paranoid listener-damaging speakers?


I am one of those guys who is always wondering if he is listening too loud for his speakers capability. my system briefly consists of a prima luna prologue 2 integrated, custom eton 2 way speakers with a silk dome tweeter and 8 inch midrange, with a mhdt labs constantine dac. my room is 15x12 feet roughly. i listen about 6 feet away.
I like to listen at a level where i can feel the bass and midbass and feel that the speakers are loud enough to recreate their original acoustic on the recording. is there a rough guide to know if i am listening too loud without a meter? i will occasinally think i hear some distortion on loud passages, but it may be on the recording, i may just be paranoid? advice please? thanks.
djwilbourn

Showing 2 responses by mlsstl

Buy a $50 Radio Shack meter. You've probably got at least $2,000 invested in your system so you've got something to protect in the way of equipment. It is very helpful to have a solid reference point when you're talking volume. It appears you like to listen "loud" but without an outside reference readers can only guess what that really means.
Djwilbourn said: " although i thought 40 watts of tube power would be more than enough..."
That, my friend, is why you need a SPL meter. Everything is just conjecture and speculation until you get a solid reference point for your particular flavor of "loud."

If you're trying to push 110 dB of chest-thumping bass and window-rattling volume from speakers of currently unknown efficiency, the odds of that are not on your side with 40 watts.

If 85 or 90 dB meets your definition of "loud" then chances are a lot better that your power is sufficient if your speakers are medium efficiency or better.

You've been given a wealth of information to work with. But now the ball is in your court and you've got some legwork to do.