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?
+1 @bruce19
Would love to see more standard filter settings like those to deal with loudness delivered with Roon. Anything to make the tremendous power of Roon DSP easier for the masses to apply properly. Also with Roon for lower volumes I find turning on headroom management to be a useful option. |
I am of the opinion that speaker efficiency need not matter as long as the amp is up to the task of driving the speakers to maximum performance. Granted that is an easier job for many amps with speakers that present an easy load to drive (Fritz speakers are an example of easy to drive yet not particularly efficient) as opposed to being more efficient, which is different. More efficient just means louder overall with fewer watts which is a non issue for low volume listening. |
It doesn't appear you have a subwoofer in your system. I have a pair HSU Research TN 1225 with his Model 500A amp. This system allows me to have easy access to the volume for the subs since the amp is with the rest of my gear. That has worked well over the years for me to turn up the sub when I am at low volumes. That approach would be the simplest and not affect your overall sound signature. I cut my audiophile teeth with a B&K preamp about 20 years ago. They put loudness on their preamps and it was nice to have that option for thin recordings and low volumes. This is not very common and unlikely to be the deciding factor for how you choose a preamp. |
My listening experiences tell me that a higher sensitivity speaker (especially horn loaded or OB) does respond better than a typical ported box speaker system even driven by a robust powerful amplifier. A given ported box speaker does respond to better amplification but never quite gets there. Something about horns and OBs with their near 100db sensitivity that makes them have dynamic punch and effortlessness.
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My Magnepan's are played at quite low volumes about half the time when listening as my wife is nurse and works nights, so I have to keep it quite low when she is sleeping. I also have two REL subs and I am truly amazed at the clarity of the Maggies and low bass response of the RELs when listening at very low volume. I have had other people comment on exactly the same when hearing my system. I've never had a system do this before. |
