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Moby concert and ear damage?

The other night I saw Moby performing at the Sydney Opera House and it was a stunning event with superb amplified sound filling the Concert Hall to the delight of 4000 enraptured fans.
The hall is really a vast volume (too big for any symphony orchestra to adequately fill) yet the volume produced by the amplifiers and speakers became so deafening that at times I had to crouch down behind the seats and block my ears......and I was sitting in row W of the Stalls?
I am sure that I must have suffered some permanent hearing loss over the 2 hour concert duration although thankfully there were some slow melodic songs to break the continual 100-110dB sound pressure levels.
The band members must surely wear ear-plugs to avoid early permanent deafness?

But this is not my question.
My stomach lining and chest cavity were vibrating and pulsing with the volume of sound but the bass drums and bass guitar were the lowest frequency-producing instruments on stage and I know that the lowest notes of the electric bass guitar is not lower than about 32Hz and most notes were way above that?
My home system with 2 Vandersteen 2Wq Subwoofers can produce 26 Hz in my listening room but my innards do not vibrate when I play low organ music?
So it must be 'volume' combined with frequency that vibrates the guts?
Is there a mathematical formula for determining what volume at 40 Hz is needed to vibrate materials compared to that at 20 Hz?
halcro

Showing 2 responses by david12

david12
1,454 posts
 
Wow, that sounds nasty. To answer the question re ear damage, the best indication is tinnitus. If you come out of a concert with tinnitus, you have sustained a degree of permanent hearing loss. That may not be much, but it's cumulative. That principal works in general, but less well for low frequencies, where tinnitus may be difficult to detect. In general, noise related hearing loss is worse at high frequencies.
As an aside, I listended to an interview by Zappa some years ago. He describes a concert in Texas, where a Sherrif from a town from 20 miles away, came over to complain about the noise. At another, a pidgeon flew in front of the speakers and blew apart!
david12
1,454 posts
 
TOMRYAN The idea of relaxation is new to me and I'm in the business, family doctor, not ENT specialist. An interesting idea, though I am not sure I understand the physiology.
As many of you know, the hearing sense organ is the Cochlear in the inner, a shell like looking organ through which sound passes and excites hair cells which are the actual sense organ. each cell responds to a different frequency. It follows that loud sound potentially damages the cells which are excited at that frequency.
Typically, in age related hearing loss, you get a progressive loss with higher frequencies. This is often accompanied by a high frequency tinnitus, as a corollary to the hearing loss. I have some high frequency tinnitus, which has'nt gone away, perhaps I should Tomyran's audiologist advice.
Noise related hearing loss, usually is different, with a mid frequency notch of hearing loss and more normal higher frequencies. This is what you will get, working in a canning factory, say, for 30 years, without hearing protection. I am not sure if there is a particular pattern of loss with rock music. Perhaps there should be a study of Ozzy Osborne and Frank Zappa.
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