In your normal work routine as a sound
engineer is there anything to look out
for? I began to fear about my hearing
ability. I don't even know that right
now am I hearing the same thing as
others? (compared to same age range)
I began to question my self after my
friend lend me his Yuin PK1 earbud,
which he tell me it's the best earbud
everyone using. But I think it's sound
is no match for my WAY cheaper AKG
K313 earbud. Am I missing something in
my ears?
To me that sounds more like individual preference. I cannot claim to know the medical or biological basis, but we could informally state or believe that everyone's hearing is (physically) different. And it's easy to see empirically that e.g. people working on sound prefer different types of music and sound, playback systems and gear. Some things just sound better/best to some people, but not for everyone.
I generally don't exposed to obviously
dangerous sound like construction site
or factory but I'm still in doubt.
As Chuck says, avoid environments where you might be exposed to loud sounds (e.g. loud concerts, clubs, places with loud machinery) or if you do go to such places, then always bring hearing protection with you and use it.
Also, do some reading about hearing safety when exposed to loud or prolonged sound, because the sound profession entails that you might be working with sound 8-12 hours or more on an almost daily basis and there are guidelines and scientific knowledge or estimations regarding how loud sounds are safe, how long is it safe to be exposed to a certain loudness level and how much time your ears need to recover from the exposition. Knowing how the human hearing works should also benefit your own work, because you'll be able to calibrate the loudness of your listening system, take appropriate breaks and work in a way that doesn't exhaust your hearing (after which you don't hear clearly until your ears recover [unless of course you've caused permanent damage]) and lead to fallacious decisions in sound production and especially sound mixing.