Hi Al - I've been away for a few days. Yes, as you suspected, that 82dB figure is an average level, +/- 2dB, for recording engineers. Of course, peaks would be much higher. I was assuming the OP meant an average level. And I have also found, when I have turned on my SPL meter in rehearsals for fun, that the average level of most of what happens onstage is about that same amount, again peaks being much higher, and the softest things quite a bit lower. But the average would be somewhere around that 82dB figure, or not much lower, anyway.