How loud is loud?

[sumone 10+ year member]

How loud is loud?

120dBSPL = 10^(120dB/10) * 10^-12 = 1 Watt

1000 Watts = 10*log(1000W/(10^-12)) = 150dBSPL

3000 Watts = 10*log(3000W/(10^-12)) = 154dBSPL

so, 1 watt is 120dBSPL, and 1000 Watts is 150dBSPL.

If 120dB is loud, then 150dB has to be SUPER loud?

but is 120dB really even that loud??? What decibel range/wattage do you guys feel is just loud?

of course there's the > 120dB thing where constant exposure causes damages to hearing and stuff, but what is loud in you guy's mind?

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[hoss 5,000+ posts]

i have no idea what those math equations are trying to accomplish... if something is loud, then it is loud, mathematically or physically //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif .

150 is very loud, and tolerable for brief periods for me. 160 is **** loud, but its fun with hearing protection //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif. havent been in anything much louder than that. my old explorer was doing 150 and i could do that easily without protection. i dont think 120 is loud at all.

 

[scottrc5391 10+ year member]

It's loud when I feel my inner ear vibrating and hurting. Painfully loud is loud to me. Anything 140dB or higher is loud I think, even though 120dB is supposedly the threshold of pain. I think death can occur at like 170 dB or something, which I think is where your heart is at risk of stopping or fibrilating (sp?). The steam you see at space shuttle launches is not smoke, it is the steam created by the water below the rocket when it takes off. The launch is so incredibly loud, they have to deaden the sound with the water or the structure (that holds the shuttle up before liftoff) would collapse. This is like at 180 dB I believe. Needless to say it is stupid to play your music and try to enjoy it when it is painfully loud.

 

[nweibley 10+ year member]

You have to consider, every 3db is perceived as the human ear by twice the output (essentially) so going fro 120db to 150db is alot of doubling! Personally, I don't like to listen to anything in a car past mid 150s, it just is pointless destruction of your ears. I like my music in the mid-low 140s personally, nothing that you have to have 200w components up front to be able to hear anything.

EDIT: I should mention, 140dB is in a theater, not a car. 140dB in a car is too much even still!

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

It's loud when I feel my inner ear vibrating and hurting. Painfully loud is loud to me. Anything 140dB or higher is loud I think, even though 120dB is supposedly the threshold of pain. I think death can occur at like 170 dB or something, which I think is where your heart is at risk of stopping or fibrilating (sp?). The steam you see at space shuttle launches is not smoke, it is the steam created by the water below the rocket when it takes off. The launch is so incredibly loud, they have to deaden the sound with the water or the structure (that holds the shuttle up before liftoff) would collapse. This is like at 180 dB I believe. Needless to say it is stupid to play your music and try to enjoy it when it is painfully loud.

I don't know, I'm going deaf! j/k LOL!

There was a thread about this A LONG TIME AGO!

I'm going to try and find it! It was a pretty good thread!

 

[ssj2xxgotenxx 10+ year member]

I remember a test someone did on a sheep where they stuck it into the car and turned up the volume. It came out stone deaf, Not sure at how many DBs but iunno about you guys but I dont wanna be deaf.

 

[Randy Savage 5,000+ posts]

You have to consider, every 3db is perceived as the human ear by twice the output (essentially) so going fro 120db to 150db is alot of doubling! Personally, I don't like to listen to anything in a car past mid 150s, it just is pointless destruction of your ears. I like my music in the mid-low 140s personally, nothing that you have to have 200w components up front to be able to hear anything.
EDIT: I should mention, 140dB is in a theater, not a car. 140dB in a car is too much even still!

A 2x increase in percieved volume is ~10 dB's.

3 dB's is 2x the signal strength.

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

just out of curiosity, how do you tell if a sheep is deaf, or if it is just being a sheep //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/banghead.gif.8606515f668c74f6de0281deb475b6fd.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/banghead.gif.8606515f668c74f6de0281deb475b6fd.gif

 

[armani2 10+ year member]

Back In the Mini-Truck days, I had a zapco Sponsered Toyota Extra Cab with a campershell ( no rear window between the cab and the bed) I had 4 8's 4 12's a 2'18's

6 Mids and 4 tweets, 4 zapco Z-220's 2 Z-100's and 1-Z-50,

That truck would get up to around 169db, after a month or so I never would listen to it above 120db, but I had a friend that love to crank the nob, everytime he would get in on the way to a show or whatever, full blast, I would use earplugs, That was when beat contests were about loudness for the most part and SQ was secondary, well to make a long story short we were on our way to san jose one day and I saw blood coming from his left ear, he had blown a eardrum at somewhere in the 165db area, he was exposed to it for maybe 30 mins straight, he lost hearing in that ear and is still deaf in his left ear, so be carfull people, Bumping down the hood is fun, but those nights you go home and you have that ringing in your ears, there is damage being done, so save those all out blasts for when the time is right and then keep it at a resonable level.......

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

i don't like to listen to mine loud but i want it to be loud so i can crank it up at times to scare the piss out of people. the whole point really of having subs is too be loud but others will argue against it so i'm rambling on about nothing here.