What Volume do you listen at?

Grand Piano = 110 db SPL, Drum Set = 115 db SPL...if you like live music or have ever played any instruments then you will know that music is loud because instruments are intended to be heard by others.

Furthermore your ear can handle from 120 db SPL to 0 db SPL (of course 120 db should be transients and never continuous) . Therefore if you want to benefit from the dynamic range inherent in real live music on your playback then you need a system capable of playing around 105 db spl continuous (with 10 db headroom) at your listening position. If this is 3 meters back then you need about 115 db SPL continuous (125 if you include peaks) from the speaker itself.

This will allow you to play any music at realistic levels. Of course you will rarely (if ever) listen to much above 95 db SPL continuous, however, transients can easily go much higher and it is the dynamic contrast which is partially what makes music lively and exciting. Rock concerts are at 105 db SPL and with a good stage system and can actually sound extremely good.

Depending on where you live the noise floor will usually be somewhere around 30 db SPL.

If you play music at 80 db SPL then 80 less 30 is 50 db spl and you have limited the dynamic range of what you hear to 50 db SPL. This is probably ok for rock or pop or small ensemble music but will almost certainly limit you in classical music with full orchestra where you get huge dynamic range in the music.

Greater dynamic range will allow you to hear more detail in the music. Natural uncompressed music rarely sounds loud or fatiguing. Stereos mainly sound loud because of distortion. The perception of "loud" is linked to distortion. Music at 80 db SPL with distortion will sound louder than music at 95 db SPL with no distortion.

At $30 K you may be able to find something that can play with close to the full range dynamics of real live music without much distortion. Likely you will want to keep turning it up if there is no distortion.

I listen at all levels, depending on music / mood / situation. That's one of the things I like most about having a nice system - it serves so many purposes while sounding great.

The "proper" volume level can be determined by focusing on one sound source in the music that is familiar to you. I use a violin, or sometimes a human voice. I know how loud a volin can play, and how loud a person can sing. It is easy to crank up the volume of the total music program to the point where the violin, for example, is impossibly loud. When you do this it's like puting a a beautiful object under a microscope: all the defects become evident.

Sometimes the mastering of the recording is a problem. For example, in a violin concerto the soloist is sometimes recorded so loudly that the orchestra cannot be brought up to an exciting volume without making the soloist too loud. However, in a multichannel system, where the soloist is in the center channel he can be toned down by reducing gain in that channel relative to the other channels. I often need to do that.

I find that my most enjoyable listening sessions are late at night when my house, the neighbors, and the electric lines are all very quiet. The background being much quieter makes dynamics greater - leading to reduced volume levels, but increased dynamics. Cost me many hours of sleep when everything is right...
The same volume during the daytime would be equal to background listening levels. So, volume is relative to the background noise. If you're within earshot of your kitchen, try listening with the refrigerator off. You might be shocked at the difference that type of background noise can make. Quality Hi-fi equipment should actually lead to reduced volume levels for most types of music - since you'll be able to listen into the music, not just listen to the music.

Cheers, Ed

Ed, very well put! I also listen mostly late in the evening after my kids are asleep. I find that listening at low volumes given the right circumstances, provides me all the inner detail and subtleties that help to convey a sense of intimacy and realism that I am after. I go to a lot of small venues listening to acoustic sets so this is the environment I am trying to recapture. Of course at low levels you do not get the same bass slam and SPLs but for my musical preferences, this is not important. At the end of the day, like everything else in this whacky hobby, it all comes down to personal preference.