Is louder better?

It all depends what music you are playing. I doubt that the Mantovani crowd would appreciate high level listening!

Yes, love it a bit on the loud side, band dependent of course....

    some music just does not have that “able to be played loud” thing.....


   as far as doing some room heating with my amps, some bands get a little more volume as the recording is good, and sounds great.          One straight off the top is Stevie wonders musiquarium 2cd set..
the sound and depth , the way it sounds , tight, great punchy fast deep bass, his voice, it is one of the best recordings put to cd,...for me, anyway. 

              

Is louder better?

Search "Equal Loudness Contour". We don’t hear everything equally well at all frequencies. Really low bass and really high treble have to be fairly loud to hear well. This is why the Loudness switch used to be so common. At low levels we have to turn up the bass, and the treble, to have them sound right.

Recording engineers know this. The levels they set are based on the music being played back at a certain level. That is one reason certain recordings sound "right" when played at a certain volume. Also part of why people say some gear has to be turned up loud to "bloom". A lot of it is equal loudness.

So yes louder is better, at least until you reach this point.

Above it things become a lot more complicated. Many systems will become congested or compressed at high volume. Many rooms will retain so much energy this adds to the feeling of overload, compression and congestion. At some point if it is loud enough your hearing acuity first becomes less, and the goes away altogether. If you experience ringing that is a sure sign it was too loud. Keep going, you can lose it altogether.

Loudness and volume are complicated. That is why back in the 1970’s engineers studying the problem did extensive real-world testing to determine the optimal amount of loud. Where you feel it in every cell of your body, yet still crystal clear and just below the point of damage. This became the industry standard, which like so many things learned at great cost has been forgotten and must continually be relearned. It is called Supertramp Loud. That’s what you want. Just be sure to use your Crime of the Century reference LP.

As with many things more is not necessarily better, but there is a "proper" volume that is determined by your individual circumstance of all the factors mentioned above.  Probably didn't need my 2 cents on this one... as I'm confident you know when it is the correct volume for a given recording.

I do find late night listening at moderate levels very rewarding.

Regards,
barts

Agree with the thought that each track has optimal level to sound best. However, I think each particular room should be taken into consideration as well. Too loud in one room but just right in another.