Air to bone transmission characteristics

[Neil Todd <todd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear List

As some of you will know I have been interested in the physiology and
perception of loud sounds and music. I wonder if anyone could point me to
some literature in relation to the transmission of sound from air to bone.
I am particularly keen to find out what are the transfer characteristics of
the skull. I have read somewhere that the approximate difference in HL
between air and bone conducted hearing is about 40 dB. Thus with a naive
kind of calculation one might expect that with perfect ear plugs (or total
loss of the middle ear) that if you were standing in front of a loud rock
band playing at 120 dB SPL that you would perceive this to be about 80 dB.
Is this any where near the truth?

Any help gratefully received.

Neil Todd