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Loudness - Why has the industry stopped producing amplifiers with this feature any longer?

I listen to music at all times of the day and night (solid sleep eludes me the older I get).  My favorite times are when the family is gone and I can select the listening level, mostly moderate to higher volumes.  But the simply fact is I find myself listen at lower levels much more often then my preferred listening mode.

Piggybacking on a discussion regarding low level listening here on Audiogon, I'm posing the question:  Why has the majority of industry stopped producing amplifiers with this feature any longer?

I look forward to your input
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77jovian
418 posts
 
I had a Yamaha receiver for my office system that had the variable loudness.  As Vermonster said, you turned up the volume to the maximum you were likely to ever listen and then used the rotary loudness control to decrease the output to the desired level and it would increase the loudness compensation as the level decreased.  It worked very well except for one problem.  The remote had a volume control but no loudness control, so you couldn’t use the feature with the remote.  Good idea poorly implemented.
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tenbar OP
3 posts
 
Thanks to everyone for the responses.  It seems that of those that responded, more are not in favor of the feature.  That would support the reason why the feature has virtually disappeared from the market (exceptions were noted).

Thanks again
tweak1
3,667 posts
 
4+ years ago I had a Parasound A23, which had VC on the back for each channel. It helped in my non-symmetrical room
bluorion
477 posts
 
I had a Denon integrated amp many years ago with a loudness button---loved it at lower volumes. I'm looking into getting a new integrated soon and the Luxman integrated is my #1 choice since they still have a loudness button. I wish the new Yamaha's had them.
somegeoffguy
31 posts
 
I have tone controls on my main integrated but still use a Schiit EQ to pull out a little midrange. I run Klipsch speakers, so they can be a little bright, which I knew when I bought them. That is the closest I can get to a loudness curve.
The current gen of Yamaha integrateds still have variable loudness too. Looking at one since the R900 in my office is dying a slow death-of-a-1000-broken-solders-and-switches.
-Geoff
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