Best Loudness button you've heard

Actually now I know how it really works; I like it (had it wrong). It's a knob that tames the midrange !

 

No.

Equal-loudness contour - Wikipedia

 

The loudness control on my amp boosts bass alone. The one on my receiver, bass and treble. I've been told the Yamaha's lowers the mids so bass and treble are louder. Apparently I was told BS !

 

Mine seems to add a lot more punch to the bottom end. I haven’t noticed any difference in the highs. I wouldn’t be shocked it each manufacturer did something a little different.

 

According to my manuals, they did !

 

Yeah, and I've driven a lot of rental cars that I wish had something like that!

 

I recently purchased a Yamaha AS-801 which has the variable loudness control. Let me start by saying the use of this control will be based on your room acoustics and speaker selection. I have 4 Paradigm 200B bookshelf speakers in the 4 corners of a basement room almost 6 feet high off the ground. At first I left it straight up and the sound became too deafening. Once I tinkered with it, I found the loudness control sweet spot was at 9:00 to 8:00 o'clock and the volume control at about 11:00. The sound difference was transformational and truly essential for me. The loudness control cuts the mids which our ears are sensitive to and gives the impression of boosted highs and lows. It's a brilliant design and my aging ears truly appreciate it.

 

I just turn up the volume until loudness compensation isn't needed. Then I turn it up a little more.

 

After many years of avoiding it, believing that I’m “supposed to” play music at normal settings, I’m using the loudness button on my Marantz 2235b and am absolutely loving it. In addition, I tune the bass knob two clicks down from neutral (the black line on the knob pointed up) and the treble two clicks above neutral. The mid knob stays at neutral. That seems to give me the ideal balance of lows and highs without sounding muddy or thin.

At first, I thought I needed to do this because my Pioneer FS-52 floor-standing speakers needed the bass boost, but this also works with headphones. It just sounds great to my ears. Is it accurate or “neutral”? I have no idea and, frankly, don’t care. The heart wants what it wants.

 

Glad I’m not your next-door neighbour.

 

My Luxman has no loudness control but I do a lot of low level listening. What frequencies do the bass and treble boosts center on with the typical old school loudness control?

 

Please see:

Fletcher Munson Curves

 

Boosted bass and treble. If looking at an old graphic equalizer the ends on the left and right would be at ten with the middle at 0 or -1.

 

On my Vincent SV237 MK, the loudness button boosts the low and the high end 5db and sounds really good.

 

Eleanor?

 

Much to my surprise, I have a "Comp" button on my Accuphase C-2410 preamp, and when listening at low volumes, I find it actually does a good job at adding a little more low end, just enough to fill the bottom in.

But it goes off when listening at higher volumes.

I'm more of a "straight wire with gain" type when it comes to tone controls or not, but I found the Accuphase to be the best implementation I've experienced when it comes to things like loudness, tone control -- on most prior systems I wouldn't use it if it were present.

Interesting thing is that on the next two prices levels in the Accuphase preamp lineup, they don't have tone controls or loudness... so for their TOTL gear obviously they also subscribe to "straight wire with gain" philosophy.

So although not a fan of many tone control or loudness implementations, I have found one that I think does a good job.

 

It is just as often a mid-cut. The same effect is delivered.

The best button is actually a loudness knob.

Second best would be a loudness circuit that is at least linked to the volume knob position.

 

And you're thinking ...... these controls have been there the whole time ! Why have I resisted using them or believed I shouldn't be using them for so long ?

Nice work !

 

Many consumer-grade audio devices have a built-in loudness curve, even if it isn't advertised and doesn't have a button to switch it on or off. General Electric used to be one of the few brands to make it explicit, by labelling the volume control as Loudness rather than Volume, and sometimes even putting a graphic on it showing the maximum effect of the loudness compensation at minimum volume, and it tapering off as the volume level is increased.

However I still don't know why they labeled the snooze button on their clock radios as Snooz instead of Snooze...

 

I’m sure I’ve said this before on this old thread but I’ll say it again. I’ve got a Sansui 9090 and the loudness switch is amazing. Everything just sounds cleaner, more detailed and better bass. It’s the “audiophile” switch. If i’m really getting after it with the volume, it’s a problem but most of the time having it on is the most reasonable choice. Only receiver I’ve had or heard that I feel that way about.

 

Now that my Fisher 800C has finally received proper servicing, I’ve heard it’s loudness contour in action and really like it. It can bring a nice bass heft to certain recordings that give the sound an overall fullness it lacked before. But well done recordings with proper bass don’t need the extra help.

I generally love the sound of my Pioneer SX-850’s loudness setting and have it engaged more often than not. It’s being serviced now, possibly for the very first time after I lost a channel. I bought it used 8 years ago and don’t know it’s history. All it ever needed were a few hits of Deoxit to alleviate minor issues. It will be very interesting to hear once the tech gets through with it.

My Luxman L-85v integrated has two mode of loudness, just bass or bass and treble. I only use it if the recording needs help. This amp also has extensive tone controls which is very important to me.

 

The best loudness control I ever heard was insulting my wife.
Talk about LOUD, it's instant and last for hours.

 

I've been experimenting with the loudness function in my Yamaha RN803D. This involved using the Yamaha YPAO mic to create a basic room measurement, the loudness compensation is variable and remote controlled. The difference is subtle, but definitely ups the fun factor of the sound!

 

I accidentally pushed my wife's loudness button yesterday.... that one is definitely my least favorite.

I just pushed the one on my Accuphase C-2410 a few seconds ago though as I'm listening at low volume, and it did the trick to give me a little more low end.... just enough though.

Accuphase calls it a "Compensator" and not "Loudness"....... I like that name more.

 

When I was 15 -16 -17, my mother had this amp (yes, the black one) and my favorite switch was the Loudness switch. In fact, I thought music only sounded good with Loudness switched on. Later I really had to learn how to listen without Loudness but I still have the best memories of the days I had with this amp.



Pioneer SX-5580