get it back?

[Chris A]

Four questions back at you (in order to answer your question):

1) Approximately how old are you?

2) Approximately how loud to you listen to your speakers in dB© (i.e., 60-90, 70-100, 80-110, etc.)?

3) Approximately how many hours/week to you listen at those levels?

4) Have you had any ear infections or tinnitus in the recent past?

[Kain]

1. 28

2. Loud. 90-100 dB.

3. I listen to music on my iPod most of the day.

4. None.

By the way, I tested my brother's and my hearing with one of the those online high-frequency hearing tests and I can hear high-frequencies much better than my younger brother (3 years younger) who barely listens to any music.

[Chris A]

Answers:

Yes, and "if it takes more than a few hours to regain your hearing after listening, you're progressively losing hearing due to noise induced hearing loss"

It turns out that 3000-6000 Hz are the key areas to look for hearing loss.

Chris

[Axz Hout]

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[Islander]

Be careful who you're with when you're rolling. One minute you're getting spaced out, next minute you're getting probed...