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 emailists

I too have had to stop going to most shows. Much too loud.

And yes, there are subharmonic synthesizers used to create low

freqs.
Regarding foam earplugs set deep, what I often do is rip one in half. It still provides the same protection, but when it's flush with the ear, there is no half of the plug sticking out. It helps when I wear them sometimes even in bars where there is just music, without attracting attention to the fact that I am wearing earplugs.

It really sucks I have to forgo seeing Springsteen concerts. I have seen him close to 70 times over the years, but 2 years ago was my last show of his (or any large rock show). Every bass drum hit felt like it was punching me. Luckily every show of his is recorded by fans (sometimes in great quality and twice even in 96K) and posted online via dime and usenet.