Loudest Noise that You Have Ever Heard

[Targa Me]

The Who concert.
Ears rang for at least 2 days.

[jcommin]

Never been near a plane or dragster.

Been to Rock concerts in my youth and my ears just rang. I, too, have tinnitus.

The loudest noise I have ever heard was a 572 Chevy engine on a dyno cell at a Goodguys car show. No mufflers whatsoever. I could feel the air pulses when the operator rapped the throttle. And it was loud!

[GH85Carrera]

The bomb that a low life chicken 5itt yellow bellied slime bag terrorist that I shall not name set off on April 19, 1995 at 9:01 AM. The bombing killed 168 innocent people.

Our building shook so hard I thought a 18 wheeler had somehow hit the building and we were several miles from downtown.

The good news it he was captured within an hour and we killed him back.

[IROC]

Originally Posted by masraum

I'm so jealous that you got to see the launch from the VIP area. I understand that the VIP area has trees in the way so you don't see the shuttle until after lift of, but still, I suspect it's at least an order of magnitude more impressive than from 12 miles away and that's pretty impressive.

Yep. VIP viewing area. I got lucky enough to be chosen as a Launch Honoree. No trees in the way, though - it was a pretty clear shot to the pad. I was shocked at how loud it was.

[jwasbury]

Jack Bruce Band (with Ginger Baker, Bernie Worrell, Blues Saraceno, Gary 'Mudbone' Cooper, & Tom Goss) live at the Ritz, NYC - Feb. 9 1990.

Jack had 3 Hartke stacks as his bass rig

The volume was so high, it was messing with my inner ear and made me dizzy.

[Don Ro]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

The good news it he was captured within an hour and we killed him back.

I like your style!
.
Have to think back...being around the "dialing-in" of jet engines while in the military, is one. At that time, I was wearing ear plugs and muffs...but still was disorienting.
.
The other is when I was a dumb-ass kid and fired my .41 mag at a varmint while in a dry 6' deep concrete canal - wearing absolutely no ear protection.
That stunned me for days and days and I think that that precipitated my hearing loss.

[tevake]

Inside a M 48 tank firing the main gun is pretty loud, but the concussion compounds the experience. It will blow your helmet way out of the main hatch if not strapped.Get the 50 cal and the smaller turret mounted machine gun going off along with the main gun and you really got some noise happening. But in my experience if you have reason to be making all that noise, The sound is the least of your worries. At the moment anyways.

A B 52 strike close at hand will rattle your ears and your whole body for that matter.

Been to some loud concerts too, but the most painful sound that comes to mind was a shreek from a telephone that went off on me once. Funny from such an inconspicuous source but it left my ear ringing for a couple,of days.

Cheers Richard

[Scott Douglas]

I can remember being about 10 years old when our next door neighbor, Chuck Jones, started his ’57 Chevy Bel Air up, uncorked, prior to racing it down at Lions Drag Strip. I was standing right next to the front fender. His driveway was between our two houses so it was surrounded by concrete on three sides, and we’re talking maybe only 12-15 feet between houses. After that, Dad said he didn’t want us boys standing near the car when he started it.

Poco in a noon-time concert at Santa Monica College. Loudest high note on a guitar I’d ever heard. The amphitheater was all concrete.

Or the time I went to Riverside Raceway to the Times Grand Prix. They were warming up a Ferrari in one of those small, one car, concrete garages they used to have there. The crowd was gathered around the back of the car as the mechanic razzed the throttle and the engine revved to about 7 or 8 grand. For some reason the Can Am cars with the big V-8’s just didn’t seem as musical to the ears.
Then there’s the time my brother and I took our boys to the NHRA Winter Nationals out at Pomona. Those Top Fuel and Funny cars are LOUD, even with muffs AND ear plugs on. We sat at about the 60 foot mark so we were plenty close to the starting line.
The lone F1 car they had up at Laguna Seca a couple years back was loud too. We sat in the front straight bleachers for that one. I’ll never forget that wail as it went up the backside to the Cork Screw turn. You could hear it loud and clear even on the front straight. How people could watch a whole field of those cars is beyond me.
I attribute my tinnitus to all the expansion chamber go-karts my brother and I fooled with in our youth. This was in the days before tracks had sound level restrictions.

[Seahawk]

I dated a bit of a screamer in college, so you know...my little F-4 Phantom.

[Don Ro]

Another one -
Went to the Fresno Drag Raceway back in '65...sitting on a drooping wire fence with 4 other buddies...about 20' downline from the starting line. We could have spit and hit those rigs...that close.
Those two fuelers fired off and we all fell back wards.
Every cavity in my body shook - scared the piss out of us.
.
We relocated.

[MDH]

Kudzu Mazda DG-3 as raced in Camel Lights series.
The most piercing sound I ever heard......

[Jolly Amaranto]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

lightning strike about fifteen feet away from me, shock and awe!

Oh yeah. That too. I was with some friends were in a back yard screen house away from the main house sitting out a thunder storm. Lightning hit the roof and rolled down to a small grounded breaker box that was half way down a 4X4 post in one corner. The upper part of the post just exploded and showered us with splinters, causing the roof to sag. Scared the crap out of us for sure.

[Jeff Higgins]

I've heard many of the same "loud" noises you guys are describing, from jet engines to big guns to rock concerts. F4's, B1's, B52's, etc. 120mm cannon on a Leopard II (an uncle retired as a colonel in the German army some years ago, commanding a tank unit. He used to take us out to the firing line on occasion). And yes, the rock concerts - Zeppelin and The Who in their heydays, when they seemed to have some ongoing dB contest or something. Stuff like that.

None of them even begin to hold a candle to a top fuel or funny car motor under load at full melt. Not even close. I've had the "pleasure" of standing between two of them at launch, having spun wrenches for a local funny car team a little bit back in the '80's (had the track mph record in Denver for all of one year, their only real "success", and I wasn't even there that weekend...). Just indescribable to anyone who has not experienced it.

[Rick V]

AC/DC indoors on the "For Those About to Rock" tour. Most fun I ever regret

[rick-l]

40 years ago I was watching a terrain following radar test of the B1 bomber in the dessert near Edwards. I could see this thing bobbing above the hills every so often and then all of a sudden this huge thing was right above me. It was so loud you could feel it in your chest and stomach.

TFR must be old technology.

[Hawkeye's-911T]

A full afterburner take-off of a B1B

at the Abbotsford Airshow a few years back!

Cheers
JB

[yetibone]

The Four Wide Nationals in Charlotte. 4 Top fuel dragsters leaving at the same time. Sweet mercy, that's loud.

[Don Ro]

Originally Posted by yetibone

The Four Wide Nationals in Charlotte. 4 Top fuel dragsters leaving at the same time. Sweet mercy, that's loud.

At the Fresno Drag Raceway I attended, the day was getting late, sun setting, and they ran off 4 at a time.
Unreal!

[dw1]

Much too close to a USN Mk42 5"/54 aboard a Knox class FF.

About the same were the noises I heard when working as a contractor at a US Army munitions R&D facility. That included testing a wide variety of gun propellants, as well as the expulsion charges for 155mm M864 & other large-cal artillery projectiles.

In my youth, I went to a lot of rock concerts and none of then (not even the Who at MSG) were close to the things that go boom. The closest were some of the top fuelers & "shake-n-bake" (as we called them) funny cars at Englishtown Raceway Park I heard, or more correctly "felt" - the pressure waves were so strong it was hard to breathe.

I've never been all that close to the business end of a jet engine, but I believe people when they tell me that produces very serious sound pressure levels.

When you're beyond dB and have to talk about overpressure levels, then you know it's serious.

[boba]

As most of my friends know my hearing is used up, but there were special moments that stand out. Like standing between two 155 howitzers when both fired simultaneously. Calling in close air support right on top of your bunker position. Being in the launch control van 300 meters from the launcher for a Purshing II launch. Just hanging out around gas turbine generators for hours. Kind of made the race 911 motors on engine dyno seem tame, even without earplugs.
But the most pain I ever felt was from those G damn GTU Mazda RX7's, they truly hurt.