How loud is your music right now? (SPL meter)

I like the production but you're right, it's pretty mid-rangey.

 

Turn it up to 11 !

 

78-81 right now. Nice listening level. I do go much higher though all depends on what I'm listening to. Some music just begs to be played loud.

 

my m7 htc one says 85 average during side 2 of Pink Floyd DSOTM 1973 original quad mix

 

45-ish right now. Doing needledrops and it's late. Guess Who, #10 currently on. More typically I run it 85-90 on something I really want to listen to and nobody is trying to sleep.

 

60. Never really any higher than that.

 

90+ I like it loud

 

Quite a varied response!

 

Around 85 db. That's a high estimate and probably a lot lower. I seem to have misplaced my SPL meter.

 

I get passed 80db once in a while.

 

If my wife was not home all the time it would be a lot louder, that's for sure.

 

I often listen with peaks around 85 to 90 dB on headphones. Using a real dB meter. Not a phone app.

90 dB peaks are safe, even on headphones. Especially on better headphones that have smoother less peaky sound than cheap headphones. 90 dB peaks means average level is less. The measurements also depend on whether you're measuring with "fast" or "slow" averaging. I typically measure with fast averaging so I can better see what the peaks are at. Slow averaging will give you lower numbers for typical music.

Right now I'm listening to some softer music (David Bromberg) and the appropriate listening level level on headphones seems to be bouncing between 60 dBA and 80 dBA using fast averaging.

http://www.dangerousdecibels.org/education/information-center/decibel-exposure-time-guidelines/

I believe those numbers are based on slow averaging dBA for noise and not necessarily music content. I'm not sure how much those numbers translate to music listening, especially on high quality gear and high quality source material.

 

Guys you must always use C weighting for this,NOT A!

 

Very interesting, thanks for the thread. I read that even audiophiles listen domestically at levels at least 15-20dB quieter than real performances, and this seems to support that. Of course it is very difficult to achieve good quality sound at truly realistic levels domestically, not to mention antisocial and potentially damaging to hearing over a long enough period. There's near field listening, of course. But realism of authentic SPLs is a much overlooked part of audiophillia IMO, and I try at least in part to be able to get toward it because to me it makes a great difference to 'suspension of disbelief' whilst listening to a performance.

 

Yes. C weighting would make more sense for music. But all of the guides and all of the information I find about safe listening levels are done in A weighting. For example, the dangerousdecibels.org link I gave above. It's all in dBA. Even those guides and info focused on music levels rather than industrial noise levels.

If the professionals keep giving me dBA measurements when telling me how loud music can be then what am I to do? I can't do my own research. I rely on the professionals and the research of others. So I continue to use dBA measurements even though I know dBC would be more appropriate.

 

Hmm. Ok then. Strange. It's just my understanding is C weighting is averaging that works more how our hearing does. It follows the Fletcher Munson curve.

 

Well, I know it's Sunday 'n' all, but my lovely just left to exercise, so I'm goin' for it.
Fleetwood Mac, from the Boston set: Rattlesnake Shake.
SPL meter is reading 89/91, C weighted!
Crazy? Maybe - but it's Fleetwood Mac...
Cut me some slack

 

Read the first post. He asked how loud are we listening "right now."

 

"How loud is your music when you're playing it at your idea of loud?"

 

Yeah, apologies for the confusion chaps. I suppose my post can be interpreted either way. I suppose it would be more useful for people to vote with their idea of loud. Seems a bit more useful than the fleeting 'right now'!

My bad, as the Americans say!

I must say, I think if I went into the 80 dB and above range it would be uncomfortably loud for me in my small room. I guess room size and hearing loss has a lot to do with it!

 

With this NEW interpretation of your question, I think that 106 db SPL is just a tad bit loud.

 

I was recording Elgars Dream of Gerontius last night in Tewkesbury Abbey
Many timpanni peaks and orchestral surges into the 100 dB
Massed choirs live can be exceptionally loud, in rehearsal, a tourist in the Abbey asked if it was amplified, he didn't realise acoustic music could be so loud in such a huge space.

 

I'm almost always in the 90's if I'm really listening and not just playing in the background while I work. I like it loud, so 100+ isn't abnormal.

Had my hearing tested recently and it was perfect and I'm still hearing frequencies typically lost for someone my age, so I'll keep enjoying my music at 11.

 

over 100. I have Klipsch Chorus II speakers, so... it can get loud in here!


Also this is according to an app on my phone...

 

Porcupine Tree The Sky Moves Sideways, peaking in the mid 80s per my iPhone SPLMeter app.

Sounds pretty nice. This is a good volume for it. Really fabulous space-proggish epic if you haven't heard it.