A little expansion on some points others have made.
Higher efficiency speakers may help, amp cleaner and faster at low power may help, and room and distance can also help. Clean fast response of both Amp and speakers with minimum ringing and resonance are what can make music sound musical regardless of efficiency and power. There are low efficiency speakers that combined with the proper amp can be more musical than high efficiency speakers with any amp. Remember that speaker efficiency is just a measure of sound pressure at a reference frequency at a reference power level. It really doesn't say much about how musical the speaker is. It is only really helpful when trying to match multiple speakers in surround applications to try to even the response. Waterfall charts can help you find speakers that you may find more musical to you regardless of efficiency, and they will likely sound more musical regardless of the volume level.
My own observations and experience are that you need close to 20 db range above ambient noise level for music to start becoming musical. 30-40db starts to get real. Below that you can tell it is music, but nothing you do will make it musical as in detail, depth, soundstage and revealing. Loudness compensation does little to change that, just helps hear some frequencies that are masked by the background.
So the real questions are what is your background noise level, and what level above that do you consider low volume.
I am in an apartment and have a bg noise level of 40-45dbA at the minimum. It can commonly be 50-55dbA with appliances and fans running in my apartment and adjoining ones. In my main listening area with minimum bg noise level, volume at 65dbA peak begins to sound musical and gets better up to 85-90dbA. Above that room reflections and reactions start to counter any increased musicality.
In another room I have a work station and a near field setup. With computer and drives running the bg level is higher on average, but since I am near field, 20 dbA above ambient is not only fairly musical, but has some depth and height, no sub or loudness control needed.
YAMMV
Higher efficiency speakers may help, amp cleaner and faster at low power may help, and room and distance can also help. Clean fast response of both Amp and speakers with minimum ringing and resonance are what can make music sound musical regardless of efficiency and power. There are low efficiency speakers that combined with the proper amp can be more musical than high efficiency speakers with any amp. Remember that speaker efficiency is just a measure of sound pressure at a reference frequency at a reference power level. It really doesn't say much about how musical the speaker is. It is only really helpful when trying to match multiple speakers in surround applications to try to even the response. Waterfall charts can help you find speakers that you may find more musical to you regardless of efficiency, and they will likely sound more musical regardless of the volume level.
My own observations and experience are that you need close to 20 db range above ambient noise level for music to start becoming musical. 30-40db starts to get real. Below that you can tell it is music, but nothing you do will make it musical as in detail, depth, soundstage and revealing. Loudness compensation does little to change that, just helps hear some frequencies that are masked by the background.
So the real questions are what is your background noise level, and what level above that do you consider low volume.
I am in an apartment and have a bg noise level of 40-45dbA at the minimum. It can commonly be 50-55dbA with appliances and fans running in my apartment and adjoining ones. In my main listening area with minimum bg noise level, volume at 65dbA peak begins to sound musical and gets better up to 85-90dbA. Above that room reflections and reactions start to counter any increased musicality.
In another room I have a work station and a near field setup. With computer and drives running the bg level is higher on average, but since I am near field, 20 dbA above ambient is not only fairly musical, but has some depth and height, no sub or loudness control needed.
YAMMV