How loud do you like to play your music?

One could take ones SPL meter to the local pick up bar and
thwap it out when chatting up somebody and one could say with a big smile, 'wanna see If I can get you up to 110db with some serious bed thrashing'?

With the right personal "equipment" and the iPhone SoundMeter download you could do your personal best while reaching the threshold of pain in two ways.

At least one can dream.

"09-11-09: Acoustat6
I think the good Dr. Mechans will have a new prescription for you. Thankfully your name is NilthePILL."

Acoustat5, you are not kidding! If I change volume and then I need to get back to my specific level, i would use magnifying glass to rotate my preamp's volume knob back to its precise location (my preamp has old fashioned analog volume control)
I guess I am anal in this not because i have this crazy theory (like yours ;-)) but in my average size room, at my listening position, which is very close, everything sounds 'right' at this 'specific level'

Like I said, I do occasionally 'turn it up'. But may Dr Mechans can prescribe me a pill to do that more often or get rid of this OCD of mine ;-)

I recently used a pro calibrated SPL meter to see what level I listen at. I was surprised. My average level was 75 to 80dB with peaks around 85dB. 90dB was getting uncomfortable for me. I thought I was listening at least 10dB higher before I used the SPL meter. My hearing hasn't gone down the drain after all these years of abuse after all.

Nil,
It is an ad-on.
and what is all this meshugas since I've been away?
You just can't leave the boys alone.....(;

A few weeks ago I sold my Usher BE 718’s and replaced them with Focal JM Labs BE Micro Utopia’s… forcing me to mess around with speaker placement. I was perfectly happy with the Usher’s, but the temptation was too great so I took the plunge. I don’t know exactly what db level I was playing the Usher’s at, but I always set the volume level at the same mark. When I played the Focal’s at the same mark, the sound was “uncomfortable”. That confused me because the Usher’s are more efficient than the Focal’s.

I finally figured out that I must have been playing the Usher’s at a db level that gave me the fidelity I was happy with. At the same time, I realized that the Focal’s would give me the fidelity I was looking for… but at a lower db level... and that has made my wife very happy.