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Perhaps the most annoying myth in audio of 2025? Talking about Loudness!

It is said far too often that the louder speaker will sound better, even by 1 decibel. I’ve found this statement to be supremely inaccurate. Anyone feels the same way or differently?

I feel the opposite to be true, once the speaker has reached a comfortable level, somewhere around 65-72 decibel, getting louder than that ought to sound worse for me. It usually sounds worse for a number of reason, room acoustic interactions, speaker cabinets, small distortion of drivers, etc.

 

Many years in this hobby has taught me to listen to things like smoothness, clarity, separation, microdynamics. An absolutely huge trait right now for me is how effortless is the sound. If it sounds strained, it’s not good to my ears, and many speakers sound strained to a degree even at average 70 db. After owning electrostats, I find many box speakers to lack the purity that I aim for. It gets worse the louder the box speakers get. 

samureyex

Showing 1 response by yoyoyaya

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yoyoyaya
854 posts
 

The OP is confusing the use of volume in a/b demonstrations (where listeners will often prefer a subtly louder replay of a track) with listening levels in general.

I have never seen in print or heard an assertion that a majority of people prefer louder playback on a sustained basis.

On "loudness", there is quite a variation in the levels that different recordings are mastered at so even listening at a consistent average SPL can require quite different volume control settings.

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