Volume levels

hilde45

... IF we are comparing good, non-compressed recordings only, then the advantages of digital over vinyl are substantial ...

If you’re talking about commercial recordings, it is an exceptionally rare commercial release that does not include some compression. That’s one of the reasons that I enjoy making my own recordings and - get ready for this - many benefit from slight amounts of cautious compression. Just ask anyone who has experience with recording.

Regardless, LP contains a potential advantage over CD when it comes to HF frequency response. There's a lot of measured data supporting that, so it's dicey to say digital's advantage over analog is necessarily "substantial." It isn't quite that simple, although let's face it - establishing the value of relative differences is really subjective.

Both Ginger Boi' and Cleo the Petra have left any and all exposed speaker surfaces alone @puptent , much to their benefit and continued regular feedings with canned v. 'common kibble distribution by the kibblebot'....🤷‍♂️🙄

Whatttya gonna do...Really....🤨  Toss 'em out into the Real World?

Can't go there....have lost a few felines over the erras' to that and and the other drawbacks of mere existence....simple souls with basic desires 'n needs....*S*

Like Debussy, sometimes I prefer cats to people....understandable simplicity....;)

I always wondered why vinyl seemed quieter than CD's? Great responses from you guys, @cleeds , etc. Back in the day when we had cassette decks in the rig we could just adjust the output to match the CD player or turntable.

Another factor to consider regarding volume is what ohm and sensitivity rating your speakers are. 

It seems that 4 ohm speakers need more volume to sound good than 8 ohm speakers. Lower sensitivity also needs more volume than higher sensitivity.

When I had 8 ohm speakers in my main rig, I was most impressed with the Yamaha A-S3000 integrated amp regarding low volume dynamics. It was absolutely incredible! I was running Infinity RS4b's at the time and the sonics at low volumes really blew me away.

I thought that amp was the last amp I was ever going to buy for my rig. That was three amps ago...

+1 @snilf 

Digital has a wider dynamic range than analog.  This was one of the selling points of the format 40 years ago.

  I suspect that the OP is more signal to noise related.  Even the best analog is going to have some noise in the background, due to the contact of the stylus with the record grooves.  Low level instrumental detail, particularly in Classical Music, is harder to hear because of the competition from background noise, therefore requiring a boost in volume.

If your system is revealing enough, it should not be necessary to boost volume on analog.

As others have noted, sound compression was a concomitant of digitization, for marketing reasons: it was another way to make digital sound “improved” over analog. On the audio systems that 98% of us have, it does “sound better”.