Sound pressure also called loudness is measured in decibels and many times mentioned with the abbreviation dB.
The ear is a bit tricky by picking up the sound in a logarithmic manner which is the inverse of exponential, not to forget we also hear sounds with different intensity dependent on what tone it it.
The logarithmic manner the ear is picking up sound in, results in if we wont to increase the loudness just a little we need twice the power to do it. And if you want it do be twice as loud you will need 10times the power to do it. So to get it loud you to arm up against physics and nature with lots of gear.
And remember I said different tones gives different experiences of loudness. The very deep tones bother us very little and can be very loud without the urge to cover your ears, but unfortunately the midrange area where speech is very sensitive, so its not just what they are saying it could be a natural reaction to cover your ears.
Lets look at some examples from everyday life that I think you know, and if you don’t it much be nice to be you.
Ordinary conversation is around 60-65 dB but I am sure there is a family out there where the vacuum cleaner and its typically 75dB is not able to drown the voices.
But I would say counselling should be considered if conversation drowns the lawn mower that is somewhere around 90dB. And here is the level where it starts to become interesting to start dancing to the beat, and a lot og small portable boomboxes will be in this area, and a big and powerful one might get to 100dB.
But to get to 110dB its gonna take to go from portable to drag able, so either a real stereo system or a portable PA speaker or homemade speaker with maybe 2x 8” woofers to get there. And oh yes we are talking chainsaw loud.
120dB is generally where the waters are divided between the party animal that in own mind could potentially be immortal and the one that would like to hear what theyre grand childrens voice sound like or other vice don’t think that the spur of the moment is good price for hearing.
130dB is pain regardless of that motivation.

So how do we get to this party pain?
Here 3 elements are important
1)The efficiency of the speaker called sensitivity measured in dB
2)The Popular power limit of the speaker measured in watt
3)Amplifier power how much juice is coming to the speaker
Each of these have an element of apples to oranges, so we have to get more specific to calculate an outcome


The efficiency of the speaker called sensitivity measured in dB
This data tells you how many decibels you are getting for 1 watt or in some cases at 2,83volt. The 2,83volts is a little tricky with calculating loudness because if you are using a 4 ohm speaker you will burn 2 watts at 2,83volts so that has be considered.

The last element to how loud this is going to be is something called room gain. Room gain is when the sound waves bounces of walls, ceiling and floor and gets right back to you along side the direct sounds from the speaker, and joins the fight against your hearing. And this effect goes up with the room getting smaller and has the biggest effect on the bass because those waves are long and the tweeter sounds are very directional and therefore less affected by room gain.
That means the most honest loudness test is outside on an open field with no wind to affect the sound waves.

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