Posted by Leland on April 30, 2001 at 16:08:21:
In Reply to: Re: What is a safe decibel level? posted by Bill on April 30, 2001 at 07:37:14:
Interesting...
The rehearsal room for the US Marines D&B Corps is one of the most acoustically dampened rooms I've ever heard. The walls' surfaces are fabric laid over some sort of foam material, the ceiling seems to be the standard sound-absorbing material, and the raised levels have low walls with angled plexiglas on the top to hold music books (yes, we do read music :-) ).
It _seems_ to be relatively quiet, even with the whole hornline playing. But, that's purely subjective -- I'd like to take a dB meter in there someday.
On the other end was the band room back in college. It was a half circle (well, about a 5/8ths circle) with a domed ceiling. There were some surface treatments, such as light fixtures & curved wall inserts, but the effect was still like a satellite dish, throwing every sound onto the conductor's podium. It _seemed_ to be a lot louder than than the D&B room.
Again, that's all subjective, but it would be interesting to see how much a room's design & treatment can hurt hearing.