[faultfracture]

I'm a stickler for numbers and I continually try to make my listening experience accurate and safe by creating tables of volume calculations with various devices and headphone sensitivities. A good base for me was the calculations given by "NWAVGuy" but he recommends listening to music with the "peaks" at 105-115 db, I guess I'm unsure how loud this is based on continuous music, is he just referring to highly dynamically recorded music? I routinely listen to heavy metal, which is heavily compressed, in this case would I need signficantly less volume than rms calculations based on 105db? What is the normal average volume level of music with "105 db peaks?"

 

[RRod]

I'm a stickler for numbers and I continually try to make my listening experience accurate and safe by creating tables of volume calculations with various devices and headphone sensitivities. A good base for me was the calculations given by "NWAVGuy" but he recommends listening to music with the "peaks" at 105-115 db, I guess I'm unsure how loud this is based on continuous music, is he just referring to highly dynamically recorded music? I routinely listen to heavy metal, which is heavily compressed, in this case would I need signficantly less volume than rms calculations based on 105db? What is the normal average volume level of music with "105 db peaks?"

Yeah it depends entirely on the RMS/loudness of the piece in relation to the peak. Assuming a peak at 0dB digital full-scale, a highly dynamic classical piece will be in the -30dB RMS range, so that's 75-85dBSPL over the entire work; that sounds reasonable. Newer metal masters at -5dB RMS would mean 100-110dBSPL. That's a lot to ask from your ears for an hour or two, and it's drifting into "I could sue my job if they put me through this" territory.

If you're really worried, invest in an accurate SPL meter or a calibrated mic.

 

[Monsterzero]

My semi-educated guess is that he is referring to classical music,which is prone to huge volume swings.

 

[faultfracture]

Yeah it depends entirely on the RMS/loudness of the piece in relation to the peak. Assuming a peak at 0dB digital full-scale, a highly dynamic classical piece will be in the -30dB RMS range, so that's 75-85dBSPL over the entire work; that sounds reasonable. Newer metal masters at -5dB RMS would mean 100-110dBSPL. That's a lot to ask from your ears for an hour or two, and it's drifting into "I could sue my job if they put me through this" territory.

If you're really worried, invest in an accurate SPL meter or a calibrated mic.

That helps tremendously, thank you!

 

[faultfracture]

Yeah it depends entirely on the RMS/loudness of the piece in relation to the peak. Assuming a peak at 0dB digital full-scale, a highly dynamic classical piece will be in the -30dB RMS range, so that's 75-85dBSPL over the entire work; that sounds reasonable. Newer metal masters at -5dB RMS would mean 100-110dBSPL. That's a lot to ask from your ears for an hour or two, and it's drifting into "I could sue my job if they put me through this" territory.

If you're really worried, invest in an accurate SPL meter or a calibrated mic.

May I ask if your familiar with the foobar plugin for DR measurement? Can those numbers be directly interpreted as the amount of dynamic range in a recording?

 

[Dulalala]

I'm a stickler for numbers and I continually try to make my listening experience accurate and safe by creating tables of volume calculations with various devices and headphone sensitivities. A good base for me was the calculations given by "NWAVGuy" but he recommends listening to music with the "peaks" at 105-115 db, I guess I'm unsure how loud this is based on continuous music, is he just referring to highly dynamically recorded music? I routinely listen to heavy metal, which is heavily compressed, in this case would I need signficantly less volume than rms calculations based on 105db? What is the normal average volume level of music with "105 db peaks?"

Basically what @RRod and @monsterzero said is correct. From what I know of Nwaudioguy, he mentions it for classical music or jazz as those generally have the highers DR compared to other types of music. He's just taking the highest possible value to be safe.

May I ask if your familiar with the foobar plugin for DR measurement? Can those numbers be directly interpreted as the amount of dynamic range in a recording?

You mean this plugin? http://www.pleasurizemusic.com/de/free-downloads

The dynamic range is just the dynamic range (DR) that the plugin shows, it's just split into left and right channel.

It might vary a bit for your headphones, though since the frequency response of the headphone itself isn't flat.

 

[RRod]

May I ask if your familiar with the foobar plugin for DR measurement? Can those numbers be directly interpreted as the amount of dynamic range in a recording?

The underlying DR definition used by the typical foobar meter is here:
http://www.dynamicrange.de/sites/default/files/Measuring DR ENv3.pdf

Personally I find it more to be a 'compression detector' rather than a 'dynamic range meter', due to the nature of its calculation. Loudness range based on EBU R 128 does a bit better as a dynamic range measure; I'd wager it can still be 'tricked' by certain material:
https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/tech/tech3342.pdf

I've tried other various measures (crest factor, overall RMS to short-term max RMS, etc.). They disagree on many tracks, but generally all agree on what is *extremely* high and low dynamism.