Am I slowly destroying my headphones?

[Whoopysnorp]

I'm using the ever-popular Sorny MDR-7506s, and I love 'em. When I record my drum tracks, in order to hear the click and/or other tracks that I'm playing along to, I find that I have to stick earplugs in and turn the phones up really damned loud. If I do it without plugs, the drums drown out the stuff I have to hear, and of course I don't want to bust my ears. My method is the only way I've found to get a good mix of what I'm playing and what I have to hear. I'm wondering, though, is this bad for my phones? I don't want to have to buy new ones. I haven't used them for anything much besides tracking for a while, but even so I haven't noticed any damage (this includes use at more reasonable levels when tracking guitar and bass). What do you say?

[atomictoyz]

Im confused... anyway if the headphone are distorting horribly, then I would say sooner or later a driver will fail.

Peace,
Dennis

[TexRoadkill]

All matter is slowly deteriorating so the answer to your question is yes.

[Whoopysnorp]

Very helpful, TexRoadkill.

They're not distorting terribly, so maybe I'm OK. Atomictoyz, what are you confused about?

[Haven]

This may sound lame, but it worked for me...

I had the drummer use his little ear-buds from his walkman to listen to the click track, and gave him a pair of construction site-type ear muffs to wear over them.

The wires from the ear buds ran comfortably out of the muffs, and he could hear the click perfectly without turning it up very loud.

Both items readily available for around $15 each.

[Whoopysnorp]

Hey, that's a good idea. I might give that a try, though I get the impression that because I'm not getting distortion I shouldn't have problems.

[charger]

You're probably not harming your headphones, but aren't you getting some serious leakage at levels like that?

[Whoopysnorp]

Well, since I'm recording drums, the gain on the mics is pretty low. They don't pick up much that isn't loud. Even if they are leaking, the rest of the rhythm and lead tracks cover up anything like that.