MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 or MP3 for short has become a common audio format that is deployed to transfer and playback music on digital audio player. It was designed by the Moving Picture Experts Group which included amongst others, Fraunhofer of Germany, Thomson-Brandt, AT&T-Bell Labs of USA, and CCETT. It obtained an ISO/IEC standard in 1991.
Headphones or earphones are rapidly becoming essential add-ons for the numerous electronic gadgets that have flooded the market from phones to media players and from personal computers to palmtops. Those who are regular users of headphones are often inclined to use it for pretty long hours. It is possible for temporary or permanent hearing impairment to occur to those who use headphones at high volume. There is a tendency to increase the volume of the headphone to drown out the outside noise such as traffic, large noisy crowds, subway, or aircraft. At higher volume, the normal pain that is associated with high volume disappears. The ear could be damaged with long hours of high volume sound through the headphones. An estimated 5 percent of headphone users are expected to face such problems. The suggestion to provide some form of warning to users to limit the volume of headphone has not been received well by the listeners. No such safety precautions have been made mandatory for the products sold in the market.
