4 ms·
> Every 6 decibels sound aptitude doubles so 70-80db is a big difference. It’s every 3db the sound intensity doubles. At 6db, the sound pressure level doubles.
by jsjohnst 5y ago
> Every 6 decibels sound aptitude doubles so 70-80db is a big difference.
It’s every 3db the sound intensity doubles. At 6db, the sound pressure level doubles. Loudness (aka the perceived volume to a human) however only doubles every 10db, so the difference in this context is 80db is 2x louder than 70db.
Not the best link, but skimming it it seems to do an ok job explaining the difference:
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-levelchange.htm http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-levelchange.htm
- jstummbillig 5y agoIt correctly explains that loudness is an arguable concept, that depends as much on the subject as it does on other qualities of the sound (for example the frequency makeup)
- mrinterweb 5y agoThanks for the link and the explanation.
- jsjohnst 5y agoYup! Happy to help. To further break it down: sound intensity increase of 10db: 10x increase sound pressure level increase of 10db: ~3.5x increase loudness increase of 10db: ~2x increase It sucks that there’s so many variations that all use decibels as their unit of measurement with different rates of change. I had to research it years ago because I’d always been told 3db = 2x, yet found it odd that 3db didn’t seem 2x louder. Now I understand.