Many people find it difficult to believe that listening to music can cause damage to hearing, especially when it comes from headphones that look small and harmless compared to giant PA stacks. The risk however is not limited to music; speech through headphones can also exceed recommended noise levels. Users such as sound recordists and TV cameramen who use headphones for long periods are particularly at risk.
Consequently, employers are responsible for taking steps to ensure that workers are not exposed to excessive sound levels throughout their working day. Level limiters can be fitted, in-line or discretely mounted within the existing ear cup. Level limiters prevent the noise from reaching a level at which exposure will cause damage to the user’s ear. Installing compliant limiters to headphones is not straightforward and requires specialist knowledge, calibration and testing.
Canford is a specialist provider of headphone limiter technology. We offer level limited headphones from stock, or can evaluate and limit your preferred headphone to enable employers to take the necessary precautions required to protect user’s hearing.
- Users may plug the headphones into any available outlet (subject to avoiding ‘loading’ programme circuits)
- Users can not readily ‘bypass’ the protection limiting device
- That audio performance up to the point of limiting operation should be minimally affected by the limiting device
- That devices should be available for the widest range of commercially available headphones and headsets