It's usually in my own headphones anyway, or in a closed-windowed car. So, I don't need to brag to the world how my music is different than theirs. I just have it loud enough to hear all the parts.
So... I just listened and measured again (its been a while), and I think all my volumes should be downgraded by a few db.
Yeah... We're all constantly pulling out our meters and measuring our systems. [end sarcasm] Music listening always comes first. But every once in a while, it can be fun doing technical stuff, too. The 2 modes of audio appriciation are not mutually exclusive. Yes, sometimes it is even fun listening to audiophile recordings for no other reason than hear how good it sounds.
I wasn't actually sure according to my phone it ranges from 67 to 94 but I've measured the level I'm usually at with my bookshelf speakers and it's around the mid-60s to high 70s. Though I would say it's more common for it to be in the 60s when I'm just watching stuff on the Apple TV.
Well, I've cheerfully done a 180°. Got a dB meter added to my phone mere minutes after my irritable post this afternoon ... I think I've been listening at a slightly dangerous volume, particularly in my car. I'm going to use that metering app to help me ease off a bit, over time.
I think it will depend on how far away your speakers are relative to the listening position. My chair is 6ft away and some times 75 is too loud.
The album I'm listening to has varied from the low seventies to (occasionally) the low eighties, so I'm going with 75-80dB.
Anyone who values their hearing and wants to preserve it. For several other reasons as well. First and foremost I wanted to see what levels I was listening at to protect my hearing. There were always lots of articles in the HiFi mags with the charts showing max db. vs. safe exposure time. My first job was at a graphic arts firm and I learned to run the printing presses and bindery equipment. Much of it was very noisy and you often had to yell over it to be heard. I quickly noticed the veterans had major hearing loss. Since music was so important to me I quickly made use of the foam ear plugs the company made available. The old-timers would never where them. Many would tell me privately that I was smart and they wished they had done this, but it was too late for them now. I have always been surprised that my listening levels and what is loud to me is about 10db lower than I would have thought looking at the charts. Protecting my equipment in addition to my ears. Acoustic suspension loudspeakers were never known for being efficient. From 1972 to 2017 I have always owned acoustic suspension loudspeakers, including several Realistic models followed by Larger Advents and Double Larger Advents. At first receivers were low powered. I wanted to make sure I wasn't over-driving my loudspeakers. An axiom that was true then and now: "Speaker damage is most often not caused by too much power, but too little." Clipping distortion turns sound waves into square waves which can quickly fry tweeters. Using the sensitivity ratings of the speaker and the power of my receiver, I could see what the approximate maximum listening level I could expect from that combination. I could run some calcs and see and measure what this sounded like in terms of loudness. I could make sure to try to never exceed that level by taking measurements as I cranked up the volume. The wattage of my receivers went from 18W in 1972 to 50W in 1974 to 110W in 1975 and I always took readings to see what I was using for power and if I was over-driving my gear. I wasn't constantly sitting there with the SPL out taking measurements. When I got new gear I would dust off my Radio Shack SPL meter and spend an hour or so listening to music at various levels of loudness. I would see what was safe for my gear and safe for my ears (and for how long). Protecting my neighbors from me. Starting from when I lived at my parents house, then dorms, then apartments and then my own house I always used the SPL meter to take readings in my listening area. With houses I would go out to the property line and see how much sound leakage you could hear. Windows open and widows shut. My goal was very little sound at the property line. This gave me an idea of what listening levels I could get away with when my parents, or now wife, went out and I wanted to do some seriously LOUD listening. My goal was to prevent a neighbor from asking the innocent question when my wife or parents saw them next: "Oh did you have a party last Saturday?" That would not end well for me in either case. With dorms or apartments I played it safe til I got to know the neighbors and got a sense of how much noise leakage there was in the building. I am an architect so I can do calculations of how much sound attenuation there was based on the demising wall type or the floor/ceiling type. I could then use the SPL meter to see what the maximum sound level I could achieve without annoying the neighbors was like. As I got to know my immediate neighbors I could confirm this for myself by asking them and sometimes hearing for myself what sound, if any, was leaking through. Once again this was often a one and done type deal. Plus I always figured in an apartment, loud listening were what headphones were made for.
Most of the time between 80-90db. And I can still talk to my wife without really raising my voice, which is a sign of proper amplification in my book. If you think 80-90db is too loud, you either have very sensitive ears (I still hear up to 16khz being 51) or you don't have good enough amplification. I used to have the same problem using a poor 40w amp with inefficient speakers. 80-90db didn't sound relaxing with that setup !
Wish I had posted this graph in my original post. It demonstrates very clearly why A-weighted readings are generally 5db lower than C-weighted readings. Lots of spl in the 100hz region.
I couldn't vote as it is split between when the Mrs. is home and not. Right now the app says anywhere between whisper and quite library which is about normal for morning at rue Funk.
This is how I used the app to phase the sub: Linear sweep 20-120 Hz You can adjust level and xover also The dashed yellow line is the average peak Upper: 0 phase (in phase in my case) Lower: 180 deg (out of phase, lower level) Big level difference in the xover region centered at ~63Hz, over 10 dB lower!
depends on what 90 dB means If dBA, normal conversation is ~ 50-55 range You would have to speak very loud to be heard If a Z or C weighted peak, dBA would be 65-70 range, so convo would only have to be a bit above normal. The weighting is important my normal dBA 75 dBC ~100 Convo level needs to be raised to be understood I have good hearing, level & discernment Having my annual test on Aug 11 I ask for the more stringent test he gives musicians I can hear tones >12 kHz That does not mean I have good hearing They may be -20 dB relative to 3 kHz So not flat, but attenuated
let me qualify I have good hearing for my age I have poor hearing vs a 16 year old Average against a 40 year old everybody has good hearing Nobody seems to get tested People are afraid to be tested: if you have been listening to hifi for decades at moderate to high volumes for hours a day, your hearing will be worse than someone who hasn't. I'm the best looking guy in the world...until I look in a mirror
I didn’t quote you. It was the guy that said we were bragging because we measure how loud our music is.
