Re: hearing loss, let an old fart offer some advice. I loved listening to music loud as you could feel it in various ways (physically and emotionally). However, the result is real expensive head jewelry and the need to run iPods at 95+% volume through good earphones to hear what I want. Trust me, you don't want to have this happen. No matter how good the digital signal processors are, they suck in restaurants and crowds.
Take an hour or so and get a hearing check done by an audiologist. This will give you a baseline. If there's nothing wrong, great, you can check again in 5-10 years. However, if there's problems you can alter your behaviour and hopefully preserve your hearing. And if "oh s*ht" results from such a test, you will find out that hearing aids cost 10-15x great earphones/headphones and insurance tends not to cover them. In North America at least.
Take an hour or so and get a hearing check done by an audiologist. This will give you a baseline. If there's nothing wrong, great, you can check again in 5-10 years. However, if there's problems you can alter your behaviour and hopefully preserve your hearing. And if "oh s*ht" results from such a test, you will find out that hearing aids cost 10-15x great earphones/headphones and insurance tends not to cover them. In North America at least.