How do you listen?

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.