So heavy bass actually saves our ears? I need more subs!
This is not just perception. The ear has a reflex, the stapedius reflex, that responds to loud sounds by tensing the stapedius muscle, which mechanically reduces the conduction of sound from the ear drum to the cochlea (inner ear). Low frequencies trigger the reflex, high frequencies do not, so when you filter out the LF from your music, you remove the trigger for the reflex and actually allow more HF sound into the inner ear. So while the actual measured SPL is lower, the HF energy making it to the inner ear is higher.
