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TIL how the decibel scale works.

Genuine question, how's the difference between 194db and 180db only 5x? Shouldn't it be more than 10x?

The decibel is defined as a tenth of the log10 of power, so power doubles every ~3dB. Amplitude and pressure are proportional to the root of power, so amplitude doubles every ~6db. Loudness is roughly proportional to the root of amplitude so it doubles every ~9dB.

This leads to confusion when people don't specify which quantity they are comparing.

Thank you for that explanation. Based on that, the original poster meant 194db is 5x the power of 180db but only ~1.6x loud?

Increase of 14db would be an increase in perceived loudness of ~2.6x

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