roberjerman, your ears are shutting down because of distortion not volume. I routinely subject innocents to 95 dB after appropriate warm up.
They start trying to talk to you not realizing how loud it is. Now most rock concerts are up at 110 dB but that volume is unnecessary to get the feeling you are there without damaging your ears. 95 dB is perfect. But, very few systems can do that effortlessly.
gs5556, I can easily hear one dB. 3 dB is painfully obvious and 6 dB is an earthquake. You need to live with a system that accurately measures volume in dB or a dB meter. Volume at distance is more complicated because you are listening to a stereo pair. As you move closer to one speaker you move away from the other. Volume one meter out from one speaker is almost the same at the listening position. Just use the meter at the listening position. That is where it counts. Measuring power of the speaker terminals with a high impedance meter is perfectly appropriate. It won't be a perfect number but close enough to give you an idea what is happening.
They start trying to talk to you not realizing how loud it is. Now most rock concerts are up at 110 dB but that volume is unnecessary to get the feeling you are there without damaging your ears. 95 dB is perfect. But, very few systems can do that effortlessly.
gs5556, I can easily hear one dB. 3 dB is painfully obvious and 6 dB is an earthquake. You need to live with a system that accurately measures volume in dB or a dB meter. Volume at distance is more complicated because you are listening to a stereo pair. As you move closer to one speaker you move away from the other. Volume one meter out from one speaker is almost the same at the listening position. Just use the meter at the listening position. That is where it counts. Measuring power of the speaker terminals with a high impedance meter is perfectly appropriate. It won't be a perfect number but close enough to give you an idea what is happening.