Great report. Loud doesn't even begin to describe it - visceral punishment through sound is beginning to capture what it's like.

I, too, have noted that with ear plugs or a headset that certain sounds become easier to discern.

Drag racers are indeed their own species. I've gone to a drag strip a coupe of times - I know a couple of racers that like embarrassing road racing types such as myself. They always succeed; I am a lousy drag racer.

However, they are terrible when they need to do things like brake, and turn left and right.

I call PLACEBO!

Buddha - Great report and food for thought. There's so much going on with our audio systems and how they interact with our hearing systems, it will take a long time to figure out. Things like Sam Tellig's $1.20 tweak seem to be about tuning or enhancing certain frequencies via sympathetic resonance. Your earplugs and headphones filtered specific frequencies; it's conceivable things along this line of thought could be applied to filter or tune out sounds in our rigs. Maybe we need to start making a tinfoil lined audiophile helmet that is fully tunable so that we can live in harmony with the DUPs of the world.

I've read that 30 dB or so is the maximum protection that earplugs can provide due to "bone conduction." That's your SKULL transmitting the sound to your ears! So, at 160 dB your ears are still exposed to 130 dB. I'd stay away from the track.

In my work I am required to work around military jets during final stages of a project. I have found that both earplugs and earmuffs work well reducing turbine engine noise. But at one test using a large disiel generator I compared foam earplugs to an active noise cancellation headphone system (from our friends at Bose). While both need a good job of reducing high and mid frequency levels, I was amazed at the active systems reduction of the dominant low frequency noise level compared to foam earplugs.