I guess my ears are way better than I thought, the highest I've ever run the volume is about 20, and that's in my loud exhausted car. At 18, one of the local hospitals will make me jump when they talk to a rescue squad. None of the other hospitals has the punch it has. They are all distorted and it sounds like the nurse or doctor is on an old CB with a power mike and a bad linear. I wish they would fix the damn thing.