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Which speakers excel at low volume?

I do much of my listening at lower volumes than I imagine most of you do: 60-70db for me much of the time. I understand why many speakers are designed to sound correct at live-music levels, and the hell with how they sound at lower levels. But that doesn't work for me. I need a speaker that resolves details, conveys proper tone and timbre, expresses microdynamics, and has a respectable balance, including a sense of weight, even at low volume. (Low volume does not mean low amplifier power.) This is an aspect of loudspeaker performance that is rarely addressed in reviews. It must be that most audiophiles don't care about it, or that reviewers feel it is not a criterion that loudspeakers are or should be designed for. Fair enough, but I still want what I want.

I used to have original Quad electrostatics, which were terrific at low volume. My ProAc Response 2.5s aren't bad (though they don't resolve detail too well even at high volume). The Thiel 1.6 is pretty good, the 2.4 less so.

What have you heard, particularly in dynamic speakers, that fits my requirements?
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bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
I own the Green Mountain C1.5i 3-way floor standing speakers. I agree with Jb3 that the GMA speakers (his prelim Europa recommendation & my C1.5i reco) sound good at low volumes. I listen often at night 11pm & later when the rest of the house is asleep & my volume levels are in the 70-75dB level. The C1.5i are quite excellent at this volume. Per the manuf. advice I had to break them in to get this performance. Just as an aside, Roy Johnson recommends that music be played at both sane & insane levels (absolute level to be determined by the user as each person's sane & insane level is different). This loosens the woofer cone & allows it to respond better at low volumes. The drivers are superbly integrated (w.r.t. Duke/Audiokinesis nicely explained write-up) so the speaker is very non-fatiguing to listen to. Listening session is often hours & hours & only dictated by when I cannot sit down any longer.
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,306 posts
 
anything by Reynaud
kurt_tank
1,189 posts
 
I second (or is it third) the vote for planer type of speakers. I used to own the Martin Logan Sequel II's and you got a lot of bang for the buck with them. They imaged great at low volumes, which was good, since they really were a bit brittle at really high volumes. (I don't know if the Quads will get loud, but I have heard them and they sound really nice.)

Good Luck in your search.
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
The sense of weight can be solved by adding a powered sub in my experience. When I'm listening quietly (when we're trying to get the little one to sleep) I notch the sub up a little (only a very little) and this compensates for the psycho-acoustic effect of reduced bass at lower volumes. When I want to play loud I turn the sub down a bit and prevent boomy wallowing bass from taking over my small listening room.

My main speakers are Spica Angelus, and I think that they do the imaging and microdynamics very very well at low volumes. In fact they're not so good when it gets louder, but for me that's fine.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Your problem would be greatly reduced if you got yourself an old-design preamp with "Loudness" compensation. If you can't do that, don't be afraid to use tone controls or an equalizer. "Loudness" compensation is really best because the equalization curve is expressly designed to compensate for the known characteristics of the average human ear.
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