Comparing Voice and Impact Noise Sound Attenuation

[shaunnutley]

If a person's voice of 80dB attenuates by 50dB over 60ft (real-ear attenuation) through the air, with no buildings in between, how does a banging external door of also 80dB compare? Does anyone have an estimate?

[tubeway]

The best way to find out would be to measure - but as high frequencies tend to attenuate more than low frequencies as they travel through the air - I would expect the door to be more than 30dB.

Also as some scales of measurement may be weighted such as dB(A) this may make a difference to your measurements (both of the source sound and the measured attenuated sound). I would expect "fairer" measurements using dB-SPL or Pascals