Passive monitors - peak or rms to be able to reach 105dB?

[Gohanto]

Just a general question as I've been looking at passive monitors...

When monitors have their sensitivity posted (say 85 dB 1w/1m) and their max power handling, both of those values are generally for rms current (outside of car audio and dollar store speakers anyway).

Do speakers need to be sensitive enough and/or handle enough power to generate 105dB rms at the mix position (in a system calibrated to 85dB), or is it only required that they can only handle peaks to that level?

 

[Petrus]

Peak. For standard monitoring the RMS SPL needs only be around 80 dB (for normal -20 to -12 dBFS levels), which would kick peaks to around 100 db SPL max. Anything louder for any period of time will damage your hearing. 105 dB SPL RMS is something awfully loud and your system would have to be able to reproduce almost 130 dB SPL peaks...