How loud do you like to play your music?

"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.

I listen a lot based on the volume that one would expect if the music was live. So with Wagner- peaks around 110, but ELP's first LP I'll have dialed back a bit to peaks at 100-105. Solo guitar is then at 75.

In order to play these volumes comfortably (the way real music can do- 110 db is easy for a live orchestra), the system has to be free of resonances and odd-ordered harmonic generation (odd ordered harmonics are the cues that the ear/brain system uses to determine how loud a sound is). With no artificially enhanced volume cues then the cues come from the sources rather than the playback.