Metabolic poison

Are you suggesting we drink to test out your theory?

No... but some women definetely look better after a few beers.

That is a male response that has evolved so that you become less sensitive to verbal input from the opposite sex; that's why people are driven to drink...lol.

Unfortunately you may also be less able to do much with the opposite sex if you drink too much.

But actually, your ears are still just as sensitive and subject to damage from excessive SPL; it's just your brain that is less receptive.

You need some "beering-aids"!

And you need beer goggles.

Even your own wife begins to exciting if you have enough beer!
Did I just say that.

It's a joke.
Even 20 years of caviar, lobster, and champagne would be monotonous!

I remember hearing something years ago about how audio perception is negatively affected by drinking, and that this is why people end up blowing speakers when drunk. Don't know if there is any truth to it.

I once had roommate that would get so faced he pass out sitting in a beach chair (his only piece of furniture) with his stereo volume all the way up as loud it could go. Worst roommate ever.

I host several parties a year, most notably my Annual wine party...12th Annual, this year!, Whoo-Hoo!

Anywho...the later the night gets, the louder the music gets. IS this due to imbibing more alcohol? Most definitely, but as one drinks, one gets louder, which means the vol has to go up, which means, one gets louder, etc al...

Sometimes, by the end of the night everyone is yelling b/c the music is too loud, but the music is too loud, b/c everyone is yelling. Classic catch 22.

Once the party starts dissipating, the vol goes down, and style changes, I use a lot of Jazz and trance to end a party. Brew some coffee, throw out some sort of bread, and just generally chill out, till the last is sober enough to go home, or at least too drunk to get up and drive...in which case, I have already taken the keys from.

Alcohol is a general anesthetic. That means that bodily responses to stimulus are attenuated.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2031886/


"The Acute Effects of Alcohol On Auditory Thresholds"


Tahwinder Upile,1,2 Fabian Sipaul,1,2 Waseem Jerjes,1 Sandeep Singh,1,2 Seyed Ahmad Reza Nouraei,2 Mohammed El Maaytah,1 Peter Andrews,2 John Graham,1,2 Colin Hopper,1 and Anthony Wright1,2
1Head & Neck Unit, University College London Hospitals, London, UK
2Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London, UK

"Our results showed that there was a positive association between increasing breath alcohol concentration and the magnitude of the increase in hearing threshold for most hearing frequencies. This was calculated by using the Pearson Regression Coefficient Ratio which was up to 0.6 for hearing at 1000 Hz. Over 90% of subjects had raised auditory thresholds in three or more frequencies; this was more marked in the lower frequencies"

"...increase in hearing threshold" means that the ears became less sensitive.

It appears that bass frequencies are affected more.

In addition to what Arny posted in the previous post, alcohol is a well known disinhibitor, often leading to behaviours that a sober person would not consider wise.

So, alcohols dulls the senses some so things seem less loud, and an ordinary intention not to damage your gear by turning it up too loud is lessened, volume increases and damage ensues.

I thought this would have been fairly common knowledge to anyone a few years above the legal drinking age that actually has had alcohol or watched people drinking.

Obviously, if you guys would stop regaling one another with drinking stories long enough to read the standard papers on this, like "Association of toxic deafness with toxic amblyopia due to tobacco and alcohol" by FD Carroll you would know that you need to leave the Flatland of 'alcohol affects my hearing' and realize instead that it is rather the superposition of alcohol in the bloodstream binding with receptors in the brain that effects a desensitizing of audio perception.

Really, all one need do is use the blocking method or string method to determine this, etc.

For those clinging, like a toddler to a blanket, to the long-outdated notion that it is frequency response that is diminished, they should take heed of Brauner & Wilkins et al who established decades ago the primacy of the time domain in analyzing delayed auditory threshold response, and to do otherwise completely ignores the true causal effects of senses being impeded by alcohol!

Likewise, there can be no statistical reverberation in a small space like a bathroom, as the hangover yields a perceptual pounding echoing in the head.

Right, part of alcohol's anesthesia of the brain is shutting down the area of our brain that makes us cautious and responsive to danger.


I don't know how many anecdotes I've seen on audio conferences relating to people who blew their speakers up during an otherwise *entertaining* party. Lots!


I haven't seen so much of this lately. Maybe loudspeakers are more durable or maybe people are being more careful about what they say.

I had a couple of hospital visits that would prove the veracity of that statement.


Back when I repaired a lot of hifi/PA/MI gear, I would get people bring me speakers and say something like "I dunno what's wrong with them, but they don't sound right since the party". Usually it was some blown drivers, rarely, a xover component too.


Both I think. I know I don't need to explain to you how driver designs have improved in terms of power handling, but also it seems that excessive intoxication is frowned upon more, so if people do something stupid drunk, they're less likely to brag about it, especially as they get older.

Personally, it's an age related thing. I can't remember the last time I went to a raucous party.

Having mixed live bands for a living for over 25yrs , I can say that alcohol definatly affects how well you hear. And different types of alcohol affect it differently (at least for me).

For me-a little beer puts a "muffle" on the sound-less clear distinct-less dynamic range etc. Basically "harder to hear". Liquor does not affect me nearly as much.

That is why I generally don't drink while doing shows. And if I do, it is only a little bit. Really depends on the show and the situation.

There was one band i used to work with all the time and the soudn guy HAD to get wasted before mixing his band. His reasoning was simple. If the audience was kinda drunk (which they were at his shows), then he needed to be in "the same state" as they were-so he would hear what they heard.

I guess you can't argue with that-except that he could have done a much better job (much less sloppy) had he been sober.

Good thing you edited SM, as you didn't come off looking all that great in the original.

The funny thing is, I can't hear it as well, but I often enjoy it more. Especially when turned up a few notches to overcome the loss of sensitivity

seriously now: I wonder if an intoxicated state of reduced sensitivity is just spl, or frequency related, or other aspects such as distortion, time domain, etc.

My experience has been-SPL-dynamic range-freq response.

The problem is-how to "measure" it-or get an accurate answer-especially if the "tester" is not of a "normal mind".

And then you have all kinds of situations in which the ear is easily fooled-even when sober-just look at musicians and audio "sound guys".

Many-many times a musician will request a change in what they hear-level-freq etc-and before the change can be made-they say "That's good"-even though nothing happened.

Or how many times has a sound guy went to make an adjustment on a particular channel-and "hear" the difference-only to realize that they adjusted the channel next to the intended one! If they say they haven't done this-they are either lying-or haven't done it long enough.

And look at all the stuff that some "audiophiles" claim to be able to hear. Yet they can't reproduce that same test blind folded-or won't even take it.

And now we want to have "a drunk" make those decisions? And give us "accurate" information? Yeah right--------------------HA-HA

This was a joke by the way. I saw in this thread an amusing departure from the typical-for-this-forum tension-filled comments, and I was moved to evoke the specter of scholarly admonishment using the trigger words "reverberation," "ETC," "impeding," "Flat Land," etc. Sorry if it was in poor taste.