A sound’s softness is only meaningful relative to who can hear it

Evidence

We can use loudness growth data to emphasize why caution must be taken to not interchange the terms loudness and intensity. Consider Figure 4–14 and a stimulus presented at 20 dB HL. This stimulus is soft to the listener with normal hearing but inaudible to a listener with sensorineural hearing loss. Thus, it would be a mistake to refer to this stimulus as soft — it is only soft to the person who is able to hear it! — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 853