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whats your idea of loud music.

ok here' what got me thinking about all of this.

i was in a dealers show room a while back checking out his ar monoblocks(sweet)& he put some smooth jazz on for me,the maggies sounded fantastic & i asked him to turn it up to a loud volume so i could see how the maggies responded.

after he gave me a stupid look he turned it up a notch & then stepped away & covered his ears like they might rupture or something & were talking about the volume being at the point where i could of heard him fart from 5 feet away,i asked him why he wouldnt turn it up loud & he told me that he wasnt sure what i thought loud was but the volume he had was more than enough for anybody.

i also see threads where guys reccomend these low power amps that i have owned with speakers i have owned & they say that the amp speaker combination can obtain listening levels that are not only louder than anybody would care to listen but unsafe levels to boot & when i had the same gear i thought the combination was way under powered & no where near being loud.

i consider loud to be when you can feel as well as hear the music & not from sitting right in front of the rig,i also consider loud to be when things on the walls move & my coffee cup has a little ripple on top of the coffee or when the dog runs for cover,i also consider it to be not loud if somebody in the same room can talk to you from 5 feet away & be heard.

im not looking for a right or wrong answer im just curious as to what other guys consider loud to be defined as.

mike.
128x128bigjoe
60 responses Add your response
wberdan
86 posts
 
Im 27, and I prefer to listen to most music about 65-70db (listening position).
When I do crank it up, I rarely go much more than about 80db at the listening position... and 80+db often seems too much.

Will
larry510
121 posts
 
Hi

a link to a post on another forum I jsut posted re this topic

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/652982/ShowPost.aspx
alpha_03
39 posts
 
Seems to me there is some difficulty with what a dB is and how it relates to the ability of the human ear, and hearing. 80dB is not very loud at all, but then is 150db loud to a jet mechanic? Not to me- I wear ear phones.

The source may PEAK at 120-150dB, but real music is not a peak measurement, it's dynamic, soft vrs. loud, that is the output level I speak of, not some constant number that means nothing to the listener's enjoyment, or real world or live listening levels.

I wonder if all the musicians on the planet that play live shows at 150dB car hear, um, yes, and some of them own very nice ultra high end systems and tell the diff. when a particular note was missed.

Hmm?
cdc
1,663 posts
 
I'm listening to Suzanne Vega right now at 60dB. Sounds fine since there is low background noise and clean power late at night.
Over 75dB is loud to me.

To the people who listen at 95dB for years with no hearing loss: some people smoke 2 packs a day and live to be 90. Some folks can beat the odds, I'd rather not even try only to find out in 20 years I'm half deaf or dying of lung cancer. I enjoy music way too much.
dmurfet
101 posts
 
I tend to listen at about 75 when she's in and 90 when she's out. I occasionally push it louder for fun, but not very often. Bearing in miond this is all @ 1m and it's not a large room. I figure 110dB in a large room / hall would not be too loud.
whoaru99
98 posts
 
Alpha_03 said...

Seems to me there is some difficulty with what a dB is and how it relates to the ability of the human ear, and hearing. 80dB is not very loud at all, but then is 150db loud to a jet mechanic? Not to me- I wear ear phones.

The source may PEAK at 120-150dB, but real music is not a peak measurement, it's dynamic, soft vrs. loud, that is the output level I speak of, not some constant number that means nothing to the listener's enjoyment, or real world or live listening levels.

I wonder if all the musicians on the planet that play live shows at 150dB car hear, um, yes, and some of them own very nice ultra high end systems and tell the diff. when a particular note was missed.

I was a jet mech, and yes, 150dB is painfully loud....

Not sure there are any 150dB concerts around, they's probably be shut down by OSHA. You might find 150dB at a car stereo SPL shootout, a rocket launching pad, or a jet engine test cell...
todds7
18 posts
 
Twentyfive years ago, I used to be "all in to" loud. I had a Marantz 1250 integrated and Altec Model 19's. Efficient speakers and 125 old-school watts. The whole dorm was familiar with my taste in music -- fusion.

Today I have no urge for loud. I'm driving a pair of Neat Vito s with a Classe CA-400. And Altecs blowing the windowglass out, I just don't miss it. The Vito s are 4 Ohm, so there's 800 watts a channel. But the Vito s generate such a compelling image that I never have the urge to scream them. They definitely sound best "at volume," but as far as cranking them, just no need or desire. Lovely speakers, them, and beautiful to look at.
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eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Tvad...If you customarily have 100-105 dB at you listening chair you will soon find that 125 dB is "pretty good".
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
Old thread here but I agree with Tvad...105db continuous at the listening position is in the range of live music with peaks an extra 10db above that. Above this level I find my ears protesting and I would never listen for long periods at this level anyway.

I suspect the trick to loud music that sounds great and detailed is low distortion and low compression. Few consumer audio speakers are designed to play very loud continuously. Usually the speaker voice coils heat up so much that you get significant thermal compression and the music sounds dull and harsh after a few minutes at high levels and xover characteristics nolonger match the new higher impedance in the hot voice coils (paradoxicaly this effect leads party goers to crank it up a bit more to try to get back that initial loud uncompressed sound level heard at the start of a track. This behaviour, whilst understandable, often leads to more heating and eventually damage)
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