My unscientific noise study

A very worthy subject. I've had riders tell me that their hearing is shot so they don't need plugs. My hearing is diminished, but it isn't shot. Still, I have discovered that 'No matter how bad it is now, it can always get worse'.

When I forget ear protection, I'm alway sorry for it. I've got plugs in everything these days. Storage areas on the bike, jacket, and riding pants. This has cut down on my not having plugs available. Now I just have to remember to put them in!

Sound level measurement in decibels is a logarithmic not a linear scale.

10 dB increase = 100 times the sound level intensity, if my memory serves me correctly.

Baja Ron is correct, my hearing is shot but I should still preserve what’s left of it. Too much loud on stage amplification is what killed mine most likely.

Careful out there kids, or you’ll end up a deaf old grump like me.

I worked in a steel mill for 30 years. Although some safety equipment was required as a condition of employment hearing protection was not, though highly recommended and provided. I always wore it and as a result came out of there with my hearing intact, as shown by yearly hearing exams. I do have to admit to getting lazy in the last few years about wearing it. I don't know if it is old age or excessive noise, but I do notice it seems to be diminishing over the last few years. I do prefer a quiet bike for myself, I spent 25 years on Yamaha Ventures, both Royales and Royal Stars, before going to Spyders, which I also find very quiet. I like the sound of a good set of pipes, just not for me. Thank you for the gentle reminder of how little it takes to damage hearing - Or protect it!

Sound is actually quite complicated. There are multiple ways to measure it (all in db's) depending on the aspect you are wanting data for.

Sound Energy is the standard hearing safety measurement. Presumably because this is the aspect that can damage hearing. On this scale, each 3db increase represents a doubling of sound energy. A 10db increase is a 900% increase in sound energy.

The deception is that this same 10db increase in sound level registers as only a doubling of volume to the human ear. I wonder if this is brain function attempting to attenuate the volume. I didn't research it to that depth.

Suffice it to say that we are not a good judge of how 'Loud' something is. I spent many hours at the pump panel of fire engines before hearing protection was deemed important. I had to move some distance from this position to have any kind of communication. Now days, you'll see the operator using substantial hearing protection.

So, depending on our senses to tell us when the volume is too much is not a good idea. It's like the seat of the pants G-Force impressions. Definitely not reliable.

Oh yes, I forgot about the different dB scales. I’m getting senile.

Either way, you are correct in that we tend to hear sound as some kind of inverse scale that rises more slowly than actual sound pressure.

That makes sense as running a Marshall full stack at 5 is deafening, yet running it at 10 seems not a lot louder, it just hurts more.

How you have the frequency curve set is important too. A Roland Jazz Chorus 120 is excruciatingly loud even at 5 despite pushing probably less air than a Marshall full stack. My 1960’s Fender Bassman combos at 7 seem bearable, but yet you can’t hear a thing for hours afterwards.

It’s a good job stage volumes have been reduced over the years with in-ears monitors and DI to the PA system being more common. But, there is nothing like the feeling of having that whole body vibration from an amp running flat out.

Perception of loud is weird. I think it has to do with frequency response as well as the percussive effects as opposed to sustained sound levels. Drum kits sound louder than they perhaps actually are when measured with a dB meter.

We used to measure dBA for instantaneous or and LAeq for long term exposure. dBA was weighted for human hearing and filtered out bass and treble ends. I think these days, I told you my memory is sketchy, dBA is 10 times for every 10 dBA. I’ve heard of concerts measured in dBD for heavy rock. I forget the equations they all are calculated from, it’s been a while. I know sound engineers in studios use yet another dB scale which was always confusing.

Nothing is simple anymore. If it ever was! But soon we won't have to think or work. AI is going to do everything for us! Which makes me wonder what use there might be for the human race at some point.

Quick side note: I run sound at my church. Complaints that something is "too loud" often have nothing to do with volume. It simply means they didn't like something... the song, or a particular instrument, or person's voice.

One thing that is simple, hearing loss is a one way street. It may be a long street, with barely imperceptible changes along the the way, but damage happens. And yes, some of it is natural (us older folks don't hear high frequencies very well), but much hearing loss can be prevented. Take care of what you've got.

BajaRon said:

Nothing is simple anymore. If it ever was! But soon we won't have to think or work. AI is going to do everything for us! Which makes me wonder what use there might be for the human race at some point.

Click to expand...

AI is just nothing but fancy statistics. It works off the inputs it has been trained upon. Sure, it combines partial solutions in ways we have not perhaps thought about, but it isn't capable of real innovation.

Having worked on AI systems from way back in the late 70's and early 80's with expert systems, models are still built on data scraped from somewhere, just enormous amounts of it, just like search engines.

Just as for all of human history, we have invented tools which over time reduce certain professions to a commodity in a race to the bottom to lower costs. It was always coming for the tech, legal, and financial industries. It just got closer to the top of the food chain.

Humans will always be there for innovation and new ways of thinking. AI will just be another tool in trying things out and perhaps on touching areas of investigation.

Unfortunately, like the way every industry has in history, technology will automate things that used to be the things that provided the expertise in automation just a few years ago. This time it has moved up into automating middle class jobs instead of just automating factory and agricultural work.

Whether AI sets us free to be even more innovative or not may well depend upon how rapidly the education system changes to provide a new generation that knows how to use AI to generate that innovation. I'm afraid the number of people needed to perform this and hence paid well may well likely decline, at least for the foreseeable future, whilst corporations flounder around trying to make things work for them. Frankly, it's new companies that are built on the AI wave that will be the corporations of tomorrow, existing corporations may well thrash around building massive data centers only to have the AI field reinvent itself, before doing a Kodak.

PDXRTL said:

One thing that is simple, hearing loss is a one way street. It may be a long street...Take care of what you've got.

Click to expand...

What he said. I came out in second place in a fight with an IED in 1965. Unless we are face to face no farther apart than a couple of feet, comprehension of the human voice is gone! It's just noise. I thank Providence daily the VA provides me devices that Bluetooth connect me to the world through my hearing aids.