What is the proper loudness for listening?

@snilf Wrote:

Thank you, @ditusa. These are very informative links.

For one thing, low frequencies are felt as well as heard. Surely you (ditusa) are not advocating for measurements that ignore low—and high, for that matter—frequencies!

Your welcome. No, I am not advocating for measurements that ignore low and high frequencies. The Department of Labor bulletin #334 I posted about OSHA standards is their standard for safe levels, they don’t care about audio, like you and I do. I.e. full frequency bandwidth from 20Hz to 20KHz. They only care about safety, bass frequencies below 100Hz are not as detrimental to our hearing as frequencies above 100Hz. You are correct, frequencies below 500Hz are felt as well as heard, so yes C-weighted dB(C) would be better for audio.

FWIW, I bought a pair of JBL 4343’s in 1979 for my home stereo, see JBL brochure below last page top right hand corner caution:

Mike

https://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/specs/pro-speakers/1977-4343.htm

Huh...what??...speak up

75 avg/dB 85 dB peaks, treated room with a 24 dB noise floor A weighted 

I mostly listen to jazz on vinyl, average 80db with peaks of 96db-sh

60-75 dBA during the days and 40-65 during the nights. Anything beyond 75dBA in my listening position in room becomes too noisy. And, yes, my best half will come to give me a friendly reminder. Also, when I listen with foobar2000 / laptop at 60-75 dBA, I will turn on the EQ with 2-6 dB up in the bass bandwidths (below 110 Hz) and 2-3 dB up in the treble bandwidths (above 7kHz) to possibly reach the equal loudness contour levels. At night, these SPLs are raised to 4-9 dB in the bass bands and 3-4 dB in the treble bands.