Volume isn't merely a consideration, with bass it is everything. Look up Fletcher-Munson equal loudness contours. This is a graph of the way we hear the different frequencies. Low bass frequencies are all bunched together. What this means in practice is we hardly hear low bass at all until it gets fairly high in volume. But then once it crosses that threshold we are really sensitive to the volume level. This is why they used to put loudness controls on amps, to turn up the bass to make it sound right at "normal" (ie not loud) levels.
The same thing happens at the other extreme, just not as dramatically. The overall result is one fairly narrow range of volume where we hear things in a good balance. (If we ever do. A good case can be made that we never do.) This more than anything else explains why we think things sound best at a pretty high level (way higher than conversational level) but then can't figure out why the sound changes so much when all we did was turn it down a little. Equal loudness curves, that's why.
There is no way out of this trap by the way. Its a psycho acoustic fact of human hearing. As far as speakers go though we don't have to be stuck with giant monsters. Multiple subs actually perform better, and the unusually smooth bass you get from a DBA goes a long way towards ameliorating the problems inherent in equal loudness perception. You still need to set up your DBA levels for your intended listening level. But separating the bass level where the biggest loudness perception shift happens from the rest makes this a whole lot easier than any of the other options.
The same thing happens at the other extreme, just not as dramatically. The overall result is one fairly narrow range of volume where we hear things in a good balance. (If we ever do. A good case can be made that we never do.) This more than anything else explains why we think things sound best at a pretty high level (way higher than conversational level) but then can't figure out why the sound changes so much when all we did was turn it down a little. Equal loudness curves, that's why.
There is no way out of this trap by the way. Its a psycho acoustic fact of human hearing. As far as speakers go though we don't have to be stuck with giant monsters. Multiple subs actually perform better, and the unusually smooth bass you get from a DBA goes a long way towards ameliorating the problems inherent in equal loudness perception. You still need to set up your DBA levels for your intended listening level. But separating the bass level where the biggest loudness perception shift happens from the rest makes this a whole lot easier than any of the other options.