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Originally Posted by Fat Jack
Dave,
I think we are talking about two different things. You are talking about "percieved loudness", and although there are various theories on the scaling of percieved loudness, I do agree with you that 88 dB might not seem 4X as loud to the human ear as 82 dB. But it is noise power that causes damage to our ears. 88 dB is 4 times as powerful as 82 dB, and 4 times as damaging.
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I think OSHA states 90 dB is damaging if sustained for more than 8 hours. 88 dB for the amount of time you'd typically spend behind a loud boat is no more than "annoying". Hearing damage is not going to be an issue at that sound pressure level. Wonder what my boat has for sound levels... It's stock, but kinda loud in my opinion.
Hearing damage vs. noise power (absolute) is not linear. It takes 140 dB to reach the hearing pain threshold in most humans. That's 158,489 times the noise power of 88 dB. It takes 180 dB to do instant irreversable damage and that's 15.8+ BILLION times more power than 88 dB. I think 200 dB will kill you. The Saturn V rocket supposedly made 220 dB of sound at the pad during launch.
Trust me, 6 dB of difference in sound pressure level is quite minor. Most people can barely hear a 3 dB difference.