Have you ever been told to turn the volume down on you hifi system? What is your best excuse for offending someone else?
The best I have heard came from a friend back in high school. His brother used to play music really loud in his upstairs bedroom. When his mother would ask him to turn it down, he would say, "I can't, I'm recording." His mother bought the excuse every time.
~~~~I agree with Tim. When you hear a good system the music isn't loud, it's lifelike and accurate. You become aware of the spl's when you leave the room and come back in.
Excitement, plain and simple. I disagree that mediocre equipment sound better loud -- all my experience informs that QUITE the opposite is true. I wanted the capability to play loud and have spent a fortune achieving it, now that I have it I can't use it because my ears will be destroyed -- reason being that it SOUNDS GREAT LOUD! Highs airy and crisply deliniated, mids pure and revealing, mid bass FORCEFUL and dense and bass face-hammering! Never the sense that it is really starting to irritate your ears until you walk away and your head feels unbalanced and misaligned -- with crappy stuff, like a boombox or TV, I start to get the sense of it being too loud before it is anywhere near the output of my system (about 8000 watts).
Xiekitchen, I agree with with you, some music you just have to play loud. Pink Floyd,"Dark Side Of The Moon",and just about any Led Zeppelin. And many many more. But when I listen to "Sinatra", "Tony Bennett","James Taylor", or "diana Krall" and many more, I listen at a more moderate level.But never softly!.. And then there are some artists when both loud and moterate levels, one that comes to mind is "Bob Seger."
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.