Low level listening

15 minutes of exposure to 100dB may cause hearing loss. (CDC)

IME, the most satisfying low-level listening is headphone listening. It’s not even close and that would be at a very modest level of equipment. YMMV.

With speakers, you may want to look at ways to create your own loudness control. If you are doing computer audio, this might be software-based equalization. For example, I have had some success experimenting with Roon’s Parametric EQ. Or you could get some kind of physical equalizer box. In my very limited awareness of those options, Decware’s ZROCK would be at the top of my shortlist.

FWIW, when I have had the opportunity to have some casual q+a with a couple of different speaker builders/designers on this topic, efficiency did seem to be a factor in their recommendations.

Good luck!

I will say my Vandersteen’s sound very good at low to moderate level. Then they sound fantastic with some juice. I think you can’t really compare low to moderate level to full on. They can both sound very good low level listening you are just not feeling the music as well. You know that kick drum punch to your gut that is oh so good.

@jeffS In my room 14x14 with dormer behind seating position . Speakers  8ft from seat. Having little experience with other speakers although did auditioned Kef Meta probably 16 months ago and Polk Reserve 200 maybe 1year ago. LRS+ were very enjoyable. Image seemed to float. Nice vocals. Probably only  25 hours or less on them.                                                                                                                              @Macg. Should have clarified dB. I struggle not turning up. I would say average should be for me 80 dB peaks 87 no more.                                                                  @Speakerdude. Your right about Lokius. Need to experiment. Thank you everone

Minutes after my last post. I took out phone an used sound meter checked. Thats a little loud for me. I would now say mid 70s average. most of the time with an occasional fun time. I did need to turn up volume nob on LRS some, but between Cherry amp and tube goodness from Freya+ I was more than satisfied with every CD I played weather John Hiatt, Zach Williams, Uriah Heep,, or Spocks Beard.

One of the other factors-- didn't see it mentioned- is the level of ambient noise in the listening room. My room, without adding additional window treatment which I have- registers in the very low 30 dbs, "C" weighted-- I'm on a quiet residential street with little traffic. 

That translates into even more musical information being revealed by the system without having to compete with a noisy background. And is a pretty simple measurement to make and take steps to address, if necessary. 

Several mentioned about the ISO 2003 Equal Loudness Contour (ELC). In the following, I will show you how to translate those curves into practices, i.e., use the notion to program the EQ presets in whatever the player you have. I used foobar2000 as the example but the notion can be adapted to any freq. bandwidth you have in the EQ. I have been using these presets listening to music for some time especially low-level listening at night and the experience is great.

It has much more to do with noise floor than one would ever have thought. High eff speakers used with too much power are problematic as well since there is a fixed noise floor on any component and when a powerful amp is putting out small amounts of power on very sensitive speakers your sn ratio drops dramatically. This crushes dynamics and makes the output seem dull and not separated from the noise floor or worse yet switching distortion from imbalanced complimentary devices.

The other thing I find is unless your gain structure is worked out well and you have volume pot on your preamp or source up around 12 o'clock or higher you are loosing SN and dynamics. 

Easy solution is an autoformer VC. Unlike a pot you do not burn signal through resistance to attenuate to a listening level. Burning signal through resistors creates noise. 

Just reiterating about Magnepans and low-volume listening.

I had the LRS (first edition) and switched to the 1.7i, they definitely sound better to me at lower volume levels, either with, or without a pair of REL T7/x subs in the mix.  Low to medium volume for me.

Same room, same gear, driving CSS Criton 1TD-X stand-mounts and I find I want those babies cranked up.  If I want to listen loud they are much better than the Maggies.

FWIW, the 1TD-X have more definition, clarity, "air" or whatever, they just sound better and I can more easily pick out the individual instruments/voices.  Bass is much better defined w/wo the subs.  Bass tone is definitely better. bells, triangles, cymbals sound more defined and natural.  Singers are right there

The 1TD-X are less than 1/2 the cost of the Maggies and will fill a small/medium room with sound.  They are as inefficient as the Maggies and need lots of juice to get them going.  Just my 2 cents.

I highly recommend the Tannoy Legacy Eaton stand mount speakers. They sound great at low volumes. The 10" driver and wide baffle could have something to do with it, who knows. I typically don't listen very loud, so these speakers have been the right choice for me. They will play reasonably  loud when asked to. They also do not require a ton of power. 

btw, my comments about Fletcher Munson, and 'Loudness' relate to very low listening. That's when the Bass player starts to dissapear.

Many here must consider low listening as what many of us would consider normal.

I have found that the idea of speakers sounding their best at low volume level depends on the amplifier as much as it does on the speaker.  This is regardless of Fletcher Munson or relative volume of frequency adjustments.  

For example class D amplifiers tend to require higher volumes to come alive in the bass regardless of speakers.  

Class A amplifiers tend to do the best job at lower volume levels as do robust Class A-B designs that are stable to very low impedances.  

That said there are speakers that do a better job too- mainly higher efficiency designs 89db and higher including your Tektons.  

Your Tekton speakers should be capable of quality low volume listening and if they do not, look to your amplifier as the reason.  

I was going thru the same thing with my KEF Blades, They were uninvolving until I started pushing to 90db and above, but for me the magic happens at softer volumes. I swapped my Hegel H590(the Beast) for a pair of Mc611's and was amazed at how much the blades opened up at low volumes with less than a watt running thru them? go figured.

For example class D amplifiers tend to require higher volumes to come alive in the bass regardless of speakers.  

Not really found this to be true.  What specific class D amps was this?

Large horns can be ideal low-level loudspeakers why I use them in my office system.

@johnk 

I'm finding this to be true as well. I recently switched out some bookshelf speakers for big horn tweeters in my system. We're talking 800Hz and up. The narrower dispersion on the horns had a surprising effect of making the room sound more lively and airy than the wider dispersion speakers, and this worked very well towards low level listening. I was amazed at how enjoyable and dynamic the sound continued to be at very low levels. I think it's something to do with direct to reflected ratio being high while maintaining a relatively long reverb tail in the room.

That’s why my Cornwall IV’s sound so very good at low volumes.  

This is a topic close to my heart: I listen to low volume classical ~11-12 hrs/day and so it's important to me that I actually hear the music. From long trial and error, I found 2 interrelated factors that help with this:

1 - Use relatively inefficient/insensitive speakers. The two pairs I switch between now are both ~83-84 dB at 1M. It takes some juice to drive them, which means more play on the low end of the volume pot of whatever preamp I use; and

2 - Use sealed/acoustic suspension speakers. Both pairs I have are sealed. Somehow this lets more clarity flow from the speaker at low volume. There's no port to hear or deal with.