Example SPL Levels

The following is taken from Dan Levitin's, Your Brain on Music.

0 dB: a mosquito flying in a quiet room, ten feet away from your ears
20 dB: a recording studio
35 dB: a typical quiet office with the door closed and computer off
50 dB: typical conversation
75 dB: typical comfortable music listening level (headphones)
100-105 dB: Classical music concert during loud passages; the highest level of some portable music players
110 dB: A jackhammer 3 feet away
120 dB: A jet engine heard on the runway from 300 ft away; typical rock concert
126-130 dB: Threshold of pain and damage; a rock concert by the Who
180 dB: Space shuttle launch

``Music 175: Level'' by Tamara Smyth, Department of Music, University of California, San Diego (UCSD).