Does loudness play a part in your appreciation?

@richardbrand 

I took the approach that volume should be carefully adjusted for classical music to match the live experience... and that perhaps that was also the correct volume for other music.

I had season tickets to the symphony for a decade, 7th row center. So several times I would go to the symphony and listen specific for the cues and pieces of music that were good for calibration. Something that started very quietly out of the silence and then noting the crescendos. 

I found this useful for classical music. Of course the loudness varies from recording to recording, so there is not set place on the volume control. But I found this volume was often louder than I wanted listen day to day on other music. Not that it sounded bad, just louder than I wanted. 

@jsalerno277 

+1

I had season tickets to the symphony for over ten years, 7th row center. I agree, sound levels of 70 - 90 were most common with crescendos well over a hundred. 

Very funny. High volume is 90+db.

I remember when in my early twenties hanging out at a high end audio store with the two salesmen while cranking their demo system. We chuckling and slapping each other on the back when we were able to see the spl meter hit 120db with their Klipschorns. That’s loud. Sounded terrible. The noise floor was probably 95db. 

More than once, at that age, young and stupid. The mark of a good system was it could crank over 100db. Usually not sounding good at all, because of the incredibly high noise floor and tremendous distortion. 

These days 65 to 75db is my normal volume. Although once in a great while it is fun to crank it to 85db on some old punchy rock and roll. Fortunately my system sound great at either level. Some youngsters came over to listen to my system and had it cranked over 95... sounded great... as I was quickly vacating the room.