how loud do you go? (1 Viewer)

[kevinmuff]

how loud do your home theater systems go?
ive tested mine, and ive got it up to 115 decibles..
is that much?
what do you guys get out of your systems?

 

[chuckg]

Mine goes to 11.

 

[kevinmuff]

uh.. well thats pretty quiet concidering mine goes to 115
im not talking about what it says on your receiver
but use a sound tester

 

[BrianTwig]

Kevin,

Never seen Spinal Tap have you.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

He was being sarcastic. Reference level for a Home Theater is 105dB peaks for the mains and 115dB peaks for the LFE. Since this is what the DVD is mixed for, this is an optimum calibration level. However, to achieve this level in all but the smallest rooms requires some pretty heavy hardware, especially the sub. Most subs will be putting out major distortion and/or rolling off lower frequencies before hitting 115dB in a medium to large room. So the question probably should be "Can you cleanly hit reference level in your room?", not "How loud do you go?". I assure you, when measured with an SPL meter, the majority of home theaters cannot produce a "yes" answer to the first question (I know mine can't), although there are plenty here at HTF which can.

 

[dany]

What Jeff said. 115db is nice water cooler talk.

 

[kevinmuff]

really? well then im hella confused
i use my decible tester and it says 115db
and in my room, that is no water cooler talk, it can tell you that

 

[mylan]

While we don't necessarily doubt you, what Jeff was saying is at what distortion levels are the speakers outputing to get to that level? Loudness is not a good barometer of how it sounds, as an example, my brother in law had a car stereo with Pioneer 6x9's and cranked it way too loud thinking that was cool but at that volume level, the speakers were distorting so badly that I couldn't stay in the car for very long. Can you listen to a whole movie at 115db. ? Doubtful.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Do you mean a Sound Pressure Level (SPL) meter? I've never heard of a "decibel tester". Water cooler talk or not, we strive to use the proper terms so that newbies to the hobby aren't scouring the shelves at Radio Shack looking for the wrong "tester".

 

[Arthur S]

Hi Kevin

If you are really listening at 115 db...you will start to lose some of your hearing after a while...doctors recommend listening at below 85db. Not kidding...except for low bass. I listened to stereo music at 92db and it was very very very loud.

Do yourself a favor and try to keep it down below reference level most of the time.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Exactly, reference is supposed to deliver an average dialog level of 85dB, but I find that much too loud. I usually listen around -20 to -10. This is more than enough for great impact and is also more within the limits of my system.

 

[Stan Marcewicz]

It's even harder than that. If your sub is sent signals besides just the LFE, the potentially required no-compression SPL is over 115 db.

Most of the time the very lowest frequencies run outta gas first in a HT.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

At your sevice, Stan:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...pril-2000.html

I'd also add that if one is using a simple SPL meter to read raw SPL, not only might there be lots of distortion but the meter could well be reading a narrow in-room FR peak which could easily be 15db higher than the rest.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Methinks that movie is older than Kevin.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Well, I was assuming anything that can hit 115dB must have the mains and center set to "large".

 

[John Garcia]

Methinks this thread is useless fodder, but I did laugh at chuckq's 11 comment

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Yeah...it doesn't read like I meant it to, I'll edit and substitute "movie" for "line".

 

[dany]

Now your learning some good stuff. Read what they are saying.

 

[Doug Brewster]

Total enjoyment.

 

[MaRtIn^dB]

To give a straight answer you'd have to qualify this my friend...