ok dillema in my head solved. If your running 10 db hot subs and listening at reference you should be seeing 125 db. So your numbers reflect more of 10 below reference which is TOTALLY different and EXACTLY where I listen at. Makes much more sense to me now
117 db in a 5,300 cubic foot room is still no joke, although I'm curious about what frequency that is more than the total spl. I'd have a hard time believing that two $800 15's would do that at 20 hz in a room that size.
No, they are much lower at 20hz. That is just overall db achieved during those scenes by the meter. That was my basis for comparison, how did each exact scene "improve" in spl with the changes. That is also measuring the WHOLE system running. Only changes were the subs though in those measurements, I just think it is cool my system hits 115db during a cool movie scene, but that is from my car audio days LOL. Also, the big bass hits in those scenes are what drove the db's up, not the fronts/center sounds.