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peak vs RMS

Posted by gymwear5@hotmail.com (M) on May 11, 2007 at 07:47:39

In Reply to: SPL Calcualtor & SPL Meter - Need some tech advice. posted by Steven on May 10, 2007 at 12:53:39:

94dB on a RMS value Sound Meter (Fast or Slow) is very loud! Peak levels with music will be 13+ dB or greater higher depending on the source - if there is no clipping.

Here's how I figure it out. Start with The power amp and calculate its output level in dBW. Your 85W RMS Amplifier can probably go to 125Watts Peak for short periods... 1.7dB dynamic capability, but lets use 100 Watts as a nice round number - 100Watts = 20dBWatt.

So now since your speaker sensitivity is 90dB for one Watt (usually at 1 meter) two Speakers are 93dB - perhaps a bit higher say 4.5 dB because of the correlation between the loudspeakers signals. Depending on your room acoustics the level will drop about 3dB for doubling of distance. At 11ft that drops the output down to 90dB for 1 watt into TWO speakers again.

Using PEAK values you get 90dB for 1 Watt, 100 dB for 10 Watts, and 110dB for 100 Peak Watts - add 4.5 dB for the second speaker and their 103.5 goes up to 108dB - not to far off. Your Sound meter is likely +/- 3 or 4dB in accuracy.

Looks like your are doing just fine

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