Volume levels


I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find that I have to boost the volume levels more when I play records softly than when I listen to digital softly. I find that at low levels, records do not equal the intensity that low levels on digital do even if they emit the same number of decibels. I find that I’m forced to listen to analog more loudly to achieve the same measure of SQ.

How about you?

128x128rvpiano

Showing 1 response by snilf

I don't know what you mean by "dynamic range," but digital media have much more dynamic range, in the usual sense of the word, than vinyl. "Loudness wars" aside (and that means: compression of pop for play in cars, etc.), vinyl not only can't reproduce the dynamic range of the original source (which, these days, is almost always digital), but vinyl is also beset with much higher extraneous noise (pops and clicks, surface noise, etc.). Thus, one must listen to vinyl playback louder than digital because: 1) the signal to noise ratio is far poorer; 2) the noise floor is higher (which is sort of the same thing).