What Is the Loudest Thing You've Ever Heard in Your Life?

For me it was probably a firework.

 

I was in the checkout lane at Food Lion (a grocery store chain) and their fire alarm went off. It was the loudest thing I had ever experienced to this day. It happened pre-T and I considered dropping my items mid-ring up to run out the door. No one budged though. I guess I just always had sensitive ears.

 

I would say the lightning which struck about one month ago near our house in the middle of the night. It sounded like an explosion, with all windows open. I already expected to experience my first spike, but nothing happend.

 

Multiple firearm shots at 1 or 2 meters from me. All the other "noise accidents" I had (honks, doors slamming, children screaming, fire alarms, vehicle sirens..) were chickenshit* compared to this.

*suggested by an online dictionary, not sure it's appropriate

I talked about this situation in another thread:

 

I was in a Toys R Us when I was younger. Circa 1997 around 13 years old i’d say. Near the exit(indoors) there were people doing some sort of construction and as me my mom and brother were nearing the exit to leave the store the guys machine, idk what it was, went on, and it was without a doubt the loudest noise I ever heard in my life. More than what the ear could withstand. I covered my ear asap. My mom was livid and to this day mentions it.

 

Firecrackers in China probably. 150-175 dB, and on Chinese New Year you have people igniting ropes of these things and watching them 10 feet away. Absolute insanity.

 

Every year when I was a child my parents would light firecrackers for chinese new years...it was the highlight of my life as a kid...I still do it every year (with triple protection and standing far far away).

I don't go to temple during this time though, at our local temple all the Asians would bring their firecrackers and light it all at once in the court yard...we're talking hundreds and thousands of people in one area...with barrels and barrels of family firecrackers all blowing it up at once.

Fathers getting wasted, mothers chasing their kids around, old men playing checkers and gambling on top of stone fountains...the smell of fine sandalwood, burnt fingertips from all the pink ash, and flashes of red silk charmeuse....I love my culture.

 

My tinnitus.

 

Oh and yeah...fire crackers are absolutely the loudest thing i ever heard in my life. They can reach 300 db EASILY, it's so loud that afterwards you are all screaming at one another and nobody can hear a damn thing.

Even though i still do it, i refuse to be near it...but i could easily hear firecrackers from the houses of the Asians down the street and even the next town over. Here in CA...the Asian community is almost 99% in some parts and when this time of year rolls around...it is firecrackers 24/7...the sky is at times darkened from the ash and smoke.

 

1st: Opening a gas bottle (I think hydrogen) in a confined space made me go deaf for a about half a minute. It may have been a pressure change thing though, more than a noise thing. I only remember going deaf.
2nd: Huge baloon popping about 1 metre away from me (about 4 times the size of an ordinary baloon)
3rd: Fireworks
4th: Loud thunderclap
A contender for 1st place is when my brother-in-law breaks wind (very loud explosive emissions).

 

Quadruple Balloon POP!!! (SOOOOOOO LOUD I...

 

Sustained: 110 dB concert for 2 hours.(cause of T)
One off: Fully inflated balloon pop next to ear, firework explosion nearby.(120-125 db)

 

And they will probably never have any problem with their ears...

Tinnitus is the bad luck lottery...

 

Train brakes when they are not well maintened... Fucking loud high-pitched sound !

Went right through my ears and inside my head, even with earplugs and/or my hands on my ears !

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Once a Harley Davidson look alike made a huge noise with its engine, I never had pain in my ear like that !

 

That would blast your eardrums even if you're 500m from it

 

Has any of these events impacted your tinnitus permanently?

 

Lmao I know it’s an exaggeration but if it was actually 300 decibels everyone within a few square miles of you would be killed instantly.

 

That's about the volume of a supernova.

 

THUNDER

 

Humm. I don't know there are so many.

Lately the non-stop jack hammering of cement from the construction going on in our neighborhood. How in the world do the workers do that?

Helicopters flying over the ocean which is right in front of my home. Especially on a foggy day.

Forth of July fireworks set off of a barge on the ocean here. The entire house shakes with the booms.

 

The reverse gear engaged alarm in my Mazda CX3

 

A U.S. Civil War era cannon. Oh my gosh it was insane. You could actually feel the sound blast and I was not even nearby.

Oh and I heard a sonic boom from a fighter jet once. That was very loud and I was inside a large building. They can be between 150 and 200 dB.

Clearly the military is a loud occupation whether you were serving in the 1880s or 2000s.

 

A crappy band at the Roxy on the Sunset strip. Amps were way too loud.

 

And very often they don't even wear ear protection !

And really don't seem to be bothered by this incredible noise !

 

1) Compressed air escaping out of a pressurized air tank.
2) Gun shots at indoor range without muffs.

 

The gas bottle incident happened a few years before my tinnitus turned bad. The others don't seem to have made any permanent change. There was one other incident I now recall which may have made things worse and that was when literally a whole trolley of glassware smashed on a hard floor right next to me. Some guy was trying to move it through a doorway on his own. People heard the crash from a long way off. I happened to be standing with my back to him and couldn't see it coming. This did set me back for a long time.

 

The quadruple baloon pop guy is crazy. Made me laugh.

 

Definitely the pyrotechnics at the rock concert that gave me my first taste of tinnitus. No one should go to those types of shows without hearing protection. Actually no one should go to those types of shows.

 

I assume the loudest sound I ever heard is the sound that gave me tinnitus.