One more thing . . . I could be wrong - but, in my experience, in truly noisy situations where exposure will certainly cause hearing loss, one can actually hear conversations, etc. better with protection in place than without. I will often attend a wedding reception, for instance, and slip a pair of ear plugs in my pockets just in case the music volume at the reception gets out of hand (it usually does as the evening wears on). I swear I can hear conversations better with the plugs in place than without. It becomes more difficult to speak in that situation, however, because you perceive your own voice to be at a much higher level than it actually is.

Interesting stuff - thanks for posting this topic, AllenG.

Caruso