What exactly is it? High pitched frequency? Or just very loud? Does it physically hurt?
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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This depends on a lot of factors like distance, direction, and original intensity. But it can be painful or worse, cause permanent hearing loss.
Source: https://www.acentech.com/resources/long-range-acoustic-devices-lrad-and-public-safety/
God I hate replies like this. We are watching a video. What happens in the video? That's what they are obviously asking.
Edit: I found videos from different perspectives. https://syzito.xyz/@OccuWorld/114172100218871827 That makes it a bit clearer.
Of course reddit took it down. There's a decent video on protecting from these systems on youtube; the gist is that normal industrial headphones provide the best protection by themselves, but the protection is even better when paired with a riot shield. I imaging you might even be able to reflect the sound back of you had something stiff and dense.
Also, physically destroying the system works too.
I thought this was ADS since I can't hear the sound in any of the videos of this protest I've seen, like in this LRAD video and in this LRAD defense video its super loud.
So I don't think headphones would help here since ADS just heats the water in your body but a riot shield would help just on the parts of the body it covers since the ADS can't penetrate very far, not sure if conventional clothing would work or if you would have to cover your body in something like aluminium foil to stop the millimetre waves penetrating skin.
Also, physically destroying the system works too.
Would a breaking bottle of flammable liquid with a flame work?
Thanks for sharing this video! It’s a great resource. $5 shop headphones and a polycarbonate shield you can make for under $100 beats a $20,000-$100,000 LRAD. I wonder if ear plugs, shop headphones, and a shield would be any more effective.
$5 shop headphones
Just make sure to get the shop headphones. They are hard plastic. And if you are looking to gear up, I would recommend a P100 before a poly-carbonate shield. Something like this: https://www.lowes.com/pd/3M-Full-Facepiece-Respirator-6000-Series-Reusable/1002442040
If you are at an action, a set of hard plastic ear protection and a P100 can easily fit into a light backpack. A shield is a bit ridiculous and you'll look and feel like a bit of knob, not to mention, be extremely conspicuous. If you are still concerned about LRAD, stick some foam ear plugs in before you put on the hard plastic ear protection.
Polycarb shield only needs to be about the size of, say, a protest sign...
If you insist. I'd prefer the freedom of movement and comfort that not carrying a giant, heavy thing that I'm barely going to use offers me. Also, I'm somewhat less likely to come across as a bellend.
Good advice but the respirator doesn’t wrap around the ears so in the context of acoustic protection/reflection it doesn’t seem effective. I agree that a shield is conspicuous… I’m just spitballing about total effectiveness in theory. I like the end of the video shared above where the concave parabolic shape of the shield (when reversed) was used to redirect the LRAD sound at the operator. Pretty cool seeing a vulnerability in a system exploited in that way.
LRAD is just one threat among many. I've been tear gassed plenty of times. LRAD? Not even once. I did however, put on my ear pro several times, not due to LRAD, but due to people throwing fireworks at police and having them go off all around us.
All good info. A bit outside of this post context but helpful nonetheless.
It feels like a dystopian sci fi movie.