Neil Jones pibbled:
John Phillips wrote:
To pursue an academic thought (rather than a desire to annoy the
neighbours) I was thinking about whether "orchestral" sound pressure
levels can be reasonably achieved at home.


2. What reasonable (relatively undistorted) peak SPLs will normal but
good quality home audio kit produce?

The answer to 2 looks fairly simple. Peak SPLs about 109 dBA seem
theoretically achieveable at 1 metre from an average sensitivity
loudspeaker (about 89 dBA for a nominal eight-ohm Watt, I think)
driven by a 100 W amplifier (+20 dBW). I think also that a reasonably
good modern loudspeaker could, in practice, go up to to 109 dBA on
occasional peaks (is this correct?).


About right. Hi-Fi Choice used to measure maximum SPL's, and big, efficient
speakers driven hard can reach this. Most top out at 105, and are
struggling very hard by then. Given the distortion, they probably sounded
louder than the big ones.

Compensating for (i) being, say, 3 metres away from the speakers, but
in a non-anechoic space, and (ii) having two loudspeakers, I think
that 109 dBA probably comes down to 103 to 106 dBA peak SPL at the
listening chair (still VERY LOUD, nevertheless).


http://www.yeodoug.com/resources/faq...iselevels.html (Near the
end)


Bloody hell. 128dB in front of the bassoon! Am I wrong, or would your ears
go into 'self-protect' mode at this level, possibly hugely affecting the
performance of the musician?

As you say, these are measured in the orchestra rather than from the
audience, but since you are using theoretical extrapolations for 2)
rather than measurement, why not do the same with the figures for the
violin, for example?


Found this: http://www.lhh.org/noise/decibel.htm
although as it's a 'pressure' group (sic) the levels may be distorted!

Regardless, my stereo isn't going to go there. Shame, I thought it did.
Perhaps a subwoofer would help.

--
Despite appearances, it is still legal to put sugar on cornflakes.
Strawberries are purely optional.