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paranoid listener-damaging speakers?

I am one of those guys who is always wondering if he is listening too loud for his speakers capability. my system briefly consists of a prima luna prologue 2 integrated, custom eton 2 way speakers with a silk dome tweeter and 8 inch midrange, with a mhdt labs constantine dac. my room is 15x12 feet roughly. i listen about 6 feet away.
I like to listen at a level where i can feel the bass and midbass and feel that the speakers are loud enough to recreate their original acoustic on the recording. is there a rough guide to know if i am listening too loud without a meter? i will occasinally think i hear some distortion on loud passages, but it may be on the recording, i may just be paranoid? advice please? thanks.
djwilbourn
musicnoise
377 posts
 
Specs for speakers are usually given at 1 meter from the speaker. As to your ears - the listening position.
djwilbourn OP
42 posts
 
Well guys i got that spl meter and did some measuring mostly at the listening position (6 feet away). my peaks seem to average in the low 80's db. does this sound reasonable for my speakers 8" two way floorstanders? i just want to be slightly conservative on driving these as i like the sound of them and want to keep them damage free. thanks for all the input thus far.
musicnoise
377 posts
 
80 dB peaks is a very conservative listening level, particularly if you are listening to music with a wide dynamic range. Even for highly compressed music, 80 dB is conservative. The room is not large, the measurement was taken at a meaningful distance and if your amp was so underpowered as to have drastic clipping you would hear the distortion. Based on the above, it is highly unlikely that you are going to damage the drivers at that level.
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