How loud do you listen to your music?

Pdn,

Check Equal Loudness Curves to see how volume level affects the presentation of the sound.

Notice that at around 30 db SPL, the average person won't hear anything at all below 80 Hz. At 60 db SPL one begins to hear 30 Hz and at about 75 db SPL the lowest frequencies in the audible range (20 Hz) become barely audible.

This is why bass audibility improves so dramatically at higher levels - put another way this is the reason for the "loudness" button (to help audibilty of bass at low sound levels).

The other important thing to notice on the plot is the area between two different "Phon" curves. It may help to take two extremes, just for illustrative purposes;

1) Imagine you listen at close to 40 Phon peak equal loudness.....then what you hear is contained between the 40 phon curve and the threshold LESS whatever background masking noise you have in the room. Even if you IGNORE the noise floor (usually around 30 db spl) and shaded the ENTIRE area between the curves you get an idea of the signal range that your hearing is working with. ( Anything on the source music that falls below the threshold will fall below audibility - so you are working with a MAXIMUM dynamic range of roughly 40 db SPL)

2) Imagine you turn up the sound to around 100 Phon peak equal loudness contour (yes I said extreme). Do the same exercise and color the area between 100 Phon curve and the threshold of hearing. (Immediately it should be apparent that you are now working with a MAXIMUM dynamic range of roughly 100 db SPL. This is similar to the dynamic range of a 16 bit CD - meaning you will not miss even the lowest level signal on the least significant bit on the CD, provided it is not "masked" by other sounds)

This is the long answer of why you may like to crank it.

The short answer is best explained by Dewey Fin in School of Rock, "Dude, I service society by rocking. I’m out there on the front lines liberating people with my music. Rocking ain’t no walk in the park, lady."

Shadorne, the majority of amplifiers lose low level detail of frequencies in the mid-range, i.e. 250Hz to 500Hz, and that is why people crank it. It has very little to do with the frequency extremes.

I agree with some your comments pertaining to phons, but you would need very sensitive ears to hear 20Hz. Very few speakers will produce sound under 30Hz, let alone 20Hz. Personally I feel low frequencies in my stomach before I actually hear them and we probably hear the harmonics of low frequencies without hearing the fundamentals of said frequencies themselves.

Same with frequencies of over 15KHz. I doubt many males will hear anything over 18KHz.

If the midrange is incomplete, the frequency extremes do not matter. Incomplete midrange = inferior amplification.

And forget about the theoretical dynamic range of CD. The majority of CDs are compressed to under 20db range. I listen mostly to uncompressed MFSL and direct-to-disc recordings, which has a way bigger dynamic range than most the crap available on CD. I cannot say what the peaks go to (probably 80-90db I guess) but the average is around 60db and I get the complete sound picture.

A truly good audio amplifier can create a complete musical picture at low SP amplification levels without losing the lowest levels of details. I have heard tens of systems where they needed to be turned-up-to-sound -right. Without exception, at low volumes they lack the small nuances and micro details that natural music has. These system simply have to be cranked because they suck at low volumes.

Regards
Paul

This is another excellent point. The quality of the amp plays a major role in this as well as the loudspeaker. Didn't think of that angle. While I have no plans to change my amp component, I'm going to upgrade from standmounts to full size monitors within a month. Should be a great learning experience to see or hear for that matter if I can in fact get the SPL's down but remain gratified with the music. Of course the type of music makes a world of difference. Thanks for the insight.

Pauly,

If the midrange is incomplete, the frequency extremes do not matter.

I agree fully with you here.

I have been lucky with amps I guess, as I have not run into the problem of a high noise floor or dynamic compression in the mid range due to electronics (usually the speaker is at fault in my limted experience).

fascinating thread. fwiw, i use the rat shack digital spl meter and i am in disbelief at the amount of misinformation most audio nuts are exposed to. 75-85 db from my sweet spot is plenty loud. this is clean power from unstressed spkrs. when i play an xrcd type disc of large symphony it would be ludicrous to try and achieve concert level spl in my space. i tried and peaks were leaving me with ringing ears...and my room opens up and is well treated. dealers should package spl meters with products and maybe we would start to see thru this mega power myth requirement many cling to. then again, i'm not 18 and blitzed.