i agree with Duke and others that low level dynamics and articulation is very important. i'm not one that knows the science part too well but i have come to appreciate this issue.
currently i don't have any limitations as to noise level since my room/system is in a separate building from my home. OTOH i have come to realize how important having your system be able to dynamically energize the room at reasonable SPL's is.
my previous room was 12' x 18' x 10' and my previous system was easily able to energize it at very reasonable SPL's. even though my speakers at that time (Kharma Exquisite's) generally needed some SPL's to 'get going' they were 'lively' in that room. i then moved that same system into my new acoustically designed (21' x 29' x 11') room and the system could not be dynamically engaging at lower SPL's. forgetting about the fact that it could not do low bass; the system could not get me 'involved' without really pushing it.
i did switch to the Von Schweikert VR9's and this speaker was much more dynamically alive at lower SPL's. further, it energized the room without a feeling of strain. the volume can be low enough for me to talk on the phone and yet can be so engaging to be a real distraction. there is never any feeling of strain or compression. it helps to have (2) 1000 watt integral subs, 4 channels of darTZeel amplification and 96db of speaker efficiency.
my conclusion is that a speaker needs to be properly scaled to a room dynamically for that low level information to be rendered with ease and naturalness. if a system does not engage at low levels it likely will not work well at high levels either.
currently i don't have any limitations as to noise level since my room/system is in a separate building from my home. OTOH i have come to realize how important having your system be able to dynamically energize the room at reasonable SPL's is.
my previous room was 12' x 18' x 10' and my previous system was easily able to energize it at very reasonable SPL's. even though my speakers at that time (Kharma Exquisite's) generally needed some SPL's to 'get going' they were 'lively' in that room. i then moved that same system into my new acoustically designed (21' x 29' x 11') room and the system could not be dynamically engaging at lower SPL's. forgetting about the fact that it could not do low bass; the system could not get me 'involved' without really pushing it.
i did switch to the Von Schweikert VR9's and this speaker was much more dynamically alive at lower SPL's. further, it energized the room without a feeling of strain. the volume can be low enough for me to talk on the phone and yet can be so engaging to be a real distraction. there is never any feeling of strain or compression. it helps to have (2) 1000 watt integral subs, 4 channels of darTZeel amplification and 96db of speaker efficiency.
my conclusion is that a speaker needs to be properly scaled to a room dynamically for that low level information to be rendered with ease and naturalness. if a system does not engage at low levels it likely will not work well at high levels either.