How loud do you listen to your music?

70 db is pretty loud, not extreme, but it's getting up there. 50-60 is much safer. Here's a pretty good site for comparisons:

www.abelard.org/hear/hear.htm#how-loud

Is your room treated? If not, you might want to think about bass traps and diffusers--they have been my obsession for the past few months, and they do help make lower decibles levels sound larger. The reason is fairly complex, at least I wouldn't be able to explain it coherently, but you can Google many website articles and discussions on the topic.

Funny you post this as I checked my levels several times in past week, mine are around 85-95, if I am enjoying rock or pop music with a steady beat I listen a bit lower than Classical wich dips in and out of dynamics, I have been over 105db a few times but then I put down the beer.

50 to 60db sounds right. Amplifiers generally only pump out fraction of a watt to generate music most of the time.

Makes one wonder why most posters seem to have this need for 100wpc (and higher) amps. Hearing issues I guess ... ;-)

Regards
Paul

I typically listen about 90 to 95 db SPL continuous and on a good recording I may listen even higher (closer to 100 db SPL). Rarely do I listen to anything but very briefly at 105 db SPL (average rock concert levels). All these are at the listening positio, roughly 12 feet back from the speakers.

Some may think this is excessive, however

1) human hearing has a 120 db dynamic range...if you play at 60 db SPL (close to the typical ambient noise floor of 30 db SPL) then you will almost certainly miss details in the music. (Dynamic range is critical to music, the contrast is what provides much of the emotion and feel. Realistic levels of dynamic range, without distortion, is often what most distinguishes real live music from playback)

2) Ever heard a live orchestra/band play as soft as an average level of 60 db SPL....?

From the occupational standpoint, the following standards apply.

The OSHA standard for occupational noise allows for up to 90dBA for an 8 hour time period without hearing protection.

Employers are required to offer hearing protection at 85dBA. Professionally I advise employers to make protection mandatory at 85dBA.

A good rule of thumb is when you have trouble hearing a person talking to you at a normal conversational voice, you have exceeded the 85dBA.