I had a power outage tonight even before the big snow arrived. My shitty power utility has a call back feature if they restore power, which is useful since I have to throw the primary disconnect to use my generator.

They called as I finished getting the generator going and I answered while standing nearby. This is an automated system that waits for a voice, and I said 'Yo' into the handset. Immediately after the loudest recording I've ever heard played through the speaker causing sharp pain and ringing as the handset was seated directly over my left ear. I pulled it away within a second but this was like a gunshot near my ear.

What I want to know is, does the iPhone have an adaptive volume 'feature' that CRANKS the volume when it picks up ambient noise to damaging levels? I just answered as it was a normal call, no speaker option and I am certain I did not increase volume after the call began. I've never experienced it going this loud.

Also, since I've never experienced an acute hearing injury like this, should I be going to ER? This happened within the past hour and while there's no bleeding coming out of the ear, I do have high pitched constant ringing (in just that ear) Is there anything that can be done or am I just screwed if it caused damage?