I’d really quite like to see one of these in action.
No biggie, right? Meh, right?
Wrong.
The Geemarc Clearsound CL8200 has a top volume of 1,000 decibels, roughly the same as a speeding train, as well as large buttons.
Now, let’s give the fuckwit at The Times the benefit of the doubt just for one moment.
Let’s just suppose that there’s a phone, that costs £90, and produced 1000 decibels.
A German Dane has done the calculations for us, and foretells that to produce a sound of 1 second length at 1000dB would require more energy than the sun will provide in its lifetime.
Elsewhere, let’s see how that 1000dB stacks up:
|
Environmental Noise |
|
| Weakest sound heard | 0dB |
| Whisper Quiet Library | 30dB |
| Normal conversation (3-5′) | 60-70dB |
| Telephone dial tone | 80dB |
| City Traffic (inside car) | 85dB |
| Train whistle at 500′, Truck Traffic | 90dB |
| Subway train at 200′ | 95dB |
| Level at which sustained exposure may result in hearing loss | 90 – 95dB |
| Power mower at 3′ | 107dB |
| Snowmobile, Motorcycle | 100dB |
| Power saw at 3′ | 110dB |
| Sandblasting, Loud Rock Concert | 115dB |
| Pain begins | 125dB |
| Pneumatic riveter at 4′ | 125dB |
| Even short term exposure can cause permanent damage – Loudest recommended exposure WITH hearing protection | 140dB |
| Jet engine at 100′, Gun Blast | 140dB |
| Death of hearing tissue | 180dB |
| Loudest sound possible | 194dB |
So, err. No. The Times are monkey fools who know dick about science.
Meanwhile, here’s a muppet at the The Tellygiraffe who knows dick about technology.
AJ
Updated thanks to Sluggy pedantry.
Al Jahom's Final Word 
Good catch!
I’m with the iPhone reviewer on that no. 5 though…
unless HTC phones have improved markedly in the last 12 months, then bollocks. :o)
Nice one, most amusing.
Not sure I follow for the iphone though, I would agree with most of those points, am I missing something?
Point of order: that German is Danish.
That is all.
Go suck a polonium lozenge, cockcheese. :o)
To refer to 1000 deciBels is meaningless. A deciDel is a dimensionless unit and to have some meaning should have a reference level noted ie dBA for acoustics and then use what they refer to to give us the absolute level.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel
true, dat ;o)
‘A deciDel is a dimensionless unit and to have some meaning should have a reference level’
Lucky it wasn’t decibels then, otherwise it would be quite loud? Oh, and it seems there’s 10 of them.
Well it looks like the Times has corrected its typo.
Hmmmmmm, it’s a log scale isn’t it? :-)