05-10-13: AtmasphereI once sat in the very first row at Tanglewood for a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra of Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet." I have no doubt that peaks reached at least 115 db, perhaps even 120 db. I would have to say that it came close to the point of being uncomfortable, but for me didn't quite cross that threshold. There were a couple of times, though, that my wife briefly put her hands over her ears.
I wonder what happens if one listens to nicely produced music, say a big band with lots of brass and high frequency energy live at 105DB? Is it as comfortable as listening to the no NF tube amp at the same level? Its a fair question, I think.It is. If you sit close up in a concert hall it will easily be that loud.
I've measured the Sheffield direct-to-disk recording of that work as reaching about 103 to 105 db at my listening position. The acoustics on that recording are dry and excessively bright, though. If it had a tonal balance that is more typical of well engineered minimally mic'd orchestral recordings, I suspect I would be setting the volume control such that peaks would approach 110 db.
Out of curiosity, a while back I examined the waveforms of that recording on a computer, using an audio editing program. Its dynamic range, the difference in volume between the loudest notes and the softest notes, was around 55 db!
Best regards,
-- Al