Full detailed sound at 30 - 40 - 50 dB


I love the nuance you can hear when listening to music at loud volumes, but unless no one is home, it’s not considerate or feasible to listen at such high volumes. Plus I just had a baby so everyone is always home and volume levels are limited to 40ish dBs. 

Any recommendations for getting the most detail at these volumes? Additional gear or recommended integrated amps?

My NAD 7175PE has a loudness button which boosts the treble and bass a little, and that certainly helps things in the Kitchen. 

My living room amp is a Rega Brio-R which doesn’t have any tone controls. 

Any thoughts? Thanks!
leemaze

Showing 3 responses by kalali

Get a Decibel meter and measure the sound level in your room with EVERYTHING off. My bet is you'll see numbers in 40ish range. So regardless of the system, 40ish dB listening levels is basically background music at best. As most have suggested, get a headphone and crank it up to your heart's desire.
I recently built a pair of back-loaded horn speakers using full-range single drivers and had a similar challenge as the OP since they are in a system in an upstairs room that I’m gradually converting into a small listening room. So low volume listening levels are important. What I discovered after experimentation using my own (SS) gear and borrowing gears from my friends was that a low powered tube amplifier with a very low damping factor - high output impedance, and using basic speaker cables, produced the best sound quality at low volume. The trade off however is the lower bass gets a little boomy at higher volumes. Ironically, the amplifier that gave the best result was a very moderately priced Chinese unit with only 8.5 wpc. Next best was a Decware integrated. So like everything else in life there’s always a trade off.

willemj, take a look at the article by Nelson Pass in First Watt Articles describing how current source amplifiers work with full-range single driver speakers. It was published in 2004. Lots of great info on that site. 

http://www.firstwatt.com/articles.html