Low Level Listening and Distortion

interesting thread

when listening with intent (not background music etc etc) i am listening in the 75-85 db range (avg-peak) at my listening position, with speakers in a 11-12 ft triangle... i haven’t considered what the amps do at very low volumes

we all hear differently, sometimes domestic conditions require us to listen at lower volumes

some folks listen real loud (usually dealing with some level of hearing loss) - once i had a fellow come over to ’audition’ my spatial m3s at the time, really nice guy, zen healer body worker type, very educated but man, he listened sooooooo loud... i thought my head was going to explode, i literally had to leave the room

to me, when i think about low level listening, a lot of it is about the fletcher munson effect and how that is dealt with - to me, good sound has a richness and texture and warmth to it, within which details can be heard, that can be hard to accomplish at low levels

there is something about a sweet first watt, but to me it is alot about noise floor, and very low distortion throughout the range, through volume levels, whether the whole chain (and every item in it) can hold it together when spl’s rise - be it in the electrical signal or in the final transducer (cone breakup, crossover resonances, etc etc)

yes i agree, very very good systems often play loud effortlessly, without strain, without a sense of the sound being extruded, or shot at you like from a water cannon... as a defining trait