What is a cost effective way to level match, for comparing different hifi components?

If your listening skills are so frail you are deceived by a few dB pack it in, you need a new hobby. 

Level matching is total BS. Play your system where it sounds best for you. Compare the best sound you can get at the level that works for you. No need for scientific measurement, best sound is best sound. Just adjust the volume to YOUR normal/comfortable level. Every system has a different volume level that is the sweet spot. No need to level match apples and oranges. Use YOUR listening volume as the deciding factor.  

The most accurate way is with a voltmeter across the speaker terminals while test tones are playing. I've also used an SPL meter with pink noise (C weighting, slow response) to get a rough level match. Hopefully you have a volume control with small enough steps to make matching levels possible and a readout to make it easy to switch between different settings.

@tomic601 ,
"OP strict level matching is essential."
"As you probably already know, the ear brain likes louder and louder is just chasing your tail from a qualitative perspective, unless you can level match."

A couple of excellent and informative posts.

I don’t even bother comparing different masterings of favourite tracks unless I can level match them first.


Far too many times what, at first listen, seemed like obvious differences mysteriously disappeared into the ether once their volumes were matched. To all intents and purposes, what were quite different recordings all of a sudden became identical.

I’m not sure if I ever managed to get within 0.25db though, but it did really help me to distinguish between different recordings.


To claim that level matching is unimportant for evaluating components (or individual tracks) is either an example of naivety or an attempt at deliberate misdirection.