Level Restrictions?

Hi S7; I can pretty much play my stereo system as long and as loud as I like most of the time as I have my own listening room and no close neighbors. But when we have people staying awhile (overnight), my listening room is adjacent to our guest room, and I can't play it much at night at all-- my favorite time for listening. So,I just go on headphones.

My Sonic Frontiers Line 2 pre-amp has an excellent headphone section and I use Sennheiser 600 cans with the up-grade Blue Clou cable. I don't mind being on headphones a few days. In fact a good headphone system provides a different perspective on music and can be quite enjoyable. On headphones, I often discover detail(s) I had never heard before.

If you haven't gotten into headphone listening, perhaps you should give it a try. I can recommend it as long as you have a good system-- doesn't even have to be particularly expensive-- some decent headphones, small headphone amp, and ICs will do it. Good Listening. Craig

Out of respect for my girlfriend trying to sleep, i typically try to keep the computer room system down to a reasonable level at night. We have very different hours, so this can be a problem sometimes. The biggest problem occurs when listening to a recording with low bass content late at night. The speakers that i have in this system can go pretty deep even at low volumes. As such, she has complained that she could not only hear the bass at times, but feel it vibrating the bed. All of this two rooms away and at levels that i consider "background music" !!!

I can't even remember the last time that i used headphones. I have a set of Signet Electret Condensor's ( similar to e-stat's ) and a set of old "open backed" e-stat headphones too. Both sound pretty excellent from what i can recall. I remember others complaining that the open backed e-stat's were too loud, as they produced as much sound out of the back as they did the front. The last time that i used them, i think the power supply was arcing out due to the listening level that i had them at. That may be why i "buried" them so long ago, as they needed "help". Probably need to dig them up and give them a once over "just in case" : ) Sean

I too am in college, but I live in a blue-collar apt. complex. I go to class in the morning and am mostly restricted to loud levels in the afternoon before the neighbors get home. I know what cars my neighbors drive, so I just have to peak out my window to see if it is all clear. For a couple weeks now though, this strange military, chain-smopking guy who lives below me has not left the house. Now I am making myself nervous.

I am a bit lucky that my system can play at low volumes without changing its character, but I would love the freedom to turn it up. I dream of owning a sightly secluted house with a nice listening room as the best listening is late at night.