How loud do you listen to your music?

I typically listen about 90 to 95 db SPL continuous and on a good recording I may listen even higher (closer to 100 db SPL). Rarely do I listen to anything but very briefly at 105 db SPL (average rock concert levels). All these are at the listening positio, roughly 12 feet back from the speakers.

Some may think this is excessive, however

1) human hearing has a 120 db dynamic range...if you play at 60 db SPL (close to the typical ambient noise floor of 30 db SPL) then you will almost certainly miss details in the music. (Dynamic range is critical to music, the contrast is what provides much of the emotion and feel. Realistic levels of dynamic range, without distortion, is often what most distinguishes real live music from playback)

2) Ever heard a live orchestra/band play as soft as an average level of 60 db SPL....?

Shadorne, if your system drops details in the music at 60db SPL, you need to upgrade to a decent system

LOL. Yes indeed you are right Pauly. I forgot to mention this is why I have to play so loud (don't have a decent system). Indeed, there is nothing more to be heard with an extra 30 db of dynamic range (going from 60 db to 90 db). Thx for pointing out my error. ;-)

Photon46,

I get to listen to live jazz, classical, & choral music in our university's music department several times a week, and I tell you this: live music of all kinds is LOUD

That has always been my experience...rarely have I heard a concert or instrument played at "conversational" or 60 db SPL level. If you have the best seats in the house then there is simply no way you can have a comfortable conversation even with a string quintet (wind, percussion and piano are usually much louder).

Hearing damage limits are often set very low intentionally. This is because prolonged exposure 8 hours a day (day in and day out) to continuous machinery appears to damage hearing at much lower levels than musical instruments (which are dynamic, less repetitive and usually involve less extended exposure periods).

Pdn,

Your hearing will get worse anyway as you age - so enjoy it while you can. Listening at these levels several times a week for short periods (not more than an hour) is unlikely to be a major problem.

Remember the quacks all told us to stop eating butter and switch to margarine....now, thrirty years later, they have discovered that Trans Fats are particularly lethal!

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."

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).

Chadnliz, LOL. 6 beers may also be the start of a reduction in linearity?