What dB level can you be exposed to in a Nightclub and how dangerous is it for your hearing?

[DanielT]

I dipped into the food court at a local mall recently. The next thing I was shocked at after how little food I got for the money was how loud the food court was. My Apple Watch confirmed my feelings. The music was being played at an average of 75 dB with peaks at 80 dB. I typically run my desktop speakers at 65 dB for casual listening!

One of the great things about my Apple Watch is that I have a decibel meter on my wrist that's within 2 dB of a calibrated noise meter. I even have the noise meter set up as a complication so that all I have to do to check the noise level is flick my wrist.

You can keep a pair of musician's earplugs on your key chain, like the Etymotic ER20XS, Loop or Eargasm earplugs if you're regularly going to loud places or have hearing sensitivity issues. Musician's earplugs will allow you to evenly reduce frequencies so that you can still talk to your friends for example while protecting your hearing. I've been using the Etymotics for ages, and I have a pair of ACS Pro 17 earplugs on order for even more accurate reproduction when I go to concerts.

There is a lot written and researched in the area of noise pollution and its effects. An example:

Noise and Health

Noise pollution is more than a nuisance. It's a health risk

hms.harvard.edu

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A bit of googling and this came up:

 

[Digby]

I dipped into the food court at a local mall recently. The next thing I was shocked at after how little food I got for the money was how loud the food court was. My Apple Watch confirmed my feelings. The music was being played at an average of 75 dB with peaks at 80 dB. I typically run my desktop speakers at 65 dB for casual listening!

My pet hate is trying to buy clothes that both fit and look nice (tedious and time consuming in itself) and being assaulted by music in the process. It makes it impossible to concentrate.

The concept of background music, emphasis on the background, seems entirely forgotten in the UK. In almost every shop, especially clothing shops, you are assaulted by music. Typically the trendier and more expensive the shop, the louder and more aggressive (electronic music) the assault.

 

[DanielT]

My pet hate is trying to buy clothes that both fit and look nice (tedious and time consuming in itself) and being assaulted by music in the process. It makes it impossible to g.

Aha, I did not see: is, at the first reading.I thought your pet hated trying on clothes. You in the UK are sometimes seen as a bit eccentric so why not?

Isn't that a concept, a notion? The Eccentric Englishman that is:
(not seen as something negative but the opposite, if I understand it all correctly)

The Eccentric Englishman - Nathaniel Clark - Oil on Canvas

In this oil painting, I dove into a whimsical exploration of character, crafting a figure of idiosyncrasies and charm. With each stroke, I imbued a vivacious...

www.singulart.com

 

[DanielT]

Maybe nothing new for you who write in this thread, BUT it's good when celebrities (or semi-celebrities, musicians like her as well) speak out:

 

[RayDunzl]

During the year or so I ran a PA for 50's through early 80's dive bar group, I always wondered about the folks who would slide a table right in front of the speaker stacks and sit there all night.

Maybe they were already deaf.

 

[Anton S]

Interesting read on the topic ...

Music and Noise: Same or Different? What Our Body Tells Us​

 

[DanielT]

Interesting read on the topic ...

Music and Noise: Same or Different? What Our Body Tells Us​

Her voice was like sweet music to my ears said the newly in love man.
After a number of years, her voice was like.. brr....said the man in connection with the divorce.

This is a fascinating modern phenomenon, speaking of sound, or noise:

No tune, no words, no dancing: why white noise is the music industry’s newest hit

The sounds of bonfires, waves and rainfall are helping us relax – and making millions

www.theguardian.com

I am therefore right on time! My vintage receiver HK330C (which I use sometimes) has a humming sound from the transformer, sounds a bit like standing near a electrical substation. However with a much lower volume than that. The humming sound is nothing I hear when I play music and without music on the humming is barely audible, but what I hear I therefore have to see as a contemplative sound, noise. Heh heh.

 

[diablo]

Isn't that a concept, a notion? The Eccentric Englishman that is:
(not seen as something negative but the opposite, if I understand it all correctly)
View attachment 271179

I have an old friend who sometimes looks a bit like that.

I hated loud pubs and concerts when I was much younger, from the late sixties. Used to avoid them where possible.

Think my hearing has been better than average for most of my life. But, at 73, is probably about average for my age now.

 

[dedobot]

I can remember how I didnt listen music at home after a another night out. I just was unable to hear anything above ~3kHz.

 

[valerianf]

In the 80's, when I was young, I went once every two weeks partying in a night club. At that time the audio level was not limited and quite everybody (not me) was smoking. Good sound was when the stomach was feeling the bass percussions...
Well, nowadays my hearing is not any more top noch, with loss of sensitivity in one ear and tinitus.
When we are young, it is normal to take some risks.
By the way, after a few hours in the club, my white napkin was black after cleaning my nose.
Nowadays all these extremes are banned, but other dangers are around (new drugs, extremists people with knives...).
My feeling is that the world is more dangerous nowadays, but may be I am wrong...

 

[thewas]

In the 80's, when I was young, I went once every two weeks partying in a night club. At that time the audio level was not limited and quite everybody (not me) was smoking. Good sound was when the stomach was feeling the bass percussions...

It was similar to me (rather in the early 90s though) and guess also to many others here, unfortunately back then the knowledge about hearing damaging levels wasn't as easily available as its today both to event organisers as to public and control mechanisms rather absent.

 

[antcollinet]

I now won't go to any music performance (live or recorded) where I can't control the volume, unless I have hearing protection available (typically Apple Airpod Pro)

Even wedding discos (some of the worst offenders)


Motorhead. 1982. Leicester DeMontford Hall.
Lifelong tinnitus.
Enough said.

 

[Sokel]

Her voice was like sweet music to my ears said the newly in love man.
After a number of years, her voice was like.. brr....said the man in connection with the divorce.

This is a fascinating modern phenomenon, speaking of sound, or noise:
View attachment 279158

No tune, no words, no dancing: why white noise is the music industry’s newest hit

The sounds of bonfires, waves and rainfall are helping us relax – and making millions

www.theguardian.com

I am therefore right on time! My vintage receiver HK330C (which I use sometimes) has a humming sound from the transformer, sounds a bit like standing near a electrical substation. However with a much lower volume than that. The humming sound is nothing I hear when I play music and without music on the humming is barely audible, but what I hear I therefore have to see as a contemplative sound, noise. Heh heh.

White noise mixed in new works is not as rare as we think.
A whole EDM sub-genre work with it to the point it's audible.

I see unhappy amps and tweeters in my crystal ball.

 

[robh36062]

Damn loud depending on where the speakers are and where you are standing. Had my old radioshack analog meter peg at 116dB at one show. I always carry earplugs with me. Even in small bars most music can be on the loud side so it always pays to have plugs with you, just in case.

Rob

 

[Mayan]

PS: it's not just music. It's power tools, motorcycles, traffic noise, loud restaurants and bars, etc. Sounds at potentially hearing damaging levels are all around us in both urban and rural environments.

Couldn't agree more. During and after three months of strenuous / intense chemotherapy treatments I'd made a conscious decision that it would be best wearing ear protection everywhere until better days. Which lasted for approximately one year while my hearing significantly improved to the point where it’s now manageable.

 

[Count Arthur]

I went and saw a band in a small local venue recently. They were pretty good, sounded a bit like the Pixies, but boy was it loud.

I had to move right to the back. Next to the bar.

I do keep some foam ear plugs in my toolbox, which I use when I'm using power tools.

 

[nagster]

I gave an SPL meter to a friend who often goes to nightclubs, showed him how to turn it on, and asked him to take pictures of the meter on the dance floor.
There was a mistake in the settings so there was no weighting, but even so I'm worried about his ears.

 

[Anton S]

I gave an SPL meter to a friend who often goes to nightclubs, showed him how to turn it on, and asked him to take pictures of the meter on the dance floor.
There was a mistake in the settings so there was no weighting, but even so I'm worried about his ears.

Wow! That is well beyond the threshold of pain, even without weighting.

I thought the volume level at our table for the Catalina Jazz Festival has been too loud in recent years, so I've been wearing my Etymotic Research ear plugs. But that venue measured only 120 dB max unweighted.

 

[Palmer]

I'm sorry to say, going to a nightclub this day and age is highly likely to be dangerous to your health, never mind the sound system.

 

[Phorize]

My wife took an SPL measurement in the National Maritime Museum in Liverpool and it was in the 90s. That's the sought of rock and roll weekends we have these days.