Peak listening levels-


Curious about this- what do you consider LOUD but still enjoyable?

For me, it's somewhere around 100dB peak, give or take a few dB

Years ago when I had Magneplanars I learned the hard way what happens to a ribbon tweeter at too high a level. It breaks.
128x128zavato
100dB at my chair. Listening today with an SPL meter nearby saw reading max out at 102, and more typically high 80's to mid 90's
I listen near field so I'm averaging 60 and peaking at 70 ish. Maybe I'll push it to 75-78 but rarely.
The answer will vary greatly depending on the kind of music that is being listened to, and also on how much dynamic compression has been used in the engineering of the particular recording.

I have a few classical symphonic recordings in my collection that have a dynamic range (the DIFFERENCE in volume between the loudest notes and the softest notes) of more than 50 db. On those recordings there are BRIEF dynamic peaks for which I've measured 105 db SPLs at my listening position.

With highly compressed rock music, on the other hand, that will often have a dynamic range of less than 10 db, peaks are generally in the 80s at my listening position.

Another key factor, btw, is how good the sonic quality of the recording is (apart from how dynamically compressed it may be). Recordings having better sound quality will tend to be listened to at higher volumes than recordings of similar music that have poorer sound quality.

Regards,
-- Al
Al's comment on dynamic range vs. listening levels is spot on. The wider the dynamic range the higher the level I'm listening at. Primarily because otherwise you just can't hear the content at the very lowest level.