The volume is too damn high on flights

Few thoughts:<p>&gt; and opened the decibel meter on my iPhone<p>These are notoriously inaccurate. To get accurate decibel readings, the mic must be calibrated to absolute known levels (something your App can&#x27;t do). The App&#x27;s are basically just comparing relative sounds (this sound is more prominent than this other one, and therefore must be louder... after establishing some relative baseline). Real decibel measuring equipment is very expensive and requires re-calibration routinely. So, measuring 80db could easily be in a swing of +&#x2F;- 10db&#x27;s (or more).<p>&gt; 150dB: Jet take-off at 25 meters (eardrum rupture)<p>That&#x27;s not quite accurate. Long term exposure could lead to damage over time, but for comparison a shotgun is typically measured at 165db when it&#x27;s up against your shoulder and face. Yes, you wear hearing protection (nick-named &quot;ears&quot; if you are a frequent shooter) but your eardrumps aren&#x27;t rupturing immediately if you take them off.<p>&gt; What shocked me was the volume of the PA system<p>Yes, it&#x27;s loud -- by design. The PA system is not there just to provide something to listen to in case you are bored. In a best case scenario, it&#x27;s there for the usual &quot;buckle-up&quot; talk and for the pilot to give a greeting. In the worst case scenario, it&#x27;s there for emergency instructions (a time when panic and passenger noises are likely to get quite loud on their own).

The PA when heard over the headphones (when watching a movie, etc.) is even worse - I wouldn&#x27;t be surprised if it was over 100dB. Sometimes a movie has quiet audio, or quiet moments requiring you to turn up the volume a lot. More than once I have been painfully ear-raped by the flight attendant PA system in my earphones for this reason.<p>Just another instance of outrageously bad customer service in the airline industry. I&#x27;m convinced at this point that they simply despise their entire customer base.

I&#x27;ve always wondered why bars crank up the music so high to the extent you&#x27;re yelling to convey conversation to the person next to you. One of my friends hypothesized that it was done to focus patrons on drinking and not chatter, but socializing is a big part of the bar scene...<p>Anyone know?

OSHA probably wouldn&#x27;t have much to say… The peak he measured would only be outside of their guidelines if the attendants screamed for the entire LAS-SFO flight and then he hopped on a plane and immediately flew back with the same treatment.<p>Table G-16 - Permissible Noise Exposures<p><a href="https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=standards&amp;p_id=9735" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.osha.gov&#x2F;pls&#x2F;oshaweb&#x2F;owadisp.show_document?p_tab...</a>

My comment from another thread on this subject:<p>---<p>Earplugs! I bought a box of foam earplugs that has supplied me for years now. I cut them in half; half an earplug is the perfect length for unobtrusive everyday wear.<p>I have quantities of half-earplugs stashed in all my pants pockets, in my car, my work bag, and in a little container on my keychain. I wear them in the car, on planes, at the shooting range, when grinding coffee, and especially when putting away dishes. Fucking clanging-together dishes are the loudest things I encounter in my regular routine.<p>For my kids I bought silicone putty plugs. They work perfectly for little ears, and I keep them with the foam plugs. My kids know where the big orange jar of earplugs is, and they&#x27;ve acquired some of my discipline.

I can second the author&#x27;s conclusion. I fly regularly and have noticed in the last 6 months, PA systems have become much louder than usual on most flights. It&#x27;s especially bad if you have headphones plugged in to the XM radio -- they don&#x27;t seem to have separate volume controls for the PA speakers and hardwired headphones.

I&#x27;ve had the opposite experience - PA systems so quiet they&#x27;re drowned out by the plane&#x27;s noise. Perhaps he was sitting very close to one of the speakers. Given that the announcements are usually important, not continuous but made in short bursts, and that volume level (99dB) is discomforting but only harmful with prolonged exposure, I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s too loud. The whole idea of an announcement is to get the attention of the passengers - including those who may be asleep. Missing an important announcement may have safety implications.

I also use earplugs and over ear noise cancelling headphones during flights. They work very well. I rarely fly United but I&#x27;ve noticed that some airlines are definitely worse than others when it comes to PA.<p>I haven&#x27;t used it on flights yet but did some research and splurged on the Faber Acoustical SoundMeter (<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/soundmeter/id287615105?mt=8&amp;ign-mpt=uo%3D4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;itunes.apple.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;app&#x2F;soundmeter&#x2F;id287615105?mt=8&amp;...</a>). I bought it since I live on a busy road and lots of sirens go by, adding to the general traffic whooshing. Sirens are in the high range and go over 100. Its a good app to have to check whether I&#x27;m going crazy or if it is really loud in place where I&#x27;m feeling overwhelmed with sound.<p>I will be sure to try it out next time I fly and provide some data. Maybe we can crowdsource samples of airline loudness.

So when are we all starting to measure sounds around us (including cafes, vehicles, cities) and create a map of quietest things and places?

Sort of off-topic, but maybe somebody commenting on audio acoustics and decibels will know -- When you call a business and they pipe their automated music into the call while you&#x27;re on-hold, why is the audio quality of that music frequently horrible? You&#x27;ll get fuzzy music, or drop-outs of the music track - but when a human picks up the phone, it tends to sound just like most other phone calls. It seems like such a basic solvable problem, but I don&#x27;t know where to attribute the blame.

I think the author answered their own question with this statement: <i>&quot;I’ve been on flights where the sound of the flight attendants over the PA system was loud enough to sound like the attendant was shouting directly into my ear despite having two layers of sound protection.&quot;</i><p>The PA system in the airplane is part of the safety equipment, the crew uses it to inform the passengers during an emergency what they should do to prepare. Everyone knows that during a flight people will have noise cancelling earphones on and possibly dual layers of protection. Also the ambient noise in an aircraft with its nose pitched down at a steep angle or in an uncontrolled spin is likely to be quite high. The PA has to cut through all of that in order to communicate with you.<p>I agree it would be nice if they didn&#x27;t use full emergency power during non-essential communication, but the FAA considers the safety briefing to be essential communication so you are out of luck there.

Preferably, limit announcements to the bare minimum and use pre-recordings. There is too much variability in voice intensity. A pre-warning chime before an announcement would reduce stress and allow time to cover our ears. It would also spare me from apologizing to passengers since I scream when I am awoken abruptly. Thanks for the data Darren.

This is exacerbated by the absolutely intrusive use of the PA system--rather than just for safety announcements we now have the pleasure of enduring credit card and frequent flier program ads.

I&#x27;ve noticed this too. On my last few flights it has been so loud it caused physical discomfort (to me) and made my toddler cry.

I could believe it. I just flew Spirit (never again, for reasons in addition to this) a couple of weeks ago, and they spent the last 20 minutes or so of the flight hawking some kind of credit card deal. Even wearing earplugs barely put a dent in the volume.

They probably do it because no one pays attention to the announcements anymore. It&#x27;s the same reason they (used to) turn up the volume on TV commercials.<p>Has the author tried asking the flight attendants to turn the volume down?

I use a pair of sony extra-bass earbuds that are thicker and have a bit of extra foam around the earbud to reduce noise. The work great in the airplane, knocking off about 50% of the outside volume. I leave them in the whole flight as they cut out most of the engine vibration as well. Also wear them in a crowded office, at home with kids, or coffee shop etc when I need to focus.<p>Most of the time I&#x27;m not even playing music, but people assume so and will interrupt you a bit less often. Also helpful when making calls, etc.

I recently flew Delta (I generally stick with American&#x2F;USAir) and noticed this. On several occasions I noticed folks physically cringing and plugging their ears during PA announcements.

I&#x27;ve experienced airline PA announcements to exceed the pain threshold many times. It&#x27;s utterly ridiculous how loud they are.<p>In my opinion, the less that is broadcast over the PA the better.

This is a pet peeve of mine that I developed while doing video production in the live event industry. Unfortunately almost nobody cares about protecting their hearing.<p>Pretty much everyone in food service in the US exposes themselves to dangerous audio levels throughout their work shifts. My coworkers with SPL meters routinely measured sound pressure levels above 105 dB for hours at a time. But try wearing earplugs as a waiter or bartender... you will be treated like a lunatic.

I used to work for a major jet engine manufacturer. Noise reduction is right up there with fuel consumption in consideration with new model development. Not because of complaining passengers though.. A lot of the push comes from certain airports that aren&#x27;t far enough outside of major cities (I can&#x27;t remember which ones exactly, I think it was mostly a few major asian cities). They actually restrict certain models from using their airport.

I have for a long time used unobtrusive IEMs with Comply tips (MEElectronics, small, black, with a memory wire that guides the headphone wires over and behind the ears). They shut out the world very effectively, and are cheap enough that it&#x27;s not a tragedy to lose them. I have never had a flight attendant bug me about them.<p>United is particularly bad about cranking their PA system up into distortion screeching range. It&#x27;s pure sadism.

To take the edge off the sound (but only slightly... still able to carry on a conversation) and to prevent my ear drum from exploding I wear Ear Planes[1]. They aren&#x27;t perfect, but I do find they help, say, maybe 40% of the pressure issue.<p>1] <a href="http://www.cirrushealthcare.com/EarPlanes-Adult-P49.aspx" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cirrushealthcare.com&#x2F;EarPlanes-Adult-P49.aspx</a>

Recently spent over 48 hours in the wonderful company of Cathay Pacific. Their announcements (and especially their English announcements) are always a quiet high-speed mumble. 10&#x2F;10 would (try to) listen to them again.<p>Everything else was terrible.

I think the correct response when the PA system is used at excessive volume is to scream loudly asking that it be turned down. When this becomes a socially acceptable (or simply common) response, airlines will have to stop.

I&#x27;ve always wanted to buy some good earplugs to protect my hearing from noisy environments (es. near public transport in the city). Does anyone have a product they recommend?

a pet peeve of mine is when they do this in restaurants when calling out order numbers. they CRANK the fucking volume and then YELL into the microphone to call out order numbers when everyone is standing right at the counter!

there&#x27;s a big difference between Peak and RMS measurements.

Hacker News on Friday is always the worst.

Having many, many years of travel experience leads me to one Occam&#x27;s Razor type observation:<p>If people would actually pay attention to a safety briefing instead of playing with their gadgets &#x2F; not taking off their headphones, then the flight crew wouldn&#x27;t be trying so hard to get the attention of the passengers.<p>With this unpopular opinion, I&#x27;ll see myself out the nearest exit, which is actually located behind me.