Low Level Listening and Distortion

@curiousjim

To me low is 55 - 65 ish, normal is around 65 - 75 loud 80 - 90db.

This has changed as my systems have evolved. In the 70’s and 80’s I used to seek out opportunities to hear loud systems… I remember going to a high end store which had Klipschorn’s and enough power to crank around 110db. What was obvious in retrospect… the SPL meter did not move a lot… meaning the background noise was very high (was deafening)… the high frequency hash and noise floor. I still can remember the background hash… at the time I had no idea what it was. That was a sizable amount of the sound pressure. In retrospect some of the worse sound I have heard.

Now with my current and contemporary systems the background noise and hash is just gone. What is driving the SPL meter is the actual music only. A lot of the perception of loud is difference between the noise floor and the notes.

“This has changed as my systems have evolved. In the 70’s and 80’s I used to seek out opportunities to hear loud systems… I remember going to a high end store which had Klipschorn’s and enough power to crank around 110db.”
 

The JBL Century 100’s - DQ-10’s with Apmpzilla - Son of Ampzilla and modded Hafler amps cranked up to 11!  What were the big Bozak speakers from mid/late seventies?

Those were the days.

I remember the JBL Century as well. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll… yes, good sound quality… no.

I had JBL Century 100 s. Looks like many also had them in the early ‘70s.

Miss those college days and cranking the JBLs!

@mglik 

👍. it was fun!