The Best Sounding Systems can Play Loudly with Low Distortion

I have the benefit of a fairly large volume room.  I have progressed to larger speakers and subs not for the purpose of playing loud but to be able to play in the 70-80dB range with great dynamics and depth.  I never listen at higher levels except when the party gets out of control and open areas of the room become a dance floor!  There's no distortion but those times don't begin to qualify as critical listening.  

 

Answering your question is like asking the wise old owl, How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop.  His answer is thrrree, because he’s never made it to the center without biting.

I’ve never reached that point.  My ears give out long before anything starts distorting or clipping!
 

I disagree, because whenever I’ve heard systems that can come relatively close to mimicking a live performance, they only achieved that feat at spirited SPLs, typically above 85dB average at the listening position (C-weighted). That even applies when playing recordings of non-amplified acoustic instruments. The problem that typically arises with mediocre systems is that once you reach an SPL required to produce a convincing kick drum or double bass, the speaker and/or amplification is straining. That’s been my personal experience anyhow. I’ve concluded the vast majority of domestic-oriented speakers cannot handle sufficient SPL at a listening distance of 9+ feet in a medium-sized room. It mostly comes down to the speaker drivers and crossover implementation. Most speaker drivers (whether off-shelf or in-house-production) are not nearly as low in distortion as the current SoTA. It becomes quite apparent in back to back A/Bs, especially in bass articulation and upper treble. 

I would argue that if your ears give out before reaching 85dB averages at your listening position, you’ve either suffered significant hearing damage already, or you’re actually hearing your system struggling, either because the speakers lack dynamic range and/or the amplifier lacks headroom. 

I do not think the OP intends it, but the question uses the slippery phrase "best sounding". Imo, a false dichotomy is set up between lower and higher level playback and determination of "best sounding". I would expect a great deal of disagreement to follow. Nevertheless, I will attempt to answer the question based on the criterion of "low distortion". 

Superior sound quality is the mark of a truly great system, not the listening level.The limitations of a system is not found at lower listening levels but higher listening levels. 

Imo, the OP is correct; low levels do not as readily reveal distortion. An example; many audiophiles have concluded that compressed music is wretched, sounds distorted. Not true. In the vast majority of cases, their system is incapable of reproducing such music at higher levels. Perhaps 85-90% of audio systems represented on Audiogon would not handle such music well. Many of the systems I have set up for reviews have inherent limitations which would be revealed if I pushed them with compressed music. I include compressed music for that reason, to discover the outside limitations of the performance. 

Compressed music and much electronic music that sounds indistinct to many audiophiles is usually extremely detailed but in the part of the frequency spectrum in which it is played, typically LF, not many rigs can play it with high fidelity. So, no, I would not use low level listening as a basis for assessment of how precise a system or set of speakers. 

Another principle I espouse in my book is that a superior audio system must play all genres of music well at higher level, or it is not that great of a system. Again, this is not meant to demean anyone here, but to distinguish my criteria by which I assess systems. 

@douglas_schroeder 

Best response yet. Thanks. Yes, in hindsight, I could have phrased my assertion better, but was attempting to keep it succinct. 

My Carver and AR9's sound great at high or low volume