Fear of volume control


An audiophile friend of mine came over for a listening session yesterday and my set sounded better than I ever heard it. It turns out that I raised the volume control higher than normal, I guess to impress him.
Normally I place it around 12 to 1 o’clock. Yesterday I put it at between 2 and 3 o’clock.
Wow! What a difference. the room shook with the orchestra and organ at full tilt.
I was previously hesitant to push the volume much past 12 o’clock for fear of distorting the sound. There was no distortion whatsoever, just clean, beautiful, powerful sound.

Lesson learned!
rvpiano
I find with very quiet preamps the sound is good at low levels too. That is you can hear everything, just quieter. I do a lot of late night listening and low volume listening is something I tried to make work. Not so much now with a great pair of headphones.
There is a right volume level for every recording and when you achieve that volume you will have a magic balance for sure. Another consideration is that there is also a right volume for every room in addition to this and usually they work together pretty well.
find with very quiet preamps the sound is good at low levels too. That is you can hear everything

I agree with you on this, I used to have to listen loud until I got a really good preamp.
I get the same results as yyzsantabarbara and invalid. I also do most of my listening at lower levels,and the detail is wonderful.