By dint of compressing them, they will break them down to us. For more than thirty years, thanks to analog and then digital technologies, engineers have been compressing the sounds we consume daily – digital platforms and CDs (music), television, radio, telephone, etc. – in different formats which prove to be deleterious for our ears. As a result, an alleged listening comfort by locating the sound above the ambient noise as in the street or in busy places. “There is nothing qualitative regarding this compression in the sense that it eliminates the differences between strong sounds and weak sounds”, explains Christian Hugonnet, acoustic engineer and founder of the week of sound, sponsored by Unesco which begins on January 16.
Compressed sound interferes with the hearing system
If the phenomenon is not new, it is beginning to be taken into account by scientists: “Listening for a long time to music which has undergone strong dynamic compression disturbs the auditory system”, summarizes Professor Paul Avan of the Institut de hearing. With his team, he subjected regarding forty guinea pigs – guinea pigs, known to have hearing similar to ours – to music of 102 decibels for four hours. “We created a real mini-laboratory discotheque for them, then made them pass tests following exposure for seven days,” he explains. Conclusion: the animals did not suffer hearing loss. “On the other hand, we note an alteration of the protective reflexes, that is to say that the ear gets tired”, points out the researcher in auditory cognition. Indeed, a natural sound is modulated with nuances, pauses and silences. “All this disappears with compressed sound and our inner ear suffocates and cannot recover,” adds Christian Hugonnet.
A still mysterious mechanism
However, within our nervous system more than for the other senses, the auditory neurons are those which work the most. Finding that they are running out, worries specialists. “Our hypothesis is that the mitochondria and peroxisomes located inside sensory cells and which provide them with their ‘fuel’ no longer do their job sufficiently, which, in the long term, might cause lesions,” continues Paul Avan. With the consequence, risks of early deafness but also effects on the psyche (stress, fatigue, thinking).
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“You just have to see the children who, following watching cartoons, arrive at school and start talking loudly and without nuance”, cites Christian Hugonnet as an example for whom we have already lost the ability to hear the microbruits of everyday life like footsteps in the street which have 24 signifiers (age, sex, type of soles, etc.). For him, the solution involves re-education of the ear, notably by playing an instrument. The music industry must also convert to “sound ecology” by informing the public of what they hear. With Unesco, the acoustician will launch a label stamped “sound quality”. With microsilences and breaths.
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