@pinwa, it is most likely a difference in frequency response. Trust the meter. As for hearing damage that is also frequency dependent. The high frequency fibers in your ears are the most sensitive. If you have good hearing you can listen at higher levels if you warm up your ears slowly. Start at a lower level say 75 dB and work your way up 5 dB at a time every 5 minutes or so. As you do this a little muscle attached to your little ear bones (the stapedius) contacts and dampens sound conduction effectively lowering the volume to your inner ear. This is why impulse noises like gun shots are the most damaging. Your ears do not get enough time to accommodate. Warming my ears up I am very comfortable at 95 dB on my meter. Meters may not read all the same. If you are comfortable and your ears do not wind up ringing you are probably OK. Ringing is always a bad sign. Many rock concerts attain levels over 105 dB which will make anybody's ears ring. I always take a set of musician's ear plugs (Etymotic) to concerts just in case.
SPL Levels and Perceived Loudness
I have two main systems, the Tekton Moabs and Magnepan 3.7's. In addition I have trialed a variety of other speakers including the Vandersteen 2ce. KEF LS50, Zu Audio Omen, and Spatial Audio M1. Before each listening session I always set the levels to 75 dB using pink noise and a SPL meter sitting next to my chair. The perceived loudness of the Moabs and 3.7's matches pretty closely at the same level but all of the other, smaller, speakers sound quite a bit softer and in order for the perceived loudness to be similar I have to boost the levels by 3-7 dB. So I have two questions.
1) Why would this be true? Is there something about the area of the radiating speaker surface or size of the front of the speakers that somehow impacts how I perceive the same measured SPL volume? Is it because I am using pink noise to set levels?
2) One of the reasons to set the SPL levels at 75 dB is to minimize the risk of any hearing loss. If I turn up the measured dB to 80+ with the smaller speakers but it is perceived the same as 75 db on the bigger speakers does that increase the risk of listening ?
1) Why would this be true? Is there something about the area of the radiating speaker surface or size of the front of the speakers that somehow impacts how I perceive the same measured SPL volume? Is it because I am using pink noise to set levels?
2) One of the reasons to set the SPL levels at 75 dB is to minimize the risk of any hearing loss. If I turn up the measured dB to 80+ with the smaller speakers but it is perceived the same as 75 db on the bigger speakers does that increase the risk of listening ?