Answering your question is like asking the wise old owl, How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. His answer is thrrree, because he’s never made it to the center without biting.
I’ve never reached that point. My ears give out long before anything starts distorting or clipping!
I disagree, because whenever I’ve heard systems that can come relatively close to mimicking a live performance, they only achieved that feat at spirited SPLs, typically above 85dB average at the listening position (C-weighted). That even applies when playing recordings of non-amplified acoustic instruments. The problem that typically arises with mediocre systems is that once you reach an SPL required to produce a convincing kick drum or double bass, the speaker and/or amplification is straining. That’s been my personal experience anyhow. I’ve concluded the vast majority of domestic-oriented speakers cannot handle sufficient SPL at a listening distance of 9+ feet in a medium-sized room. It mostly comes down to the speaker drivers and crossover implementation. Most speaker drivers (whether off-shelf or in-house-production) are not nearly as low in distortion as the current SoTA. It becomes quite apparent in back to back A/Bs, especially in bass articulation and upper treble.
I would argue that if your ears give out before reaching 85dB averages at your listening position, you’ve either suffered significant hearing damage already, or you’re actually hearing your system struggling, either because the speakers lack dynamic range and/or the amplifier lacks headroom.
