It is particularly a problem for me, as I wear hearing aids. The thing about
a hearing loss is that you have a reduced dynamic range to work with. You can
amplify the low sounds to make them audible, but you don't gain any more
capacity on top. In effect, the threshold between 'tolerable' and 'loud' is
moved down in proportion as you turn your hearing up.
Last spring I attended two graduations. Graduation speakers are generally
amateurs, who don't know about projection and such. In order to hear the
quiet parts, I had to turn my ears 'way up. Sadly, in both cases, there were
people behind me who were apparently more accustomed to hockey games than
concerts; whenever somebody they knew got mentioned, they responded with a
war-whoop. One would have thought they would notice me jamming my fingers in
my ears to turn them down after a while, but no dice. This is not merely an
inconvenience, it is painful.
I don't mean to complain, but this is not so uncommon a situation these days,
and I hope that, once people understand it, they will be more considerate.
Right :-/.