0dB is pretty loud, no? IIRC it's the loudest sound expressible on an audio CD. ... | Hacker News

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		lmm on Nov 16, 2016 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Compulab Airtop – Natural Airflow Desktop 0dB is pretty loud, no? IIRC it's the loudest sound expressible on an audio CD. (Decibels are a log scale - true silence would be minus infinity).

joelwilliamson on Nov 16, 2016 [–]

No. 10dB is the volume of calm breathing, 0dB is the threshold for auditory perception of a sound at 1kHz.

With regards to a CD, the decibel measures the gain rather than the volume. 0dB in this context simply means "full volume", while -10dB means 10% of full volume, and -20dB means 1% of full volume.

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