Are all dBs created equal?
I recently purchased new speakers and I have run into something interesting. With my old speakers I listened at 80 dB average and it was comfortable. At 80 dB average with the new speakers it seems much louder and I have to turn it down to 70-72 dB to get to my comfort zone. Why would 80 dBs sound so much louder with the new speakers? FYI, the new speakers are presenting more detail and refinement. The sound stage is better in every way. What gives?
80db will present very differently depending on the tone being played. As an example a tuba at 80db will present very differently than a piccolo trumpet. Ideally, @ghdprentice has it nailed because that would be a very positive result. The other things that come to mind is that the speakers may present with more bass or you're finding the sound to be more harsh subconsciously and are reducing the volume to compensate. |
@djones51 My old speakers were Focal Aria 936. The new ones are Tyler Acoustics Highland H3.5. @mceljo the new speakers do present more bass. But, it is good bass. Not tubby. I did go from the focal tweeter, which I believe is aluminum, to a scan speak beryllium tweeter. They are definitely not as harsh as the Focals. |
The Aria bass boost is pretty large and the have a fairly flat response up to about 15klz so I can see why you might need more SPL at a listening distance of 8ft or so. I have no idea about the Tyler but as I said they could have a nice smiley face frequency response which most people ( not all) would find fatiguing hence the reason for lower SPL. I would ask the builder for an anechoic FR on these things before buying but that’s me. I never purchase without knowing what EQ or room treatments I might need. |
@russ69 A scale |
