Think what you like about the Grateful Dead, but they had some of the finest sound systems that I have heard. Sometimes I wished that they were louder but then realized that they were playing with sufficient volume but the sound was so clean that it did not seem as loud as it was. Following the Radio City Music Hall shows in 1980 their engineer, Dan Healy, mentioned in an interview that the sound system they used for those shows was 'capable of human damage' and yet I thought those shows could have been louder. When the sound is nice and clean it can be played plenty loud and it just sounds.....perfect.
How loud is loud?
Seems like a rhetorical question, but I'm curious what other folks think is "ok, now that's loud"
For me, if something's hitting 100dB as measured from where I'm seated while listening, and not just for a brief moments, but with some regularity, that's loud.
I used to listen at higher average volume than I do these days. Typically, I'm finding that at the right volume, the recording is more nuanced then when it's running full throttle.
If I'm not mistaken, the late Peter Walker observed that every recording has it's one correct or optimum playback level. I think generally he was correct, though once we are willing to forge optimum there's a range of acceptable.
For me, if something's hitting 100dB as measured from where I'm seated while listening, and not just for a brief moments, but with some regularity, that's loud.
I used to listen at higher average volume than I do these days. Typically, I'm finding that at the right volume, the recording is more nuanced then when it's running full throttle.
If I'm not mistaken, the late Peter Walker observed that every recording has it's one correct or optimum playback level. I think generally he was correct, though once we are willing to forge optimum there's a range of acceptable.
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