Ok this thread got me curious so I just measured my listening levels
It’s between 75 and 80 db
It occasionally gets louder than this but I only listen properly say 2 hours per day
I’m also curious if like how much salt you put in your food, the relative background noise level is directly correlated to how loud you listen.
I used lived in London for 10 years and according to a survey the average background noise level where I lived is 56db, so to hear anything it has to be above that noise floor. Now I’ve been living rurally for two years and 60db seems loud enough.
How loud is your “silence”?
Mine is about 37db , I have the heating on up here in the freezing north 
I can hear this whirring away
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I remember my first Walkman … it wasn’t the very first iteration, mine was the yellow sports cassette player 
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My background noise level during the day is about 45 dB; at night it is considerable less but will have to measure later…
That is very low - in fact so low I would be looking to confirm using another phone/tablet/whatever. The app has to make assumptions about the mic sensitivity, which is more likely (sweeping generalisation) to be correct for Apple kit. You will also get different absolute numbers depending on whether you are using weighted measurements.
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Good point,
Android devices says between 30-35 at the same time as iOS is saying 20-25. **
10db is quite a range, though hard to know what’s right.
And the SPL meter in REW with my umik says 35 as well so perhaps apple was giving me a false sense of security.
**. The NIOSH app allows calibration so gave it a 10db boost.
Edit. Also in the great North with the furnace running.
I listen at around 65 to 75db unless my friends are here in which case it can get a lot louder! But they’ve had this pandemic on which has curtailed that somewhat.
My background at the moment looks like this
Same here. For me, that’s an average level of 83 - 87, C-weighted, slow at the listening position. I don’t have a reliable way to measure SPL with headphones listening, but that’s probably worth the investment.
Velvet Underground, Shrine Auditorium 1968. Enough said.
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The plot thickens, tried on an android tablet and its measuring even lower than the iPhone. So clearly just the devices internal mic rather an OS difference. Guess it’s time to go buy a calibrated meter.
A decent calibrated mic and trusted measurement software are an audio lovers’ near necessity.
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I suppose the umik/rew (with calibration file) reading is accurate so can calibrate other devices with that.
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That would work. I doubt my trusty umik is the last word in sensitivity or accuracy but it’s pretty reliable and consistent.
Here’s one piece of guidance.
occupational safety organizations recommend that the maximum exposure to noise is 40 hours per week at 85 to 90 dB(A). For every additional 3 dB(A), the maximum exposure time is reduced by a factor 2, e.g. 20 hours per week at 88 dB(A). Sometimes, a factor of two per additional 5 dB(A) is used, however, these occupational regulations are acknowledged by the health literature as inadequate to protect against hearing loss and other health effects. In
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Interesting… My left ear tinnitus appeared soon after a bad sinus-then-pneumonia event skiing in the Andes. Always assumed it was caused by inner-ear infection damage, but now I’m wondering about the heavy dose of antibiotics that got rid of it.
Recommended: 'Volume Control' Author David Owen Says Ambient Noise Threatens Our Hearing : Shots - Health News : NPR
About 20 years ago I was booked to perform an occupational medical examination on an acclaimed HiFi ‘expert’ who wrote for one of the leading HiFi magazines of the day. Being interested in HiFi myself, I looked forward to meeting this doyen. He turned out to be a thoroughly likeable chap and very ‘hail fellow, well met!’. Halfway though our appointment a colleague stuck his head around the door and handed me the audiometry tracing. It was very poor and showed a significant hearing loss across all frequencies, but he was virtually deaf in both ears above 4 kHz. His demeanour changed instantly as he reminded me through gritted teeth that his medical details were strictly confidential.
Whether cause or effect of his career in HiFi, you clearly don’t have to be able to hear to give erudite opinions on HiFi. For me, this was the beginning of the onset of a healthy scepticism.
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My office listening level is 50-55 dB.
Because of my tinnitus I made a check recently. Beside the constant hum, I have normal listening capability up to 12 kHz with 60 years.
As a husband of many years, I have selective amnesia and am temporarily deaf.
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I agree. Umik with calibration file is likely more than adequate.