Dear Philip and JimW,
What you fail to see is that not all people use the stock Apple earbuds or listen to modern high-level mastered music. I, being a radio production student and sound engineer, am quite aware of the risks involved in subjecting yourself to high levels of sound pressure.
Although I understand and have great sympathy (and for some part, agreement) for your critizism and viewpoints, as I mentioned there are some slight problems with your bantering of the author of this program;
- The Apple earbuds are constructed with very low elevtrical impedance - meaning they easily produce higher levels of sound pressure from lesser levels of current. However, not everyone uses their stock earbuds for reasons. My own headphones actually take around 3x the current to produce the same sound levels, and thus the law prohibiting sound levels above 100dB is, in essential, stupid. It all boils down to what headphones one uses!
- Also, not everyone listens to rock, hip hop, pop, r'n'b and so on - music that's mastered in order to produce the highest sound levels at all times. I listen quite a bit to old jazz, modern jazz and especially classical tracks. They are often at around half the volume of your average techno track! Again, this makes the "100dB rule" stupid.
However, as stated above, I have great understanding of your viewpoints. People should no be subjected to sound pressure exceeding 100dB. But just to cap the iPod volume output in this way is a narrowheaded way to stop this.