Fear of volume control

room shook,

if not exaggerating, that's when Fear of Hearing Damage should set in.

it's worth learning about Fletcher & Munson's discoveries, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

It has always been poorly: named, implemented, mis-understood.

the use of 'loudness' control actually should be called 'Low Volume Listening'. 'Progressively' reduce the volume and boost the lows and highs so that we hear the content as enjoyably as when it is loud (as you discovered). The 'loudness' controls on vintage equipment did/do just that, much modern equipment skips tone controls, balance, loudness filters ...
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You can easily put this unit with Automatic Loudness Control in front of any featureless equipment:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/274870895426?hash=item3fff950342:g:iiEAAOSw0tJg8tiE

The implementation needs to be done so that:

1. all or chosen sources into Chase Unit.

2. Chase RLC-1 default volume level (just unplug it, it goes to defaults). F-M is NOT engaged.

3. Sound System's Volume set at normal listening level. Leave it there.

4. Chase RLC-1 to remotely adjust volume. Up, just less attenuation by the chase unit. When you lower the volume, the Chase unit Automatically begins to progressively implement F-M curves.

thus progressively adjusting for our hearing system's properties. i.e. you still hear the Bass Player in a Jazz group, the highs are still there. You will find the music maintains it's Involving quality, rather than fade to background music.

5. Oh yeah, the Chase unit has remote balance, gotta love that if your system has terrific imaging ability. 

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Misunderstood: some people used to defeat the Chase loudness feature, they 'hated' the bass bloat. well, that's because they lowered it into F-M implementation and boosted that correction with the amp's volume, iow, Misunderstood Again. So poorly misunderstood that the feature has disappeared. 

IMO, if you call yourself an audiophile, you ought to fully understand our hearing system and go get yourself some 'Loudness'. And avoid needing to get some hearing aids if possible.

"Not a very bright statement. 2-3.00 o'clock is different on each set up. What it pushes out is a function of the gain in the system and the efficiency of the speakers."

clearthinker-you've provided a not very bright reply. Just going with the theme/spirit  of the OP's post. No system gain details, etc are being discussed. Maybe learn to...never mind.

"If you want to warn us about our aural health then please work in decibels, that are universal."
 
 I get aural health advice from a medical professional, not here.

This point is not intended to stoke the fire of vinyl vs all other media. This is why when you are streaming, using a tape player or cd player and you have the ability to set the output level from the source you set it as high as it goes or very close. I discovered this on a dac I had with built in amp (for headphones). I found the sound stage and openness of the songs were better with dac on 10 preamp volume lower. When needed they were both at 11 (spinal tap level) and sounded great but moderate volume levels were better delivered from the source set high.

Elliot,

“the room shook with the orchestra and organ at full tilt…”

That WAS an exaggeration.

sgreg, I think that is an idiosyncrasy of your system.

Teo_audio, what in the world are you talking about?

rvpiano, I have an set of Cesar Franck's complete organ works. There are several pieces with an A0. That is 27.5 Hz. Your vision actually blurs forget about everything in the house shaking. 

Audiophiles shunned loudness compensation in the late 70's. It was felt that any analog filtering caused more harm than good which I personally believe is true. We simply played the music at the right volume.  But, now we have digital filtering which is a whole different ballgame. Once you are in numbers you can do anything you want including programming loudness compensation to match the any volume. This allows you to play a piece at lower volumes with the right balance. Unfortunately, very few processors offer dynamic loudness compensation. You have to program you own curves and select them manually.