Low level listening

I have power to spare with my Thor's (Tyler's mid line qualifies in this benifit as well), even though my room is large I listen at low/mid volume. Speaker designs that use Seas drivers are rated as low efficient, like 87, but still a little 40 watt tube amp drives them with full rich sound, vol control between quarter/half power. Its like Star says on the Thiel topic, "nothing that dominates the room both sonically and physically". ...lets see I've got Debussy's La Mer on (a work that has recently been voted by some members over at Gramophone as a bit "over-rated", IOW, "out-dated"...????, I guess they suggest I listen to a Brahms' sym instead..??)...anyway the vol is at 10 oclock...now at 11 oclock. Its at this vol the KT90's show some weakness. A bit of stress shows up, steely sounding , which is why I keep it at 10 oclock, the sound is pure and clean. Also I might add La Mer has very soft passages and great cressendos, these climaxes can resonate through the house in which a cry will follow, "turn down the stereo!!!"...., so 10 oclock serves well. If the KT88's arrived and show up the KT90's in terms of crisper mids, , then I'm gonna wonder why Jadis even stuck the 90's in the JOR in the first place.
Hope I answered some of your question. There is no connection between low sensitivity / low volume being at odds. Also it should be said that the old myth that tubes can not deliver in bass and slam, is just that a myth, and not to be believed. As my little 40 watt Jadis blew out the water my Rotel 100 watts per channel ss amp.

Rushton "consistentcy of tonal balance across the fq range". "Tube electronics achieves excellent resolution in low level listening". 2 excellent poiints.
As I listen to Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach's Painted From Memory at 1/4 vol, I hear only the EXACT playback medium, IOW the weakness'/strengths of that recording co,me thorugh, with almost zero coloration/distortion from the Jadis, though its said the Jadis has a "house sound", and is true. The Thos's as well have their slight coloration and in fact every/all components have their trademark color. What we look for is the components with the least distortion, one that is most pleasing to our ears.
My ststem picks up the poor quality of the Costello recording at low volume, now at 50% vol, then the Jadis begins to show stress.

I also played a few minutes of a New Orleans folk cd, Kermit Ruffins Drop Me Off In New Orleans. Here is a much better quality, and its as clpose to live as you are going to get, at 1/4 vol. The Jadis/Thor only project the exact playback.
This is why Rushton says that tubes at low volume can bring forth the finest in resolutions.
Greg also has a good point, "Noise is louder than music...Hense high resolution systems appear to be playing at lower volumes than they really are"
IOW with high resolution/superior fidelity systems (amp/speakers/cdp) at low/mid volume, one only hears the EXACT playback, as close as it gets.
My listening room here in Baton Rouge is 30X35 with a church style V cathedral ceiling, and at 1/4 vol, its plenty for the ear.
Yet the bigger Cayin is calling me, and I must answer.
Paul

"speaker should play good at low and high volume". Why is it necessary to play at high volume?
I'd bet less than 25% of audiogon members listen at high volume.
I've never understood the idea behind loud listening levels. Does music become better at high volumes? The only thing loud stereo does, is bother our family, our neighbors and our pets.
The objective behind all our system investments is to find a image that produces the lowest distortion at reasonable volume level.
I've heard many a system that was cranked up at a half volume and sounded like c**p. These systems were valued at $$$ more than mine and more than twice the size.
I would never invest in a speaker that weighs in at more than 100 pounds each. I think my Thors are like 70 pounds each.

Would someone translate Plato's comment...guess I'm an Aristotleian...
:-)

Agree, just about any stereo sytem sounds good to excellent at low volume levels. I'm refering to less than 9 o'clock on the control. Now just after 9 o'clock on the contriol, this is point where any average sounding amp, begins to show its coloration/distortion.
As you crank the control even higher to say 11 o'oclock, this is where the coloration/distortion make for fatigue.
Same applies to pseakers as well.
So when testing equipment, don't listen to low/nor to loud. Too loud will overwhelm the senses and if you are not experienced in what is true fidelity , you may be misled.
I'm amazed at how poor some audiophiles senses are when it comes to high fidelity. When doing a comparison listening, try to be as objective as possible. Your mind should somehow make the hearing sense as an objective function.
I had a friend back in new orleans had a $$$$ system with a Audio Research 200 tube amp and pre, Cary 202, Talon speakers, and Mirage One speakers. Sounded aweful, I did not enjoy the sound one bit.
I imagined he thought his system sounded great.
btw since he had the power, he use to listen loud, which made it worse.
Big money does not ever equal great sound. And never ever forget that.

Paul

how many folks actually own apiano to compare the speaker with it?
How many here actually listen to only piano solo?
After having heard more than 50 speakers in the past 5 yrs, I can tell you there was not one that matches the Thors. A few had deeper bass, but then those speakers had either smokey fatiguing mids and/or steely "fake' highs.
None matched the Thors as a balanced in all 3 sprectums. ..., even though the Thors were among the lowest in price range.