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Is sound "additive"?

If I kept adding speakers playing at say, 70 db to a particular room, would the sound keep increasing? Wierd question, but I was thinking about how it sounds when a room fills up and people are talking -- it just gets louder and louder (though some of this is can be attributed to people speaking louder to compensate for others' talking). I was going to try and relate this to the effect (in SPL) of adding multiple subs to a room. Would it just keep getting louder and louder?
felthove
sedond
1,391 posts
 
i'm not sure if my math is correct but i *do* know that, basically, ewe have to double your power to get an additional 3db of gain. so, perhaps, if one subwoofer is playing at 90 db, adding a second at 90db (which is another way of doubling the power), would give a total of 93db?

even if my math is off, two subs at the same level will definitely be louder than one - one of the reasons (besides imaging & soundstaging) that i recommend using a stereo pair of subs instead of yust one: at any given volume level, the distortion will be measurably - and audibly - lower.

doug s.

swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Doug- I am pretty sure that you are correct. It is additive, and not arithmetically. You would need an additional channel of amplification of course to power the second (third, etc)speaker. There are actually noise models that allow you to "add" noises of different dB level to give a total noise level. Same would be true for music.
felthove's avatar
felthove OP
30 posts
 
Thanks guys. That helps.
jim
418 posts
 
Felthove, I am curious as to where you are going with this? Just a question, or is there some experiment in the works?
danvetc
527 posts
 
This is not an additive hobby. I can keep it to under 16 hours a day. No problem. Well, Ok, Fridays I listen 17-18 hours, and Wed about 20, but I'm good on Thurs and hold it to 16. But that doesn't make it additive. What do *ewe* tink, dude?
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