Maybe I missed it, but I don’t think anyone here mentioned the source component(s) upstream of the speakers & amp. Those matter a lot in getting satisfactory low volume performance. I’ve had any number of 2-way speakers on my nearfield/desktop system over the past 2 decades. I worked for years in this home office and listened to (still listen to) classical music at very low volume all day long (12-14 hrs/day). I’ve found a few ingredients that optimize low volume performance:
1 - Of course the speakers are a major part of it. I’ve had gotten the best low volume sound out of sealed/acoustic suspension passive 2-way speakers located 2.5 - 3 feet from my ears. The best were the ATC SCM12 Pros and the current pair, vintage KEF 103.2s.
2 - The amp matters a lot, too. I pair my speakers with a powerful class D amplifier. I have 3 of them, 2 stereo (dual mono designs) + one pair of monoblocks. All 3 are rated at 250 wpc, of which I use only a tiny fraction. But what these amps all do is hold the woofers in a steel grip. High damping factor = good low volume perforrmance.
3 - Only recently did I really figure out how important the DAC (or streamer) is in producing good low volume sound. I have 4 NOS (non-oversampling) R2R DACs. All sound quite good in this desktop system. But easily the best at low volumes is the Lab12 DAC1 Reference, which uses a matched pair of 6922 tubes in the output. Either those tubes, or the 8 paralleled TDA 1543 chips, or both, make low volumes from this DAC noticeably more full and tonally accurate than other DACs. It’s almost as if I had a "loudness" circuit engaged--but unlike a real loudness circuit, which sounds intolerably bassy at higher volumes, this system ramps up beautifully to higher volumes (during the infrequent times I crank it)
4 - I also have a high quality powered sub (JL Audio e110) crossed over to the mains via a Marchand electronic crossover. This powerful, linear-sounding sub is no doubt part of the good sound I’m getting at low volumes.
