I like that my new pc with windows 11 has a much more usable volume range. Every PC I've used with windows 10 is like normal volume with my headphones: 2-4, maybe 6% if it's a quiet video/song, but anything above 8 is actually loud. 30+ is plainly too loud and painful.

Now with my new pc 6-12% is normal, only above 16ish does it start to get a bit louder. And I can let it go up to a good 40-50% on those rare occurrences when I'm really enjoying something that demands more volume.

This is me aaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllll the time. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA GREAT MEME

Simple advice for anyone here : if the music is louder than your normal speaking voice, it's too loud.

If you have closed backs that seriously attenuate sounds, then instead of your voice lightly snap your fingers and adjust the volume of your music to that.

Only times it happenned to me was a few weeks ago, after trying to use the Koss Porta Pro for my walk home(1h20 more or less) that I usually do with IEMs. Because there's a river that runs alongside the path and has quite a fast flow depending on the time of the year and weather, it can get very noisy to the point you have to almost scream to have a conversation with someone else, and thus without even noticing I pushed the volume too much to cover the noise of the river ...

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The high pitched noise in my ears took about 48 hours to finally completely disapear ... Lesson learned, only gear that isolate well for the walk home from now on ...

If you ever feel the desire to get more usable %, you can install APO equalizer (+PEACE gui) and set a negative pre-amp :)

Oo I can still install that on my laptop which doesn't support windows 10, thanks :) seeing as it's called APO equalizer, might also make the sound profile just a tiny iddy bit more bright as my ATH-AD500x's sound great but slightly on the warm side

Seriously, buy a decibel meter and make sure you don't listen above 80dB, EVER. Your hearing will never come back, and you can acclimate yourself to 75dB music very, very easily.

This is good advice, I did the same and purchased a decibel meter to see how loud I am listening to my music as I was concerned that I might be listening way too loud. I was pleased to see my listening levels I like to listen at is between 65-75dB with 75dB being the high end.

Yeah, most dB charts you find indicate 70 as "loud traffic." And as someone who lives by a major Chicago highway in Lake Shore Drive, I can tell you that that's more than loud enough for music listening. My measured listening is generally 60-65, with peaks around 70, and I never feel like I'm missing anything - and also never experience ringing afterwards.

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/what_noises_cause_hearing_loss.html

On iPhone there is a db meter that is in control center. I use that and make sure to have it a 65db. I bought WH-1000xm3 a while ago and it is the best investment I could have done to preserve my hearing.

Use something with anc maybe

How does this work exactly? Like using a decibel meter to measure headphones, how would you get accurate readings without like a head model set or whatever

what about 81-82 db

How accurate is that?

I mean, you do you, but most health organizations say that listening above 80dB will damage hearing over the course of several hours. 81-82 is too close (and too loud) for my comfort.

The advice I've seen is to cut a hole in a piece of cardboard that is large enough to pass the meter's microphone through. Then you push the pads of the headphone against the cardboard to create a seal, placing the terminus of the meter very close to the driver (like your ear is). It's not a head or a head simulation, sure, but I don't think the difference matters that much when it comes to a regular consumer grade dB meter.

Think something like a phone or an Apple Watch would be good enough? 😅

Should be pretty accurate if you're using Airpods.