The Low Volume Loudness Dilemma
I love the power and detail of music played at what I call "Actual instrument volume" which is pretty loud and dominating.
I like music in the background when I'm reading or entertaining. The problem is that the fullness and richness is thin to gone at low volume. This seems to be the case no matter how much a system costs. I listened to a Burmester rig driving a set of Wilson Alexx V speakers in a perfectly tuned listening room with cabling that costs more than my Lexus and the "missing music" at low volume problem was there too. $350,000 in gear couldn't fix it.
I did the unthinkable - I bought a DBX 2231 equalizer off of eBay for a couple hundred bucks and messed around with the sound curve. Viola! "Loudness"! I know this is sacrilege and may cause excommunication by the purist class but I am able to get full rich sound at low levels. The Eq also compensates for the anomalies in my listening area (large great room with other rooms connected to it.)
I don't have the square footage or budget to build a proper dedicated listening room with all the sound management treatments so I'm "making due" with what I do have.
Does anybody have some guidance or constructive thoughts on how to get full rich music at low SPLs?
Bryston electronics aren't the fullest sounding out there and the room is very large. A couple of high quality subs would probably help, but the fundamental problem is the size of the room. Sometimes people with very large rooms play their systems too loud in an attempt to move enough air to achieve room filling sound. That makes the perception of thinness when they play at low levels even worse. |
@lanx0003 thank for the F-M curve chart! Just when I thought I knew enough, you learn something new. I have 6 different set ups in 6 different rooms of two houses, tube amps, SS amps, high sensitivity Klipsch, Focal, Vienna Acoustics and vintage Infinity speakers. I have a Klark Teknik DN 360 in 5 of the rigs. I too often listen at low volumes, late at night while reading and find a little eq boost here and there brings back the missing music @yesiam_a_pirate is searching. As volume levels rise, I turn the db boost down from +6db to +5, +4 and eventually off at full volume, which for me is only 70-75 db. i’ve often thought of experimenting with a tube based parametric eq, but haven’t invested the time to learn how to use one yet. I’ve tried software in the digital domain for eq and room correction but always revert to sliding bars and knobs on the Klark Teknik. If you like what you hear, then it sounds good. |
