Potentiometers are limited by having sweet spot where both channels track most accurately, this generally somewhere between 10am-2pm, they also not greatest resolution/transparency. Resistor ladder, autoformers/transformer volume control has surpassed pots. Digital volume control not superior, in dac bit stripping.
Perhaps the most annoying myth in audio of 2025? Talking about Loudness!
It is said far too often that the louder speaker will sound better, even by 1 decibel. I’ve found this statement to be supremely inaccurate. Anyone feels the same way or differently?
I feel the opposite to be true, once the speaker has reached a comfortable level, somewhere around 65-72 decibel, getting louder than that ought to sound worse for me. It usually sounds worse for a number of reason, room acoustic interactions, speaker cabinets, small distortion of drivers, etc.
Many years in this hobby has taught me to listen to things like smoothness, clarity, separation, microdynamics. An absolutely huge trait right now for me is how effortless is the sound. If it sounds strained, it’s not good to my ears, and many speakers sound strained to a degree even at average 70 db. After owning electrostats, I find many box speakers to lack the purity that I aim for. It gets worse the louder the box speakers get.
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The main point to realise is that that no matter what volume control you use, the less you resist or "apply the brakes" the better. The main job of a pre-amp is signal resistance with as little degradation to the signal as possible. Matching a pre-amp to an amplifier is important. If you have a very powerful amp and match it with a pre-amp that has gain you may not be able to get the volume knob up past 9 o'clock position and it's blaringly loud. Especially problemamatic with very effiecient speakers. This is an example of a lower resolution, overly restricted signal. On the other hand, a lower powered amp used with a no gain, buffered pre-amp allowing the volume to open up to 12 noon position or higher, could sound far better. Higher power is not an indication of better sound and in many cases hinders the sound due to this, "heavy braking" volume knob restriction.
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@jl35 is correct |
I have many multi kw amps to hit the transients.i also have a dB meter that frequently is above 100 db but only for a song or two osha states 80db for 8 hours.some of my ribbon speakers are ribbon and very eficient.you can check the spl on many speaker manufactures.i do have some that take 1kw.again the klipsch and my theater are very efficient and can be run by tube amps.but others need big amps due to the compliance of the cones and magnet structure it is distortion and clipping that kills speakers.some crossovers have watt limits as well.i have a crown 12000 hooked to 6 12 inch woofers sounds great.many of the class d are up in the 2k in 4 ohms and are known to shine in base parts express ultimax 2 are rated into the kw range. Marantz,mcintosh,rowland and atmosphere and others offer class d.i put my ear muffs on and have the sound waves hit my chest.so far no cardiac arrhythmia enjoy the music.i live on 10 acres there were 4 bucks and 10 doe I watched today in my back yard. So I can turn the dB up without complaints.enjoy the music and the journey no matter what the volumn. |
@mark200mph I said around 72 dbs sound best to me for very specific reasons. As the volumes go up into loud territory, Distortion of the drivers go up Distortion of the amp goes up Bass causing cabinet vibrations to go up. Room acoustic interactions go up Sound trapped inside the cabinet causing coloration/distortion go up.
All of these make the music sound worse, and for this reason, I don’t understand the myth that the louder speakers would sound better in a comparison. I'm also quite sensitive to an effortless sound vs a non effortless sound. I believe a non effortless sound is just some combinations of distortion as mentioned above. Don't quote me. |
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