A friend of mine came over with his fiance for a bbq 2 weeks ago and after splitting a couple of bottles of wine, beer and glasses of port, we ventured downstairs to watch a dvd with the surround system all rigged to go.
After waking up the next morning and realizing the receiver was still on, i went to shut it off and had noticed the volume notch was set for 85 (on the Onkyo 0-100 scale).
Out of curiousity i decided to measure the sound levels at this unprecedented volume setting.
The Radio Shack SPL peaked around 105dB from the listening position with music, and around 103dB on average for a couple of parts of the movie which incidentally was Braveheart. The distance away was 8 feet.

I'm curious, has anyone else really pushed their systems and if so, just how loud did it get?
Just for reference 120dB is about the sound level of a jet plane taking off while 100dB is a pneumatic drill and chainsaw level.(see list).

Oddly enough his fiance actually fell asleep during the last half of the movie. Truly amazing.

Also about two weeks ago, we had a "home concert" in our formal living/dining as a function of our church, inviting a professional soprano soloist and pianist, and over 50 people as the audience. During a rehearsal session, out of curiosity I measured the SPL of live performance at 8'-10' away from the artists. The peak SPL at the fortissimo attacks of the piano readily went up to 105dB. But as you can imagine, the performance never sounded "too loud." We own a decent Yamaha grand piano, but it is by no means the "concert" size -- it is just a home-size grand. I think a full-concert grand piano is readily capable of 108dB peak SPL or so, when measured that close.

Of course, there is a HUGE difference in perceived loudness between those "noise sources" that produce high steady-state SPL, and the live acoustic music with much lower average SPL and occasional high peaks.

When I seriously listen to music or watch movies, the peak SPL at listening position will easily go up to 105dB or so. chess, I guess you have been too civilized and conservative when it comes to the sound level.

In reply to:

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I guess you have been too civilized and conservative when it comes to the sound level.

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Perhaps i have.
Next time i'll boost it all the way up to 86 from 85 on the volume knob just to live on the crazy side of life.

I can just picture you whipping out that SPL from its waist holster during the performance to measure the sound levels.

I think there is a scientific difference between falling asleep and passing out in a drunken stupor, right?

i wish i had an SPL meter just to see, i think it would be really fun to get a really powerfull amp. i mean a monster. and just turn the volume up until the speakers die. just to see how loud it gets... via remote control of course! when i read about how axiom stress tested the M80 with a Bryston amp at near clipping levels for 100? hours. or was it 10 i forget. playing rock. Man, i would have loved to be there for that.

Actually jbz she was sober and drove them both home after the movie that night.
That is what i find so amazing how anyone can sleep through an hour of 104dB noise of battles.

Perhaps Alan has an idea of the max SPL measured while testing some of the Axiom speakers.
Although if he tells us, some may want to go out and try to hit those levels as well. That could be ugly.

My third set of speakers, Cerwin Vega vs-150s, 15inch subs, 6 inch mids, 1 inch tweeter, three ways, 4 ohms, powered by a qsc rmx 1450 went to 115db on my rat shack meter right before the qsc started clipping. Its rated for 450 watts rms at 4 ohms. They cracked the walls in the house in a few spots and rattled my smoke detector off the roof. I still keep them for parties and lug em outside for bbq's and stuff. They are by no means accurate, but they are built like a tank and crank with the best of em.