Depends entirely on the volume and time spent at that volume.

Just using headphones in general? No.

It’s a bunch of crap. In fact, modern headphones can if anything help protect your hearing.

The thing that damages your hearing is sound level. Doesn’t matter if it’s from a speaker to inches away or 20 ft away, what matters is the sound pressure level that arrives at your eardrum.

The problem with headphones is many people turn them up to drown out outside noise. To get it loud enough that you actually can’t hear the surrounding noise, it’s pretty loud. That is what causes hearing damage, not the fact that it is headphones. It would be no different if you put speakers and turned it up loud enough to drown out the noise.

I say modern headphones can help because a lot of modern headphones have noise canceling. Thus, reducing the ambient noise level means you don’t feel a need to turn up the volume as high.

Yeah, it is a bit more fatiguing on your ears but not inherently more dangerous to them, what is important is to listen to your body and don’t push it too long for too loud. Your ears need breaks! It is weird but true. Damage doesn’t come from headphones, it comes from not paying attention to your body and not giving your ears the breaks they need.

What I would say is if you are turning up music on your headphones to drown out something else that is loud, that is when you are much more likely to hurt your ears without realizing. Try to get noise cancelling headphones if you find yourself doing that.

It’s a myth that headphones cause more ear damage than speakers.

95dBs measured at the eardrum are 95dBs independently if the source is 10m away or inside your ear canal.

Now most people tend to blast louder on headphones than they do on speakers, I tend to do the opposite, so in my case speakers cause more damage.

If you “just turn it high enough to hear it” then there’s no damage. In fact if you listened to speakers you would have to probably turn it louder to overcome the environment noise than you do on headphones that muffle outside noise.

If you search “OSHA dB chart” you should get a basic idea of how loud is loud, note than ear damage is cumulative, so it’s OK to blast super loud for few minutes a day, on the other hand if you listen to music all day you need to play at lower levels.

Also, listen to your body, if after a listening session you hear tinnitus (ringing in your ears), then it’s too loud. (That doesn’t mean it’s OK just because you don’t hear ringing)

I usually listen around 100dB(A) but I don’t recommend it.

Been doing it for almost 30 years. I still have better and more precise hearing than most.

However

Most people in the “headphones bad”-crowd fail to understand that it’s the volume and not the medium at fault. I’ve always been very afraid of permanent damage to my senses, ears and eyes in particular, so as much as I love head banging to loud music, I ensure it’s not too loud. I’m the kind of person who brings earplugs to a concert (the type that dampens the audio without distorting it). I rarely need them, but I keep them with me just in case.

As others have already said: take breaks. It’s really easy (speaking from experience) to “get used” to a volume level that’s way too loud, ESPECIALLY if using isolating or noise-cancelling headphones.

Part of how your brain determines if something is too loud is its contrast with the environment. Yelling at the top of your lungs sounds a lot louder in a quiet library than it does in the middle of a live concert. Taking a break both recalibrates your sense of loudness and gives your ears a rest.

If you can afford decent “reference” or “studio” headphones, you’ll enjoy the same music at MUCH quieter levels than cheaper or lower-quality headphones. They are designed to be used for long periods of time by professional audio engineers and musicians, who are notoriously protective of their hearing and perfectionistic about even the most subtle of sounds.

Although I was a broke college student and couldn’t afford hardly anything they talked about, I learned a ton scrolling through audiophile forums like Head-Fi ( https://www.head-fi.org/forums/ ). Now I’m less broke, but somehow equipment envy and window-shopping just feels more right than spending way too much money on something I probably don’t have the time to enjoy anymore… Such is life.

edit: stupid grammar mistakes

Using headphones is more polite since you’re not forcing it upon others.

Like everything in life, most dangers is a matter of quantity.

Listening to music with headphones is a fantastic way to enjoy music, as long as you are reasonable, it is fine to listen to music loud enough to drown out other sounds for periods.

Back in 2022, I got double flat feet, double heel spurs and a bad knee at the same time, walking was agony at the end of the day, so when I had to walk home from the bus stop, I put on some quite loud Sabaton in my headphones, used that to gather strength to move, usually ending up crying hard as I dragged myself up the path to my apartment building.

I still hear ok, sure, I have a bit of bad hearing, but that was something I had found out a decade before.

You won’t go deaf just by listening to music in headphones, they are an important tool in several sectors, especially in music, every live performance artist is wearing in ear monitors these days, they are special headphones that allow the artist to not only hear the other performers and instruments, but also protect their hearing from the extremely loud speakers and crowds at a live event.

Then you have the people working post production, they all wear headphones all day, you have radio DJs, they also wear headphones all day, pilots, air traffic controllers, police, security guards, and similar professions also often wear head phones constantly.

What you are being told about headphones is just fearmongering, but built on a small kernel of truth, loud sounds can and will damage your ears, but that goes for all loud noise, not just headphones.

Don’t listen to her.

Let her believe.

Headphones are absolutely fine. I tend to crank music and have 0 loss in hearing over the last 10 years (we get annual hearing tests at work for OSHA). I do have a significant hearing loss in one ear but that is genetics and hasn’t gotten worse in 3 decades of using headphones.

Just don’t turn it up so loud it hurts, and once you find an initial good volume don’t turn it up later. You acclimate to the sound level so it seems quieter.

I love headphones. I have quite a few very good pairs. And headphone amps. And portable headphone amps. Ive been in the hobby for about 10 years now, maybe a bit more. My hearing is still excellent (according to hearing tests I’ve had). Aside from my tinnitus, which ive had since I was a kid. Just be mindful of the volume levels.

I used to mow lawns growing up. Would listen to headphones to drown out the mower. 30 years later I essentially hear this 24/7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D96_1AsUajA My wife (and everyone else who knows me) knows my general hearing is bad, but not horribly so, and much worse in noisy situations. There are times when I don’t hear that tone as much, but it’s there every morning when I wake up and it’s quiet.

Also, at max volume, I had to hold the phone speaker on my ear to make sure that video was even making a noise.

Frequencies above 6k-7k have disappeared/are always there.

Do yourself a favor and take advantage of noise-canceling headphones so you can keep the volume down.

Fear mongering. Definitely.

Headphones won’t break your ears any worse than loud speakers do, and noise cancelling headphones are actually a solution to blocking loud noise (e.g. construction), or for people who get overstimulated.

In fact, since headphones can block out sound you might even be listening at a lower volume than if you were trying to drown out sound with speakers, assuming the headphones have any noise cancellation (even just muffled cups). Even just competing with ambient noise can cause us to raise volumes more than necessary.