2. speakers
  3. 1132451468

whats your idea of loud music.

ok here' what got me thinking about all of this.

i was in a dealers show room a while back checking out his ar monoblocks(sweet)& he put some smooth jazz on for me,the maggies sounded fantastic & i asked him to turn it up to a loud volume so i could see how the maggies responded.

after he gave me a stupid look he turned it up a notch & then stepped away & covered his ears like they might rupture or something & were talking about the volume being at the point where i could of heard him fart from 5 feet away,i asked him why he wouldnt turn it up loud & he told me that he wasnt sure what i thought loud was but the volume he had was more than enough for anybody.

i also see threads where guys reccomend these low power amps that i have owned with speakers i have owned & they say that the amp speaker combination can obtain listening levels that are not only louder than anybody would care to listen but unsafe levels to boot & when i had the same gear i thought the combination was way under powered & no where near being loud.

i consider loud to be when you can feel as well as hear the music & not from sitting right in front of the rig,i also consider loud to be when things on the walls move & my coffee cup has a little ripple on top of the coffee or when the dog runs for cover,i also consider it to be not loud if somebody in the same room can talk to you from 5 feet away & be heard.

im not looking for a right or wrong answer im just curious as to what other guys consider loud to be defined as.

mike.
128x128bigjoe
nilthepill
842 posts
 
Loud music to me in my room is when the imaging and focus muddies up at my usual listening position, which is about 9-10 ft away farfield from from my Dunlavy V's. SPLs beyond 95 db tend to do this in my room. Few dbs below that and with good recording sound is very realistic sounding.But even then I usually mostly listen at may be when the peak is at 80/85 db.
My amps never clips though- Classe CA-400s, 400 watts at 8 ohm and 800 watt at 4 ohm.
However some times I like to listen to my system when I am in my backyard, then I crank it up even louder (in the room it is easily 105-110 db) so that it sounds real when I am outside.

I too have wondered why the CDs don't have info as to what was the SPL range/peak during recording. Stereophile (magazine) recordings some time give out this info and I set the level at that db for that passage to adjust the sound. Another info I thought would be helpful to audiophile is the instrumnet loaction/s on the stage at the time of recording.
Post removed 
pehare's avatar
pehare
837 posts
 
Joe-I know you ride & if you're like me you have ridden a motorcycle w/out earplugs (although I do wear a helmet-no debates everybody please) for a long time which may make the need for the music to be alittle louder & dynamic. remember all those cool old rock album covers that had "made to be played loud" somewhere on them?? can't remember any titles at the moment...
braro
87 posts
 
FWIW I believe OSHA says levels at 90 db are safe for up to 8 hrs and 105 db safe for up to 1 hr. I generaly listen at 85 to 90 db for several hrs.
mbacinello
54 posts
 
i find the music im listening to almost always sounds best at a REALISTIC sound level, and by that I mean the sound level a real live instrument would make. A violin sounds most like a violin at a moderate volume, it sound rediculous at 110db.

however i mostly listen to acoustic music and my system wouldn't be up to playing at rock concert levels, still i think theres something to be said for playing music at the volume those instruments can reasonable be expected to play at.
More to discover