Speaker Volume

I have tried a few phone apps to use, but heavily rely on my Radio Shack meter. A few good meters are available, starting at $20, going up to double, that I feel are superior to using the phone apps. My feeling is that the phones ( the built in mics, and the casing part, where the mic is on the phone ) are the weakness, as opposed to the apps. As yogiboy has said, 105 db is loud. I play my system, at times, when peaks hit 105 - 110 db, but these peaks are not constant, and the normal range is 20 db below that, at 85 to 90 db, which is still too loud for some people. I take my own hearing tests ( there are apps for that ), which are through headphones, and I visit my audiologist every birthday. There are many decibel graphs available, showing a wide range of user products, such as blenders, sink disposals, and much more. Enjoy ! MrD.

The Persona B is a high quality bookshelf, stand mounted ( preferable ) speaker that has a bass limit to 60hz, + or - 2db. Not a cranking type speaker, ime. Your Nad is 140 watt Nad power, so this should not the problem. I would run the speakers, using the Nad’s crossover, at a higher cut off frequency, and add an excellent powered sub, and crank away. The Nad also has input level matching, that can be memorized between sources, and the gain to that input could be set lower. You may want to try connecting the laptop output, using the headphone out, into the Nad, instead of the HDMI. My first comment is my recommendation, for cranking. I have been told my several people, that Pandora is highly compressed, so this might also be what you are listening to. Not familiar with Pandora through a system, personally. Enjoy ! MrD.