Sound is made up of different frequency components, which create an overall level.

However, the different ratios of frequency content affect the sound quite significantly. For convenience, signals are generally described in octave bands (each octave is a doubling of frequency) or ratios of such as third octaves. The Noise rating or NR curve specifies a the maximum value at a particular octave band with respect to a set of reference curves - i.e. you could have a sound level which meets say NR35 at each octave band from 63Hz to 8000 Hz, but exceeds it by 5 dB at one octave band. This sound would then be rated as NR 40. The reference curves are found in several standards including BS EN ISO 8233:1999. You can create them yourself using the following: Octave band level = a + b*NR level a and b for each octave band are as follows: a={35.4, 22, 12, 4.2, 0, -3.5, -6.1, -8} b={0.79, 0.87, 0.93, 0.98, 1, 1.015, 1.025, 1.03} The octave band centre frequencies are 63, 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 Hz. By rearranging the NR equation, you can obtain an NR value for a certain octave band sound level. You then take the maximum of all the octave bands to get the overall NR level. dB(Z) - originally dB(lin) or sometimes just dB, is the overall level of a sound and is the combination of all frequencies with a linear frequency weighting. Care should be taken when using dB, as the decibel is a general term and can apply to octave band levels as well as overall broadband levels. This can cover all frequencies or the more usual restricted bands of 63 - 8kHz, but you would get a lower level when using the restricted bands. This is why sometimes with a sound level meter, the level shown is not quite the same as when it is calculated from the octave bands, although this difference is usually small in the real world (0.1 dB ish), unless there was a very significant low frequency sub 50 HZ component. dB(A) is a weighted broadband level which approximates the ear's sensitivity to different frequencies. The weightings are as below: {-26.2, -16.1, -8.6, -3.2, 0, 1.2, 1, -1.1} (from 63 to 8k) There are also dB(B) and dB(C). B is never really used and C is sometimes used for aircraft noise. To calculate a dB(A), weihgt each octave band level accordingly and then logarithmically add each band together. LA=10*log10(sum(10^((Ln-Wn)/10))) where n=each octave band, L = level and W = weighting. This weighting does extend to 32 Hz, but is rarely used in normal applications. As a result, you can get lots of different octave band combinations which will achieve the same dB(A) level, but would have significantly different frequency contents. Therefore, there is no definitive relationship between dB(A) and NR. This can only be derived from the calculations above. However, there is an approximation for mechanical services (air conditioning) noise whereby NR + 6 ~ dB(A).