How Old Is Your Hearing?

Remember that story about the kids in the UK who were using ringtones that their instructors couldn’t hear?

This site has the “mosquito” tones for free– but you don’t download them, it’s just fun to see which ones you can still hear (and don’t you just love the mid-90s animated gifs? Sure takes you back). I was surprised that I was able to hear to 17.7 khz, given how many live music events I’ve been to in my time. I do, however, wear ear buds with the ear plug foam material to block out outside noise rather than the horrible white ear buds that came with my iPod, so I only listen to it, quite happily and more than loud enough, on half volume.

A good friend of mine wrote a piece on tinnitus a few years ago, and during his research found that two clubbing favorites that don’t go anywhere near your ears also contribute to that ringing in your ears: nicotine (cigarettes) and quinine (in tonic water). So quit smoking, and put soda in your cocktails (or just drink martinis!) when you’re out shaking your tail feathers at your favorite club.

If you’re too edgy to care about your hearing, though, perhaps you should check out the Swedish EBM and synthpop festival, Tinitus in Stockholm. Thanks to a careless misspelling in my Google search bar, I discovered what seems to be a pretty excellent event for those into industrial and dark wave dance music.

Just make sure and wear some earplugs.

Whenever I need the hottest ringtones, I go here and download them instantly to my phone.