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The intensities displayed on the audiogram appear as linear 10 dBHL steps. However, decibels are a logarithimic scale, so that successive 10 dB increments represent greater increases in loudness. For humans, normal hearing is between −10 dB(HL) and 15 dB(HL), [2] [3] although 0 dB from 250 Hz to 8 kHz is deemed to be 'average' normal hearing.
[3] [10] Although specific regulations vary across the world, most workplace best practices consider 85 decibels (dB A-weighted) averaged over eight hours per day as the highest safe exposure level for a 40-year lifetime. Using an exchange rate, typically 3 dB, allowable listening time is halved as the sound level increases by the selected rate.
being approximately the lowest sound intensity hearable by an undamaged human ear under room conditions. The proper notations for sound intensity level using this reference are L I /(1 pW/m 2) or L I (re 1 pW/m 2), but the notations dB SIL, dB(SIL), dBSIL, or dB SIL are very common, even if they are not accepted by the SI. [6]
[citation needed] Essentially all loudspeakers produce more distortion than electronics, and 1–5% distortion is not unheard of at moderately loud listening levels. Human ears are less sensitive to distortion in the low frequencies, and levels are usually expected to be under 10% at loud playback.
When sensorineural hearing loss (damage to the cochlea or in the brain) is present, the perception of loudness is altered. Sounds at low levels (often perceived by those without hearing loss as relatively quiet) are no longer audible to the hearing impaired, but sounds at high levels often are perceived as having the same loudness as they would for an unimpaired listener.
In the measurement of loudness, for example, an A-weighting filter is commonly used to emphasize frequencies around 3–6 kHz where the human ear is most sensitive, while attenuating very high and very low frequencies to which the ear is insensitive. The aim is to ensure that measured loudness corresponds well with subjectively perceived loudness.
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Human hearing extends in frequency from 20 to 20,000 Hz, and in intensity from 0 dB to 120 dB HL or more. 0 dB does not represent absence of sound, but rather the softest sound an average unimpaired human ear can hear; some people can hear down to −5 or even −10 dB. Sound is generally uncomfortably loud above 90 dB and 115 dB represents the ...