Does It have to be loud?

If you take the SPL meter while music is playing moderately loud, say average 90 to 95 dB, and measure the SPL in room corners you will notice they are much higher than the average SPL. Around 6-9 dB higher! And there are many other locations in the room where very high sound pressures can be found. Standing waves, first reflections, etc. at room boundaries and out in the 3D space of the room. Maybe even at the listening position, you never know. It’s like having an addition 8 to 20 speakers in the room playing very loud. Anyone see any problem with that? 🙄

@gdhal 

Awesome. If that is continuous at 107 dB (not just peaks) at the listening position that is indeed very loud - more than anyone would care to listen for more than a short period. Congrats!

If you take the SPL meter while music is playing moderately loud, say average 90 to 95 dB, and measure the SPL in room corners you will notice they are much higher than the average SPL.

Hello Geoffkait. I shall try measuring in the corners at moderate SPL. In my particular case, the way my listening room "opens up", the only corners I could take a measurement at would be the front wall (behind the speakers). And I have bass traps in those corners. I haven’t measured the SPL anywhere behind my speakers. But as I measure from the front, invariably the SPL is reduced the further away from the speakers I go. But its interesting what you are stating, and I shall attempt some corner readings at my next measurement opportunity.

Awesome. If that is continuous at 107 dB (not just peaks) at the listening position that is indeed very loud - more than anyone would care to listen for more than a short period. Congrats!

Hell shadorne. Yes, that SPL is continuous, however, in fairness it should be noted that (a) I have two speakers firing during music playback, so of course I realize that even though I’m in front of one speaker, some sound from the other is effecting the measurements and (b) one thing which my multi meter lacks is a "hold" feature, whereby it would remain at the top most SPL level. I have to watch it, and it does fluctuate. But the 107db I mentioned in my previous example is easily achievable (with the right source music). And by the way, in the case of Nirvana, most of their music when played very loud makes it somewhat difficult to distinguish distortion from Kurt’s normal vocal intentions :)


EDIT:

By the way, somewhat related.... I never realized how convenient it is to have a an amp with a remote control. In my case, even though I primarily listen in the mid 80’s SPL, often is the case that just a minute or so passage of music within a particular song warrants (in my mind anyway) playing louder/lower with respect to the rest of the song. The remote make it rather convenient to raise/lower even by just a few (5?) db within the same song.

Further @shadorne....

BTW 110 dB is more than 8 times louder than 100...so above 95 db SPL (the max for most speakers at the listening position) it gets very hard very quickly to deliver full dynamic range. (110 dB being 32 times louder than 95 dB)

I’m not sure your statement (quoted immediately above) is accurate. I’ve always been of the understanding that +3db is twice the power, +10db is twice the perceived volume.

By inspection open rooms will not support the pressures that a closed room will. For better or worse. 😛

@gdhal 

3 dB is twice the volume mathematically

Perception of a doubling in sound depends on the individual as well as the absolute loudness and frequency - so it is not really precise.