How do you listen?

on FULL BLAST always.

Louder on headphones than on speakers as I wish to remain in my apartment! But I generally prefer 'really loud' at the venue itself rather than the sound reproduction.... 

Speaking as a music lover first, and an audiophile a distant second, I’ve discovered that each recording has its own proper volume setting in order to attain the best possible sound quality and emotional connection with the music.

1+ oregonpapa, it has to do with our ears frequency response changing with volume and the volume at which the music was mixed at. If the music was mixed at a lower volume if you play it back at high volume it will be too bright. If it was mixed at high volume and you play it back at low levels it will sound dull with no bass. The "right" volume is somewhat different between systems. I like live rock recordings to sound and feel as if I am at the concert so I keep the very bottom end below 80 Hz boosted at a rate of 6 dB/oct. This gives me the sensation of being at a live concert at lower levels that won't hurt my ears.

Our ears accommodate to volume. The smallest muscle in your body called the stapedius tightens up on the stapes, the bone that vibrates your inner ear as the volume rises. It takes a few minutes for this to happen. It is therefore always important to warm your ears up. I start at about 80 dB and add 2 db or so every two or three minutes until I get up to 95 dB. This gives the stapedius time to tighten up and protect your inner ear from noise induced damage. This is also why impulse noise like gun shots is the worst to cause hearing damage as your ears have not had time to warm up.

Thus the great fear of cowboys of a gunshot starting a stapede.

i concur with the posts here. There IS a certain level that a particular track will sound best.
And, where you sit in a hall does determine the impact of an orchestra.

Too loud can result in listener fatigue (and complaints from the residents of the house).  Too soft and it's not involving enough.  I like the Goldilocks setting ...just right...but as oregonpapa mentioned, that varies with every album. 

Blow out your hearing and it won't matter where you set the volume. 

I'm happiest at about 80db. Sometimes a bit south of 80. Sometimes a bit north. It all depends on the quality of the recording or the style of music being played. My days of wanting to blast my stereo are now long past.

Moderate volume is more accurate conveyance of the music experience...

Reason is simple, you dont want to hide some information behind some other information with volume higher level....Room acoustic accurate imaging for instance ask for moderate level in small room....


80Db is my anchor....I try to listen at 80Db max where i am sitting...

Some tracks sound best at a certain volume for the simple reason they were mastered to be that way. This is due to our hearing not being linear but corresponding to equal loudness contours mapped by Fletcher and Munson. We do not hear all frequencies equally well at all volume levels. Low bass and high treble in particular need to be at a fairly high level to be heard at all. This is why the Loudness control used to be so common. All audiophiles should know this but whether they do or not all recording engineers certainly do.   

Because of this, in mastering the engineer has some decisions to make. A frequency response that sounds flat at one volume won't sound right at a lot higher or lower volume. So they master for what they consider the most likely level of the more serious listeners. Obviously then playing it back will sound best, or at least have the intended balance, at that same level.   

This same feature by the way is why we can't rely on meters to EQ properly. Meters do not "hear" equal loudness contours. Meters measure pressure waves. What we want is good sound quality at whatever level we like to listen at. This may or may not be what the mastering engineers thought. May or may not be what the EQ police think. What we like is what we like.    

Gosh now that I think about it I guess an awful lot goes into how I listen.

Some tracks sound best at a certain volume for the simple reason they were mastered to be that way. This is due to our hearing not being linear but corresponding to equal loudness contours mapped by Fletcher and Munson. We do not hear all frequencies equally well at all volume levels. Low bass and high treble in particular need to be at a fairly high level to be heard at all. This is why the Loudness control used to be so common. All audiophiles should know this but whether they do or not all recording engineers certainly do.

You are perfectly right ...

But we must not so much compensate this difficulty of equal perception between frequencies with higher volume than with an adequate room acoustic control to make easier the clarity of perception...

The better a room is controlled relatively to the speakers/room response the less we need to increase the sound volume to perceive details and music..

When I say I listen “very loud,” that for me, at peak, is about 80-85db.

I spent a bunch of time trying to determine if there was a “right” volume (for classical). I attend the symphony regularly. I found there generally is. You want the passages which begin quietly from total silence with single quiet instrument to be audible and the crescendos of the full orchestra to reach saturation (my seats are 7th row center). So with those boundaries I adjust my system to listen to classical.

I typically listen to other music arround 70db unless it is rock then a bit higher.

80-85db on an iPhone app is my “loud” also.  

Didn't even know you could get 85dB out of a iPhone. New Pro, I guess.

Thanks @miljostyn, I never knew that, and now will slowly raise the volume. Warm my ears up, love it. 

Insane! Some think that to better listen we must crank up volume, slowly or not, they think that we perceive frequencies according to volume level of the gear only....

The room dont exist....

I dont need to crank up my volume ever....

Guess why?

I am with the OP....

Relaxed level are ALWAYS better... If not, your system-speakers/room acoustic is deficient, sorry to give you a bad news....

 

75-85db is comfortable. At times I push it, but usually there.

Jim Smith, tip number x and observed long before i met him…every recording, indeed every hall and reverberant space ( read venue ) has it’s “ bloom point “, with and without people ( read audience ).….

carry on.

s to n of the room matters, but my recollection is we wrangled that one to the ground also….

My iPhone is Class A also. Other than the heat,it works great! 

In my house of stereo, 80db peak is as much volume as I need even for metal. Maghister is on to something. Volume needs to experience music fully are very room acoustics and system dependent.

Maghister is on to something. Volume needs to experience music fully are very room acoustics and system dependent.

This is ELEMENTARY acoustic....Thanks for your observation...

The volume of each set of frequencies vary ALSO with the pressures zones distribution of the room for an acoustician and do not vary only with linear distance and angular distance from the speakers.......

The general volume vary with his hands playing with the volume control of the gear only for a children...

Confusing the two is ridiculous...

70 to 80 db for me. Once in a while I give the nob a twist.

Concert levels are terrific, but lower volumes are best for longer listening periods. The way Audyssey manages lower levels when correctly set satisfies me and provides to same frequency response as full volume.

I play the music as loud as the situation allows. 


6am and the family still sleeping?  low and turn off the subwoofer.
Middle of the afternoon and no one is home?  all the way to eleven.

Last week I attended a Beethoven fourth symphony concert at Verizon hall in Philadelphia. The sound levels in the upper balcony center where I was peaked in the 70 to low 80 dB range. I found it comfortable and enjoyable and that is about the same level that I like to listen to at home for a symphony. Chamber music is played quieter. Sounds like this agree with several of you.

really mijostyn5,258 posts? ??

@mijostyn As a Board Certified Otolaryngologist-Head and Neck Surgeon (ENT doctor) I ask you, what about the Tensor Tympani muscle? Which is the "first line of defense" against toxic noise exposure. You state: the Stapedius muscle is the "smallest" in the human body? What about the Tensor Tympani? How do you know this? Done many stapedectomies, ossicular reconstructions in your lifetime? Please provide reference. Wow.

Can you provide the documented evidence that the Stapedius TENDON/muscle "tightens up slowly" and not neurologically/reflexly rapidly (as in micro/milliseconds) and is expected and observed in just about every other protective neuromuscular reflex in the human body)?

Moreover, your statement of "... therefore always important to warm your ears up. I start at about 80 dB and add 2 db or so every two or three minutes until I get up to 95 dB. This gives the stapedius time to tighten up and protect your inner ear from noise induced damage.  This is also why impulse noise like gun shots is the worst to cause hearing damage as your ears have not had time to warm up."...is ENTIRELY without scientific merit. "warm you ears up"? Wow. 

Are you making some sort of uneducated reference to a "temporary threshold shift"? Please provide any scientific otoneurologic evidence of your claim. I doubt it even exists. If you can't...please stop with this misinformation! Furthermore, this is NOT why gun shot is the worst to cause of hearing damage! There is another entirely scientifically proven mechanism, that has NOTHING to do with what you mention. 

There is ABSOLUTELY no scientific merit to mijostyn's above idea.  There is no "warming up of the ears" - toxic noise level is toxic noise level - this is a biochemical phenomena that is (and still partially incompletely) understood, but CAN be prevented.

Partial reference to the above:
Mechanisms of noise-induced hearing loss indicate 
multiple methods of prevention 
Colleen G. Le Prell a,*, Daisuke Yamashita c, Shujiro B. Minami c, 
Tatsuya Yamasoba d, Josef M. Miller

Complete scientific references (hundreds) available on request.

I listen as loud as the room will let me.
I got rid of the popcorn ceiling recently as it had some asbestos . I knew it would take the sound down a notch. 

It will be a challenge to get the room in order.

Each music experience is different, biologically we adjust to volume by concentrating on that part of the sound that includes voice. This makes us more able to distinguish voices from background noise.  In hifi terms however you lose upper level and lower level perception, hence the old 'loudness' button which increased these progressively as you decrease volume. Thus for each recording there will be an optimum. I have 2 subwoofers that can be adjusted from the seating position, on most recordings I end up adjusting both the cut off frequency and the volume of the subs, as well as the main volume. So comfortable and clear overall average volume varies between 75 and 88dB at my seating position.

I'd be curious to know how many among us experience tinnitus regularly.
While there are factors other than exposure to loud noises that can cause it (heredity, high blood pressure, etc), it appears that our ears tell us what a suitable volume level for listening is and it is very likely much quieter than we thought/think it is/was.

One of my frustrations with some live performances is that the volume level is too high for the room.  During those performances you can see the singer singing into the microphone, but can't hear the words, you can see the horns playing but can't hear them, etc.

The 2 last posts message above me are very important....Thanks orgillian97 and ejr1953


I cannot imagine listening over 80 Db regularly.....80 Db is my usual maximum....The line between NO and Yes...Most of my listening is under it....ESPECIALLY in near listening....In regular listening position sometimes for minutes i venture around or slightly over "for minutes"....


This is my anchor 80 Db....Over it, it is tempest in my head/ears/body...No more music....Under 80 Db, i navigate ALL the music in spirit form ; over it, it is gradually SOME sound that pilot my body no more my spirit...

I will repeat the gist of my point, if your system cant give you all acoustic factors rightfully under 80Db your audio setting system and controls in the working mechanical electrical and acoustical embeddings are wrong or at least lacking....This is one of the surprizing test you could make in audio....Listening at high level is compensation or intoxication, not so much music....



«Sounds could be a rainbow rain  or a fist punch, in the 2 cases we perceive colors»-Groucho Marx 🤓

I have a bit of tinitus in my left ear. I have an 8000 hz notch.

Please don't laugh: If I put my hand around my left ear while I listen, I can get enough compensation to feel what it's like with almost normal hearing. I don't do this often. My tinitus is relatively mild and inconsistent. 

I also found that tilting the left speaker a bit more so that it fires at my right ear and vice versa really helps without diminishing soundstage.

I also LOVE the Tannoy high frequency energy pegs on the front of my Turnberrys. They are very subtle adjustments and I have the left speaker tweeter pegged up one notch. It makes an almost imperceptible difference but that kind of option is so nice to have. 

I go to all live events with ear plugs. I have done so since age 25 (now 54). When my left ear high end diminished, I developed a sensitivity to high volumes. It's as is the rest of the frequencies boosted to compensate.

I mostly listen at 65-70db. But adjust to the music being played. But I'm so grateful that I can still appreciate high resolution audio. 

Your ears are amazing things. Please take care of them. 

Interestingly, when listening to an orchestra at lower volumes you can picture yourself further back in the hall. Conversely, with higher volumes, closer up.
it’s all an illusion anyway.

I have a very powerful amp to drive my Maggie's and it's very capable of dynamics sound stage and inner detail  To me it's not the volume, but the quality of the
volume  Based on my stereo equipment and my room room dynamics l like to typically listen around 75 db with peaks in the low to mid 80's  As a side note the book "Of Sound Mind" by Nina Kraus is a great read for the audiophiles out there

I just realized that I actually don't listen at 80db very often. It's usually closer to 75 or even slightly less.

As a side note the book "Of Sound Mind" by Nina Kraus is a great read for the audiophiles out there

Thanks for the book recommendation...

Edcyn,

I discovered the same thing. My peaks are at around 75 or less.

I sold off my analog rig a few years ago, but I did notice that even with very clean vinyl I was boosting the volume a bit.  The lower the noise floor, the less volume needed to hear micro detail.  In general I dislike listening at low volumes and will do so only under duress.  Unfortunately my two channel system sits next to our bedroom and my wife tends to go to bed early so I feel a little guilt about the sound levels in the evening but fortunately she is a good sleeper.

Low to moderate volumes gives me the most enjoyment.  Trying to recreate a musical event you are dealing with how the material was mixed, the source the speakers, you're room...I think it's impossible and how long can one listen to high levels of SPLs in a box of a room?  10-20, maybe 30 minutes before getting fatigued?   I can listen and enjoy at lower volumes. I listen for pleasure, not perfection. I do still want accurate tone though.

My volume varies significantly between type of listening, type of music and time of day.

As my system has changed over the years - and distortion has dropped it seems quieter even though the volume as measured in dbs is in the 80s.

To each their own...

No layman has much of an idea of just how loudly musical performances are in a given acoustic space.  They almost always under or over estimate.

I was surprised when I took a sound level meter (there is an inexpensive one called SPL Meter available for iPhone from Apple that is actually pretty decent).

Especially with classical and other acoustic music, there is a large dynamic range and it is easy to mistake what the level is by ear alone.

I moved to an apartment; was worried about  lower volume listening and pleasantly surprised that I still enjoy the music. I hear more and do not suffer the need to tweak.  Higher volume excites the room requiring acoustic treatment et al.  Sure I miss bass impact sometimes but overall I’m happy. Unlikely that I will listen at higher volumes in future should I move to a house. 

There seems to be a consensus-75 to 80ish db.
That is exactly how I listen. Going to the symphony, I have never had the experience of feeling the sound was too loud. Unlike listening to my system.
Rock concerts are a different experience. Especially close to the PA.
Maybe that is similar to being close to my system speakers?

More or less I feel it depends on the way the album was cut and engineering...some sound louder than others. I always turn down the volume and then renew the sound...I never use headphones, I only used them back in the 60s n 70s when I lived at home...I believe they are the number cause of hearing damage.....so I don't  use them....everyone who has a earphone in your ear 18 hours a day or listen to music it loud on your headphones, you cant get your hearing back...oh you can get $8,000 ear phones....I have gone to plenty of concerts and sat up close and remember after the concert everyone was saying what ? Over and over...lol

Right now I am listening to jazz.. about 75db.

My symphony seats are 8th row center (on aisle on left). The crescendos are too loud. But when there is a soloist the violin sound hole or piano sounding board is pointed at me. This makes the solos amazing and perfectly blended with the orchestra. It also allows different instruments to be clearly discernible while allowing for complete integration when large parts of the orchestra play simultaneously. Also, my line os sight is above the stage so I can see the players.  So, very occasional over saturation these are the perfect seats in the house. 
The general rule is 7th row center, but over time I found these a tad too close in symphony hall I attend.