Loudness - Why has the industry stopped producing amplifiers with this feature any longer?

For a few years , starting In the early 90s I had a Yamaha rx570 with a variable tone control, and Paradigm 9semk3 towers. The combo could sound thin and lifeless at low volumes; the variable loudness control worked wonders. In my second system  I have a vintage restored Tandberg 1055 with a well implemented loudness control. Very useful at low volumes, and seems to automatically compensate with volume . I use it without guilt.
   My main system has a tube hybrid Audible Illusions pre with 2 gain and 2 volume controls, and a high current SS amp, driving Maggies. For whatever reason this system plays very well at low volumes. Maybe its the tubes , maybe the high current, but it needs no "loudness" compensation. 
      High end audio has definitely gone "purist" for at least the last 30 years, and has eschewed tone and loudness controls. I understand the concept of a pure signal path, but I don't get my shorts in a bunch about using a loudness control if it makes things sound better for late night listening. If you like it, use it.
     Come to think of it, and this is just my speculation: a lot of audiophiles listen at quite moderate to low volumes for normal listening. Both myself and my closet audio buddy are case and point. Maybe that plays into the designs of some high end equipment builders, thus helping negate the need for controls. 
     

  
   



    
    

What's wrong with headphones? I won't use them because they sound so good I get carried away (and lose hearing in the process). Consider them if you've more self control.

Many AV receivers have the loudness control disguised as the Audyssey “Dynamic Volume Control” selection. While I never use it is there.... I generally just turn it up slightly to improve the perceived balance or live with the idea that there are other people I need to actually need to consider. 
If you use subs or full range speakers then put them on isolation/decoupling platforms and that will drastically reduce the transmission of the bass frequencies through the walls of your listening space allowing you to turn it up a bit to compensate. 
Or, (gasp!) use tone controls if you have them and upping the bass and treble by a couple of clicks on each end when listening at lower volumes.

Above all experiment... try things... be creative... don’t stop until you have something that works for you!

T

As others have noted, loudness controls (and tone controls) are out of fashion.

So, remember - loudness / tone controls = bad

All other manner of changing the audio quality of your system -- speaker wires, cables, etc.  = good.

I sold Yamaha hi-fi in mid 70's.   They taught the concept based on the Fletcher-Munson curves and it worked well.  You set your maximum comfortable volume first, then turned it down with the loudness control.  (Variable, not just a switch).  I bet somebody to write an accurate digital version that could be an add-on feature for a miniDSP unit.

Just for kicks...  Check out Luxman integrated and control amplifiers.  They have well designed Loudness circuits.  

I imagine manufacturers stopped including it to cut costs, figuring correctly that most wouldn't complain. Like erik, I have it, use it when appropriate.

....and there's always an 'outboard eq' that could be pressed into the mix to provide a remedy as desired.

Outboard, in the computer, octave, parametric....the 'loudness' switch basically acted like a parametric 'bump' in the lower frequencies.

Yes, it's not just 'a flip of the switch', but if you miss it, you Can have it back. *S*

Simply because it is not needed.  Preamps & amplifiers can work at low volumes if they are designed correctly.

Less is more.

The amplifier used in the Mapleshade room at CES with the (then) new Gallo reference speakers was a single volume amp designed and built by Pierre’s partner Ron Bowman. No volume control, no tone control. Yeah, baby! 

I agree with twoleftears--I think that most of the industry went purist on us.  I particularly miss balance controls, especially now that I've lost a lot of hearing in one ear.   

wolf,

I would have one advocacy for measurement. Every few years, someone brings up the very good, but 0 traction idea of playback calibration, usually including reference tones and reference playback level so that the user can listen at the volume level intended to achieve the most accurate playback as intended.

I am with you twoleftears,

What is really funny, is the people, companies, etc. that eschew this so called "purism" are the first to say Vinyl is the the very best consumer audio format (ignore R-R). What is vinyl? ... it's a minimum of two equalizers, or two compressor/decompressors depending on your view with a variable frequency channel mixer, and a host of other "analog" effects. It is about as far from "pure" as you can get. It takes some serious cognitive dissonance to believe that is pure, but a loudness or equalizer is not.  Some of this is a side effect of believing things not true, like being able to detect small phase differences, etc.

It's almost like the low-fat craze. Never really was any evidence for it, but people blinded believed it, followed it, and got less and less healthy. At least with the THD wars we found out early it was not the be all and end all.

ebm is probably right ie most people never understood or used it.

Although I eschew "loudness controls" as well as mostly eschewing the word "eschew" (except for this), I don't understand why "measurement" is needed when you can simply LISTEN to the results of applying a control. I have a Loki EQ that's almost always bypassed except for the rare recording that really needs sonic first aid, but otherwise seemingly 99.999% of what I listen to needs (or personal taste dictates a determining action) nothing as far as EQ is concerned...some recordings require me to smoke pot,  but that's another story.

The reason it mostly went away was a big trend towards hair-shirt purism in preamps and integrated.  Tone controls, balance control, and loudness (button or variable) all were eliminated at the altar of the fewest possible stages and connections.  This is reflected in Japanese mid-fi components where there's a "straight" or "direct" button that bypasses the tone controls they still incorporate.  Undoubtedly there's a market for a preamp with a variable loudness control, though obviously not to everyone's taste.

@atmasphere : Yamaha and Denon have both implemented variable loudness controls. (Not sure if Denon does anymore).

While I applaud your neurotic insistence on exact settings, the toggle switch Loudness button on my Luxman's sounds really great.

It is a feature I have seen recently in AV receivers and perhaps processors, but it wasn't labelled loudness. It is all done digitally of course. With many people having all digital systems, it does not make sense in the analog domain. At low listening levels, even digitized vinyl would be hard to argue against versus the alternative (not loudness compensation).

The problem with a loudness function is that there is no way to set it up right. The idea is based on the Fletcher-Munson curve, which is variable depending on sound pressure. So the loudness has to be variable, the problem is knowing how to set it. With **all** loudness controls that are essentially a tap on a volume control with an emphasis network, there is a correct setting of the control with a particular speaker, and with a particular source. So if you have two sources that are at different output levels you'll need to have a different volume control setting to obtain the desired volume, but now the loudness emphasis is different. Obviously they can't both be right, and if you don't happen to be sitting the correct distance from the loudspeaker with which the amp was designed, it will never be right.

Now some amps had in addition to a volume control, a loudness control too, so you could variably set the emphasis; the problem here is knowing where to set the control. About all you know there is that if you have the volume set lower, you might want the loudness set higher?? But the reality is that you can't have any idea, not without doing a lot of measurements...

Obviously the result has been since their inception that loudness settings are a gimmick and nothing more. So high end stuff omits it since its entirely useless and only causes colorations. 

Because nobody uses it.

hi,
plus if you have tone controls they can do same job and better as they work in all volume settings.

Hi,
too many damaged speakers? An extra circuit? More manufacturing cost? Out of style?
Amp design followed a different approach after 70's with less is better, i am not sure though that was a consumer demand. 
On the other hand an amp/speaker combination should be pleasing even at very low volumes too.