What is the best DB level to

It depends on a number of factors. Including but not limited to the following:

1. Your audio equipment's sound type. Does it produce a golden or light, warm or analytical, yin or yang (yuck) type sound?

2. Your amplifier specifically. Does it strain or congest with loud and/or complex music as most amplifiers do?

3. Your room's acoustics. Is it too live, too dead, or just right?

4. Your room's size. Is it too big, too small, or just right?

5. Your speakers. Are they too big, too small, or just right for the size room you have?

6. Your electrical configuration for your equipment. At a minimum, have you installed a dedicated 20 amp circuit/line for your amplifier to ensure your amp is getting all the juice it may need? This makes a big difference in dynamic headroom where a loud recorded bit of information is allowed to jump out at you like the real thing. Or is your dynamic headroom pretty flat where soft passages have pretty much the same impact as loud passages?

7. Your listening comfort level.

I listen to 90% of all music (and the ocassional movie) at about 13% of full volume. It's a very comfortable yet impacting volume level for me with my equipment, my amp, my room acoustics, my room size, my speakers, my electrical configuration, and my comfort level. See that was easy. :)

-IMO

Would you listen to a recording of violin's at the same level that you would a "jammin" rock band ? I think not. Each recording works best as an individual piece and at an individual level. My experience is that it would be impossible to "pigeon-hole" an entire genre of music to one volume let alone all recordings of various types. Sean
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Sean, if one happened to like violin and perhaps not care for a 'jammin' rock band or vice versa, then yes.

But Sean just because it's a 'jammin' rock band doesn't mean one instantly needs to crank it up to 100+db. If you're talking Guns N Roses or Metallica, or def cheatah, perhaps, but there are just as many variations of what one considers to be a 'jammin' rock concert as there are people.

However, I would like to see a 'jammin' live pipe organ concert.

Get yourself a SPL meter. It's the essential audiophile accessory. First use it to balance your HT system. Then use it to spot check your typical listening levels. Your personal preferences will come heavily into play. Personally, I find 85dB at the listening position to be quite loud for all types of music. A good system, properly setup should sound good at both loud and soft levels.