Turn down the Volume!

If your speakers are good enough, low volumes will still be engaging.  

Over the years I’ve had great success at highly enjoyable low-volume listening with the famed Epi 100 speakers (Epicure)... they sound excellent at any volume... and with almost any amp, for that matter.

Now, I recently got Klipsch Heresy IV - yep, my first ever horn speakers, and the horn high-efficiency aspect has been discussed by other posters - and I am delighted to report that they do project magic into the room even at very low volumes and quiet night time listening.  Of course, they sound super when cranked up too, but a real test of quality speakers is Do They Sound Good At Any Volume, Including Low Volume.

@patrickdowns  that seems familiar. I haven’t experimented too much but recently tried several preamps. I’m still confused as to what a high quality preamp does, but in this instance the one I tried needed to be quite loud to have any impact compared to the great one I currently have. So that’s an area to explore. I figured it was more about amps, but perhaps it’s about the lowest current gains. I also have a fully balanced system so that seems to raise the average outputs, but as with all systems it seems to do with synergy. 

@curtdr I have the opposite sort of speakers (Magnepan) but a friend has horns. Listening to his system once and while it didn’t ‘seem’ loud, I checked and it was actually over 100db in average. Now perhaps it’s a mistake but could the ‘focus’ of horns have this effect? Bass also plays a huge role, having twin subs seems to counterintuitivey let me turn things down. 

Between 70 and 80 db for me. Anything less or more won't be pleasurable to my ears.

@dain. Well, I can’t speak for all horns, just the ones I own, the Heresy IV, but they play so cleanly  that they can get actually very loud without seeming as loud as they are... I’m not sure what you mean by focus, but the Heresy have a large soundstage without losing imaging, to the extent that it’s almost bizarre, and I can sit off to the side and still experience the imaging effects.  They are remarkable speakers in that I’ve never really experienced anything quite like them.  Plus, to the topic, all those qualities hold even at low volumes, including a non-boomy bass that somehow still pushes against my chest and pulses my legs ... even at low volumes!  

However, I also get great dispersion and imaging and sound quality from my good old Epicures (updated w Human Speakers parts now, so they’re even better although the originals were already excellent), including engaging bass that tickles the eardrums even at low volumes, though it doesn’t have the chest push of the Heresy...

The Heresy and the Epi 100 speakers are very different in their designs and approaches, but both are excellent at low volumes.  So, I think it’s not the design itself that matters, but the execution and the quality of the drivers.

And yes, a sub or two done right can certainly help maintain the foundational bass at low volumes.  I just use one modest but high-quality sub set to unobtrusive levels with low (40hz) cutoff levels because I believe in running speakers the full range that they were designed for, if they are designed and excecuted well, but either set of my speakers would still be excellent without it and in fact I ran w my Epi 100 for many years w/o a sub and they were fine indeed still at low volumes (or high).