[gregorio]

Sorry, I meant health regulations for factories and stuff, I didn't think about audio visual regulations when I wrote that.

I realised that and unfortunately this is where a lot of the confusion comes from. These noise level laws and regulations are advised by broad organisations (such as OSHA), drafted by lawyers and politicians and apparently no one thought to consult the international bodies with specialist knowledge in sound. So we often see the incorrect use of the word “loud” or “loudness” in these published laws/regulations where they should have used the term “noise level” instead.

The science demonstrates that “A” weighting and “loudness” can only be considered to be the same thing at low levels but of course there are no health regulations for low level noise, only for high levels that shouldn’t be exceeded.

G