To my plugged ears, black powder, whether in a muzzle loader or cartridge, sounds "softer". I did a bit of searching on the internet, but didn't find much. Is there any sound pressure level testing out there for black powder guns? I'm eventually going to do some hunting with 50-70 (duplicating the original Army loading, most likely), and my electronic hearing protection really doesn't work that well, but I always combine that with a suppressor.