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I'm pretty sure that a vocal conversation is somewhere around 70-75 dB.. So 85 really isn't that loud. People routinely listen to sounds in excess of 100 dB without being bothered... You just don't do it all the time or it gets annoying. A drum set is typically rated at 120 dB and that's loud as shit. The loudest possible sound that can exist in our atmosphere is 212 dB because after that it's a shock wave (ie explosion).
Also that logarithmic function is related to the energy in the waveform that a listening device perceives. If I recall correctly, each decibel is supposed to be an individually distinguishable loudness to our ear, and the energy required to go up 1 decibel is twice that of the one below that. Hearing damage is a function of exposure loudness and time so look it up.
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