Loudness and Annoyance

As the level of the noise is increased, it is accompanied by an apparent increase in loudness. Loudness may be considered to be the subjective evaluation of the intensity of a noise when this evaluation is divorced from all the attitudinal, environmental, and emotional factors that may affect the listener’s assessment of the annoying properties of the noise. Chapter 4 contains a detailed discussion on the loudness of noise. Generally, if a noise is louder, it is judged to be more annoying and vice versa, although there are exceptions. Table 6.1 shows some of the acoustical and nonacoustical factors that can contribute to the annoyance caused by noise. Some of the factors shown in Table 6.1 are also important in considerations of the effects of noise on speech communication (see Sections 6.5 and 6.6) and on sleep (see Section 6.15.1). The annoyance caused by noise is discussed further in Section 6.15.2.

Table 6.1 Some acoustical and nonacoustical factors that contribute to annoyance caused by noise.