Poll: Is dB(A) Good Measure for Music Event Loudness?

Woom woom woom woom.... Most people have probably encountered a situation where you can hear the bass pumping from a music festival far away. Do you think A-weighted decibel level (in short dB(A)) is a fair measure for restricting loudness for all types of music festivals. For example rock and electronic dance music can have a big difference, how much they rely on bass.

Few reasons why bass frequencies can be heard from farther away:
-Sound attenuates as it spreads (i.e. distance from source) but part of it is absorbed by air as it travels. Bass frequencies are much less affected by the absorbtion and less attenuated than for example high frequencies from cymbals etc..
-Different frequencies reflect differently from objects the soundwave encounters.

 

No.
Don't use a device to measure safety.
Listen to your body and comfort levels for safety.
If you are nervous about attending a music event, it's probably better to trust your instincts.

 

Unfortunately the authorities setting the decibel level limits can't do it like that in most cases. They usually have to give some measurable maximum sound pressure level (usually in dB(A)) at some distance from the event/stage, and there's no much room for subjective evaluation.

 

I think db's are a good way to measure your exposure at festivals.
Yesterday I was at a small outdoor festival, I didn't go near the stage but db's go up a looot if your close to the speakers. And the speakers there where on the ground and people where standing in front of them so thats dangerous.
I was at a quiet area walking away from the festival area, but still had my hearing protection in.... aaaand someone ran up with a party popper nearby. Loud bang, awesome that I had protection in. Watch out for random noises like that.

 

I was near a speaker today at the church ( 2 meters away). The bass was booming, the dbA reading showed only 83 at 2 meters at 1 meter it was 89. I would use dbZ to calibrate speakers in closed spaces not to an outdoor event. I didn't had my dbZ app to check but it would be 6-7dbs louder than dbA. For environmental noise it depends on the noise. If it's a machine or a stereo, vehicle etc I would use dbZ.

 

Thank you for your reply. This small vs. big festival thing actually raises another question. For example if the event is allowed to have noise level of 80dB(A) at the outer boundary of the area, it makes a big difference whether the venue is 50 or 500meters wide.

 

Yeah that also makes a difference. Plus there is the (for me at least) dreaded tent scenario, they have a tent party so the speakers sit on the ground and the sound bounces to the tent roof just to come back down on the people. That raises the db levels a lot as well. I read somewhere the loudness can go up in such events to 105db. This instead of the around 100db at festivals.

I checked the db levels on my speaker system at arm length and then right infront of it with a db meter and the difference was 15db it showed. Speakers are dangerous things.

 

Thank you for your reply. Using the dB(A) in events they probably can make the difference between dB(C)/dBZ and dB(A) bigger than the often quoted 7dB if they want. Maybe it could actually be a good critetia to limit the dB(C) - dB(A) or dB(Z) - dB(A) difference in some way.

 

Yes, they do that wherever they put speakers. I can't hear the bass booming from my ear that had an acoustic trauma but I can from the other ear (at least for an 83 - 85 dbA speaker).However, I have normal hearing on a standard audiogram. I suspect that people who calibrate speakers can't hear the bass booming at all on either of their ears. db(Z) - db(A) difference would be better to be at a minimum, the difference can get as high as 15 - 20 dbs for sure.

 

Maybe somewhere at a reasonable value between the minimum and maximum.

 

Ok.
Objectivity? So a 'one size fits all' approach? I'm skeptic of internet rationality these days. It is important to be a critical thinker but we don't know all the facts either. Bodies don't all react the same way. We hardly know anything about tinnitus. If you have hardy ears and go to concerts with earplugs and don't suffer. Great.

Not everyone's tinnitus will be fine after "safe" levels on the DBA scale.