How Do You Play Video Games without Hurting Ears?

Has anyone here tried to play Super Ghouls and Ghosts for SNES?

Hardest game I've ever played.

 

I know this thread is a year old but it's a good one with a good question, imho.

But, no one elaborated on your sound system if you don't use headphones.

I think headphones might be too risky if you have severe tinnitus. Moderate tinnitus? I dunno. It's up to everyone to judge but I have anxiety with this and playing video game noise into the ears for some amount of time over a few minutes would concern me.

But, a sound system is its own issue. TV speakers, 2.1 or 5.1., where are the speakers situated relative to where you are sitting? What's safe or at least less risky to spike/bother tinnitus and hyperacusis (if you have that)?

Are the noise levels 50-55 dB with tv speakers or speaker systems? Is a phone volume level meter sufficient to use?

 

I can supply a limited answer of my own. Note that I do not have hyperacusis, so I am not speaking to that effect.

I haven't used headphones consistently for years now, having instead returned to desktop speakers. Nothing too fancy, that is, I don't have a subwoofer or anything. Just two satellite speakers.

For my purposes, this has worked perfectly fine. I think people underrate their potential when it comes to things like FPS games, but I am not a competitive player. For any other game where you're just experiencing dialogue, music, or SFX, they are more than capable.

They have the advantage of not being right on top of your ears, so there's a distance advantage. Keep the volume controlled. Duration is something to be handled independently. For many, many reasons, everyone should take breaks from games.

I am a hypocrite in this regard, but this is more of a "do as I say, not as I do" thing.

Regarding the phone volume level meters, I can't get a definitive answer for that myself. I have two apps, but one seems to read higher than the other on average. It's likely going to vary app to app and phone to phone. They're probably okay for approximations but nothing concrete.