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How loud do you listen to your music?

Today I decided to take my RS SPL meter and see just how loud my system when I was listening to levels that I perceive to be pretty loud. To my surprise, the nominal SPL was only 70db with peaks going as high as 82db. I had expected the SPL reading to be much higher especially since I thought I had my system cranked up pretty loud. When I put the volume back to where I mainly listen, the SPL was only in the 50-60db range. For whatever reason, this number seemed too low but I do not really have a good sense for what decibels really mean in terms of how loud things are in the real world. Is 60db loud? Is 70db excessive?

So my question is, how loud do you normally listen to your music?
128x128tboooe
tboooe's avatar
tboooe OP
1,009 posts
 
Thanks for the response everyone. Just answer a few of the questions: I used a Radio Shack analog SPL meter set to C weighting and "slow" response. My reasoning is that I wanted to get a decent nominal reading, as I am not so much interested in the peaks.

As for the posters who said they listen at 80-100...all I can say is that seems VERY loud to me. Maybe I have really sensitive ears, but I could not imagine being able to enjoy music at those levels.

I also agree that the volume has to be up to a certain level in order to not miss finer details.

Based on the responses so far, it seems that I may be listening at relatively low volumes compared to other people.
hiend2's avatar
hiend2
443 posts
 
On rock 105db RMS
beavis
272 posts
 
Makes me wonder, too. Makes me think many are taking a best guess. Its important to separate peak reading from nominal readings. I listen about 75dB nominal with peaks of about 85-90dB. It also make a big difference what kind of music you are listening to.
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pauly
1,012 posts
 
03-19-07: Shadorne 1) human hearing has a 120 db dynamic range...if you play at 60 db SPL (close to the typical ambient noise floor of 30 db SPL) then you will almost certainly miss details in the music.

Shadorne, if your system leaves details in the music at 60db SPL you need to upgrade to a decent system

Regards
Paul
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