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The Low Volume Loudness Dilemma

I love the power and detail of music played at what I call "Actual instrument volume" which is pretty loud and dominating. 

I like music in the background when I'm reading or entertaining. The problem is that the fullness and richness is thin to gone at low volume. This seems to be the case no matter how much a system costs. I listened to a Burmester rig driving a set of Wilson Alexx V speakers in a perfectly tuned listening room with cabling that costs more than my Lexus and the "missing music" at low volume problem was there too. $350,000 in gear couldn't fix it. 

I did the unthinkable - I bought a DBX 2231 equalizer off of eBay for a couple hundred bucks and messed around with the sound curve. Viola! "Loudness"!  I know this is sacrilege and may cause excommunication by the purist class but I am able to get full rich sound at low levels. The Eq also compensates for the anomalies in my listening area (large great room with other rooms connected to it.)

I don't have the square footage or budget to build a proper dedicated listening room with all the sound management treatments so I'm "making due" with what I do have. 

Does anybody have some guidance or constructive thoughts on how to get full rich music at low SPLs? 

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trivema's avatar
trivema
91 posts
 

@lanx0003 thank for the F-M curve chart! Just when I thought I knew enough, you learn something new. I have 6 different set ups in 6 different rooms of two houses, tube amps, SS amps, high sensitivity Klipsch, Focal, Vienna Acoustics and vintage Infinity speakers. I have a Klark Teknik DN 360 in 5 of the rigs. I too often listen at low volumes, late at night while reading and find a little eq boost here and there brings back the missing music @yesiam_a_pirate is searching. As volume levels rise, I turn the db boost down from +6db to +5, +4 and eventually off at full volume, which for me is only 70-75 db. 
 

i’ve often thought of experimenting with a tube based parametric eq, but haven’t invested the time to learn how to use one yet. I’ve tried software in the digital domain for eq and room correction but always revert to sliding bars and knobs on the Klark Teknik.  
 

If you like what you hear, then it sounds good.

baylinor's avatar
baylinor
1,424 posts
 

Not sure what is considered low volume. I do most my listening at or under 70 db and it sounds excellent to me. Of course, the house of stereo is a big factor. Invest in room and room acoustics first, 350k system later.

 

ivickery
17 posts
 

My subwoofer, a Martin Logan 1100x, has a movie mode that boosts bass so I enable that on my ipad and my low level listening is superb.  

lanx0003
856 posts
 

@trivema You are welcome. I have tried the RC / PEQ with Wiim Pro Plus several times in different listening space at home for three systems and utimately revert back to GEQ as well. Maybe to do with microphone?

@baylinor Not sure what is considered low volume.

YMMV but, for me when listening music at night, I turn the volume down to 45-50dB range which is really a tester for bass. My background (ambience) noise with AC on/off is around 30-35dB.  I need to boost which frequency (60-80hz) up by +8 / +9 dB and normalize them to bring back the articulation and balance of the low-end notes.

wolf_garcia
6,708 posts
 

I own 3 Schiit EQs and all of them work brilliantly. I use a Loki in my video rig, and another for a headphone EQ running into a Schiit Vali 3 tube amp. The third is a Loki Max remote EQ in my main hifi pile...this thing is brilliant. 4 Presets, amazingly well designed EQ curves in a remote controllable ultra quiet hip design. No noise, built like no other EQ I've ever come across in decades of audio geekdom and professional musician work. Will utterly cure Fletcher Munson issues with zero negative impact on your groovy ARC amps...or any other amp. I don't use DSP anywhere as I'm too much of a snob.

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