Explain to me, as a human, why I should care about the Z values? Does it affect my hearing, even if I can’t hear it?
It was already covered in my superlong winded post:
"So, A-weighting can be misleading if there's a lot of energy being attenuated as damage can still be done to systems even if we don't hear it so good!"
You'll notice that I said, "systems" as the sound energy affects each individual organism, machine, etc. differently. "What" can get damaged is a complicated topic, depending on frequency content and structures involved (incl biological). And of course, the amplitude.As a consumer that knows nothing about all that, I'd want the unmolested levels (Z-weight) vs filtered levels (A-weight), wouldn't you?
You'll notice that the new SAAMI standard does not allow A-weighting. It requires Z-weighting or unweighted.
Disclaimer:
I was just a Noise Guy, sometimes designing tests and other times running standardized tests, setting up equipment, then processing data and reporting it. Some of it for international regulatory requirements, so it was never done willy-nilly like we often see in the suppressor/silencer/can world. And to be clear, am not an expert in NIHL (Noise Induced Hearing Loss).
However, any sound at sufficient amplitude can cause biological damage. It seems like there's a lot more research being done on this, or least more being published. Not just "hearing" but also brain damage during firing events. But hopefully, that's why all of us are interested in cans!
FYI - brain damage can occur at lower pressures than researchers thought, but I don't know if the actual values have been published or released to the public yet. A little bird told me that, so take it for what it's worth!