Perhaps the most annoying myth in audio of 2025? Talking about Loudness!

Interesting discussion. 

On my system, it sounds very good around 60db, that is usually my morning listening volume while the house is asleep. The sound is clean, clear, good soundstage, good dynamics. 

When I turn it up, it does get louder, but it does more than that, the soundstage gets much bigger, everything opens up, get better imaging, with the bigger soundstage, much more presence. Everything is clean, more clarity, better seperation. The music has weight to it. You can feel it pressuring the room. This works up to around 100db.

Over 105db, it's still clear, but starts to hurt being in the room, the soundstage is much bigger than the room. But there is no distortion, you can still pick out each instrument. Mids do start to get a big forward, the highs can start to get harsh. Bass however is glorious! The whole house starts to vibrate. At these levels, the treble control goes from 0 to -4 or -6, to tame the harshness. 

The sweet spot is around 90db at my listening spot, everything just goes tougher. 

As an aside, I noticed that the Sound Meter app running on my Pixel appears to be throttled at 80 dB, meaning no matter how loud the music is the app flatlines at 80 dB although the display itself goes up to 100 dB.

Last night I was listening at 70% volume and the app showed 80 dB although it felt considerably louder. I had to turn the volume down to about 55% before the app showed anything less than 80 dB 

Wonder what’s up with that

Floyd Toole is a pioneer and a scholar in sound reproduction. I'll go with what he says. Do yourself a favor and explore his work and that of Earl Geddes.

I think the goal reproducing music at home is to recreate an "experience." We also need to define the elements that comprise what an "experience" actually is. Recreating "all" of the music is certainly the main objective. But there is more. Our multiple sensors react to various stimuli, all of which make up a composite of the "experience." In my view, the ultimate "experience" would be the encapsulation of the entirety of an event resulting in a full saturation of all that touches us. Quantity IS a factor in achieving this. In other words, pack in as much information as humanly possible until we can’t physically, or mentally, take any more.

This is also event specific. A intimate female vocal at 60db may capture the experience to the degree where we have an unexplained desire to smoke a cigarette afterwards. But, "full bodied" events such as large orchestras or amplified concerts need much more. We need to feel the vibrations, huge dynamic contrasts, pressurize the room (as one here suggested), wrap the whole performance around us, and fill up every available brain cell with realtime information. This is true in other venues in addition to musical performances. Auto racing, for example. Putting mufflers on the cars wouldn’t be the same.

This all works up to the limitations of the our bodies, the maximum clean output of the system -- AND, the room. The "room" is a component in that it bounces those reflections right back at us. And, loudness is a factor. The reflections are not only more audible, they stick around longer, too. While a quiet performance may produce reflections, those reflections may decay enough to where they "die" after the first surface. Loud sounds will energetically bounce off that first surface strongly enough to arrive at the 2nd, and 3rd, and .... surfaces. Each time with more time delay, blurring the signal to the degree where it no longer resembles the original.

So, it depends on what you’re into. If the venue dictates -- crank it up, and take it all in!! Just have respect for your neighbors -- and, your hearing.