2. amps-preamps
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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
54 responses Add your response
tketcham
291 posts
 

I second wolf_garcia’s suggestion; the Schiit Loki Mini would work really well as a "loudness" switch. Set the desired attenuation/gain for each tone control level for quiet listening and then you can use the bypass switch to go "straight wire" when you’re listening at typical volume levels. Only drawback is that with the Brio there isn’t a tape monitor feature so you’d be limited to using the Loki for only one component; or one component at a time. :-)

Regards,

Tom

PS: Open back headphones are also a good solution. It's what I used when we had a baby in the house.

wolf_garcia
6,695 posts
 
Get a Schiit Loki EQ gizmo…I have one and it’s really useful for exactly what you describe, and pretty much mainly what I use mine for when needed during quieter late night listening. It’s also relatively inexpensive for a well made thing. Note I have very efficient horn loaded speakers and the phenomena of low volume frequency perception is still a thing, although perhaps to a lessor degree than with other designs.
freediver
1,189 posts
 
I’m in a similar boat and researching speakers with great presence at low volumes..All my reading has yielded the single most important ingredient needed is high efficiency...I am looking at Spatial Audio,Reference 3A and the Silverline Audio Prelude Plus,check them out...
Another route is to put together a nice headphone system...A nice little tube amp and circumaural open back cans(HiFiMan,Audeze or Sennheiser's)will put a big smile in your ears and still allow audio connection with the outside environment,ie:crying baby etc..
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
search out the source of any competing noise...
dimmers, appliances, etc...
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