Do you hear live music much?
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.
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exactly, "jl35 I always thought that that statement simply referred to a very brief audition, that if loudness level wasn't matched, the louder one would initially sound better on a very brief back-forth switch...not in reference to longer term listening..." I find it true, I make temporary pencil marks around my Cayin's volume control when comparing things here with friends, then we begin, often I can confuse myself enough to forget ..... |
The volume knob is like applying the brakes. Restricting the frequency. The higher the volume knob the more resolution is allowed to flow. So, the pre-amp volume knob should be as high as possible within a comfortable range. Of course there's a limit where it can become uncomfortable. I've heard pre-amps that have lots of gain but you can't turn up the volume knob past 9 o'clock position or it's too loud. You're listening to a low level/resolution signal being boosted by gain and I find it quickly invokes listening fatigue. |
- 23 posts total