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How loud do you listen to your music?

Today I decided to take my RS SPL meter and see just how loud my system when I was listening to levels that I perceive to be pretty loud. To my surprise, the nominal SPL was only 70db with peaks going as high as 82db. I had expected the SPL reading to be much higher especially since I thought I had my system cranked up pretty loud. When I put the volume back to where I mainly listen, the SPL was only in the 50-60db range. For whatever reason, this number seemed too low but I do not really have a good sense for what decibels really mean in terms of how loud things are in the real world. Is 60db loud? Is 70db excessive?

So my question is, how loud do you normally listen to your music?
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Showing 1 response by calbrs03

calbrs03
184 posts
 
70 db is pretty loud, not extreme, but it's getting up there. 50-60 is much safer. Here's a pretty good site for comparisons:

www.abelard.org/hear/hear.htm#how-loud

Is your room treated? If not, you might want to think about bass traps and diffusers--they have been my obsession for the past few months, and they do help make lower decibles levels sound larger. The reason is fairly complex, at least I wouldn't be able to explain it coherently, but you can Google many website articles and discussions on the topic.
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