Most impactful for playing soft


Hi, my system is primaluna evo 300 separates with b&w 702 signature speakers.  I normally play music from a blue sound streamer through a ps audio nuwave dac.  When I play my system loud it sounds great to me, but when I play it at volumes my wife can deal with it sounds a bit thin.  What single upgrade would people recommend in order to most directly address this low volume problem.  I listen to heavy metal, r&b, rap and jazz for the most part.

milog

During my journey I've found the better the system the less need to want to play it loud. (85-95 db) and the quieter the music seems because the 'space' is more accurately presented. 

After getting my system components in place I noticed power cables made a difference in the clarity and presentation of low frequencies.  It was very unexpected to me.

Not so fast…human hearing requires a loudness curve for a reason…

How loud ( spl ) is the spouse acceptable level ?

I’d look at properly applying DSP functionality in products like Roon or miniDSP to help adjust for room acoustics. Adjusting for room acoustics addresses the root cause and allows all the music to come through cleaner and better at all volumes. 

     Here's why, at lower SPLs, your system's lower freqs sound weak:

https://www.teachmeaudio.com/recording/sound-reproduction/fletcher-munson-curves

     Most older receivers had a 'LOUDNESS' function that boosted lows and highs to compensate for the typical ear's curve at lower volume levels.

              http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Sound/eqloud.html