How Can People's Sensitivity to Noise be so Different?

[Philip83]

I've played in a punk/hardcore band for 11 years. Both our guitarists and drummer NEVER uses earplugs. None of them have tinnitus and no noticeable hearing loss that bothers them in daily life. After playing and watching hundreds if not thousands of concerts, HOW is this possible?

 

[attheedgeofscience]

HOW is this possible?

I don't know.

But I do know that...

1) they eventually will get tinnitus (if they continue to play in bands), and
2) they almost certainly do have (some) hearing loss already now.

 

[Sound Wave]

I agree, they most likely have hearing loss, as too almost all people when they grow old. But our brains are different and they filter the resulting T sounds differently. Unfortunatelly in our case the filtering mechanism has gone wrong...