I always wondered about that. Lots of people on the board own SPL meters used for fine tuning channel balance and placement, but nobody seems to use them to do what they were designed for; measure how loud we are playing our music.
For reference, M2+sub, Return of the Giant Hogweeds again, -3dB on the volume control, 10 feet from the speakers in a 13 x 23 foot room... 96-98dB, C weighted at the loudest part of the song where the vocals start :
"Turn and run... nothing can stop them..."
This is as loud as I would ever play -- typically 10dB lower for comfortable listening, 20dB lower for background. Something like 84-86 dB for comfortable rock listening, ~75dB for background. Same settings for jazz but the average SPL tends to be lower... less dense instrumentation plus less hot recordings, I guess.
Can anyone else offer up typical listening SPLs ?
