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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
todds7
18 posts
 
Twentyfive years ago, I used to be "all in to" loud. I had a Marantz 1250 integrated and Altec Model 19's. Efficient speakers and 125 old-school watts. The whole dorm was familiar with my taste in music -- fusion.

Today I have no urge for loud. I'm driving a pair of Neat Vito s with a Classe CA-400. And Altecs blowing the windowglass out, I just don't miss it. The Vito s are 4 Ohm, so there's 800 watts a channel. But the Vito s generate such a compelling image that I never have the urge to scream them. They definitely sound best "at volume," but as far as cranking them, just no need or desire. Lovely speakers, them, and beautiful to look at.
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eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Tvad...If you customarily have 100-105 dB at you listening chair you will soon find that 125 dB is "pretty good".
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Old thread here but I agree with Tvad...105db continuous at the listening position is in the range of live music with peaks an extra 10db above that. Above this level I find my ears protesting and I would never listen for long periods at this level anyway.

I suspect the trick to loud music that sounds great and detailed is low distortion and low compression. Few consumer audio speakers are designed to play very loud continuously. Usually the speaker voice coils heat up so much that you get significant thermal compression and the music sounds dull and harsh after a few minutes at high levels and xover characteristics nolonger match the new higher impedance in the hot voice coils (paradoxicaly this effect leads party goers to crank it up a bit more to try to get back that initial loud uncompressed sound level heard at the start of a track. This behaviour, whilst understandable, often leads to more heating and eventually damage)
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