Monitor SPL vs. Full-Range SPL

The main problem with high SPL level is that it requires costly drivers that do not compress or exceed Xmax easily....this is expecially true in the bass and cost goes up almost exponentially as one desires high SPL at low distortion in the bass. However, this is rarely a criteria for consumer audio where levels are usually modest and do not have to playback music at realistic levels to artists/musicians or survive accidents such as a dropped microphone or as mistake in a patch panel.

Hi CDC, You are correct and what you are driving at is very important. If you are listening to your system at a reference signal of 83db at 1000hz and your system goes to 50hz the overall SPL of white noise (or music) will be less than if your system is capable of 20hz. 80db is most definatly not 80db for every speaker, for a white noise response. 1000hz is 1000hz for every speaker, but depending on the speakers freq response and the rooms ability to reproduce the rest of the freq spectrum, that is the rest of the story.

Who says you can't hear 20hz?

This is why I reccomend a specific listening level, that being 83db at 1000hz and tryng to get as flat and as low a freq response as possible as your system is capable of at this level.
Bob

Thanks Acoustat6 for getting what I was trying to say. Here's another novel thought.
I am thinking people have a "reference" volume level which is set at the ear's most sensitive frequency. This is ~3,000 hz I think and is the x-over point for many speakers. If someone listens at 90 dB, it would be 90dB at that frequency.
I know my B&W's have a 8+ dB spike at 3-5,000hz and that spike limited how loud I would listen. See, 80dB overall actually gave me 90dB at 3-5,000hz and that was too loud to my ears. So I usually listened at 70dB to keep that spike at tolerable levels.

Cdc,

Indeed your hearing is most sensitive from 1 to 4 Khz...therefore sounds in this band will determine how loud you can stand it.

120 db SPL at 20 Hz is acceptable to your ears (your body feels most of it and ears are not that sensitive at this frequency)

120 db SPL at 1 Khz is definitely too loud to stand at a continuous level...even occaisional peaks at 120 db spl is starting to seriously push it for your ears (listening damage would ensue if you did this for an extended length of time)

Shadorne, that is interesting. The experts say SPL is what damages the ears but I agree more with what you are saying. From what I remember, the experts say all that bass you hear thumping in cars will damage your ears. But I think the serious flaw in this common knowledge is how high frequencies can damage the ears even at moderate volume SPL's.
Why?
I don't think a 1-4 kHz tone really puts out much SPL compared to a 20 hz tone. So when you start hitting 80-90 db at 1kHz, THAT is some serious volume.
It's too bad the experts don't make this more clear as damage to hearing has less to do with white noise / full range SPL's than all the hype would lead us to believe.