Yaatri

We have heard about crying babies, reclining tyrants, DYKWIA, but this is something entirely new to me.

On one of my flights, the FA came to me and asked me if I could run the volume down in my headphones as they were loud. I took them off to talk to her. The guy in front of me (in bulkhead mid-section) had complained my headphones were too loud. The FA said she could hear my headphones all the way up there, I suppose she meant while standing near his seat. I was stunned as, I could not hear anything when I put them down on the tray table to talk to the FA. I thought it was strange and wondered if I was losing my hearing. I told her that I couldn't hear anything if I turned the volume any lower, but I will give it a try and if it were not satisfactory, I would bring the volume up to the level so that I could hear the movie. She said, "maybe the sound is reflecting off your ears!"

I had the volume turned to about 60-65% of max. Turning it down made it very hard to hear. I asked the guy sitting next to me if he could hear anything from my head phones. He said he couldn't.
Either both of us, m,y seatmate and I are hard of hearing or the guy in front of me and the FA have super ears.

How high can you turn your headphones up?

wilfundal

You might need better headphones! What kind do you have? I have noise canceling ones from Bose and I have to keep the volume to about 30-40% because they're so loud!

pragakhan

iPhone buds never worked for me, always fall out, but I am using in-ear buds now, klipsch - I have one S4 and one S4A (Android) they also have an S4I (iPhone). A/I provide controls but they do not work vice versa!!

If you haven't tried them, they fit like ear plugs, not the Apple buds, so they ride along in your ear. I actually prefer them and no longer bring my Bose on flights.

cbn42

Many people who listen to music with headphones excessively become accustomed to the sound and don't realize how loud it is. In my humble opinion, if anyone else can hear it but you, it's too loud.

stut

I go for this approach: when I put the earphones/headphones in/on, hold them a couple of inches from my ears. If I can hear it, I turn it down until I can't.

Occasionally, though, people do ask you to turn the volume down, although what they're hearing is actually somebody further away who has theirs turned up even further!

Studio54

I have noise cancelling ear buds and never had any complaints from passengers or FAs. These are probably your best bet if you don't want to chance a passenger of FA having the hearing of a bat and telling you to turn it down!

CyBeR

The only way I can think of that happening is if you either:

a) Have open headphones, which would be both rude and weird because they do not isolate at all
b) Use earbuds (iPod style), which also don't isolate very well
c) Don't use any of the above but are damn near deaf so you crank them up to insane levels


What model headphones do you have?


I've had a trolley driver do that once, though what I think he heard wasn't my music but me tapping the beat on some panel in front of me with my foot.

scubadu

To eleven...

Regards

~tc~

I don't think I could survive a flight without my custom fit in-ears. Comfort, noise isolation ....

I have the ACS sleeves for Etymotic, but they make them for most all e popular brands/models

divingdancer

almost sounds like you were sat behind my ex husband. I swear he had hypersonic hearing. You could be listening to music on low volume and he would say he could hear it. Used to be murder in the car with the kids. He was always complaining that he could hear their music. Trouble was, his music was so loud (and lousy) that the kids had to have their music up reasonably high to cover his music.

One of the many reasons he is an ex.

CPRich

Argghh - beat me to it.

I usually have my Shure in-ears at about 2/3-3/4 on my iPod nano volume scale, but it's almost always on a plane or with earmuffs over them while cutting the grass, snowblowing, etc.

I've had many situations where I can hear others' 'phones, usually the larger, over-ear type. I'd be a bit surprised if anyone could hear my (or others') in-ear devices.

Yaatri

Lots of assumptions made here.
I was using the cheap kind that the airline provided. If they were too loud, the responsibility lies with the airline, not yours truly.
I rarely use headphones at home for anything. My hearing is checked every year even though I don't work in a noisy environment. My hearing is still pretty good. Did you not read that the person seated next top me could not hear it. Why do you assume that the passenger could definitely hear it.
Maybe the complaining passenger was schizophrenic and heard things! I put the head phones down to see if anyone could hear anything. Neither the passenger seated next to me, nor the nor FA could, hear anything when I put them down. Maybe hearing from somebody else's earphones.

I have neevr had anyine ask me to put the volume on my earphones down. I am not much into music, especially not loud music.

In more than 2 million miles of flying, not once has anyone complained about my earphones being loud.
I used what the airline provided. I don;t bring my own on board.

You hit the nail on its head. People missed the point of the thread. You know some people can hear things even when nothing is said.

User Name

Can you explain the point of the thread? I was going to reply but having second thoughts now in case I type something wrong...

longwaybackhome

I have Shure SE115s, and I usually listen to my music at about 40% (10 of 25) but sometimes I can go up to 18. Most of the time, my music is loud enough so that I can't hear anyone else, but they can't tell I'm actually listening.

I can't actually turn my headphones up. That feature doesn't exist!

Yaatri

Don't worry about typing anything wrong.
My headphones were loud.


The point is some people will complain about anything whether there is a reason to complain or not.
People complain about babies/ children of "others"
People complain about other people reclining into "their" space.
People complain about smokers making their environment filthy, never mind the stuff that comes out the exhaust of their cars or lawnmowers.
When I took the headphones off and put them on the table, neither the FA, nor the passenger seated next to be could hear anything from the headphones at anytime during their passage from my head to table. That's why the FA, not knowing what to say, said "maybe the sound was reflecting from your ears".
either there was real noise, or he thought there was real noise. The noise could be coming from some other source, I can't say, as I didn't hear anything. In a in closed spaces where there is already lot of other background noise, it's not easy to locate source of sound. Anything except low frequencies (bass) will just be drowned by multiple reflections of all sources present.