> The human-perceived loudness level is dB(A) and similar.
But db(A) doesn't really measure that for anything but sounds that could cause hearing damage, or test tones. You've essentially taken a newcomer's problem of underspecification and carried it into the given domain.
I feel like it'd be better to say dB(A) measures flaunkis, which is defined by the human frequency response. Then the newcomer's next question will be something like, "how do I use flaunkis to compute the loudness of a music recording?" And that's the right question to ask, because the answer is: it's complicated. :)
But db(A) doesn't really measure that for anything but sounds that could cause hearing damage, or test tones. You've essentially taken a newcomer's problem of underspecification and carried it into the given domain.
I feel like it'd be better to say dB(A) measures flaunkis, which is defined by the human frequency response. Then the newcomer's next question will be something like, "how do I use flaunkis to compute the loudness of a music recording?" And that's the right question to ask, because the answer is: it's complicated. :)