What's your normal listening volume

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by McIntosh, Sep 6, 2007.

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  1. McIntosh

    McIntosh Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle
    Anyone ever break out the spl meter and see what your normal listening volume is?
     
  2. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    No meter, but "too loud for my wife" is generally where I start to back off on the volume. I guess she is just concerned about my hearing.
     
  3. Lownotes

    Lownotes Senior Member

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    75-85 db

    Every once in a while I'll visit the 85-90 range, but usually not for long.
     
  4. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    Believe it or not, I've never measured, but I pretty much listen at the same volume level every time I listen. My guess would be somewhere in the 90db range. I like to listen at home at the same volume I'd listen to when I was working in the studio control rooms. Of course, I generally listened at reasonable levels in the studio, while some liked to listen at extremely loud levels. Too loud, and listening fatigue sets in rather quickly for me, rendering me unable to make critical analysis.

    That said, my Dahlquist's don't play very loud, but they play loud enough for me to do this. I can tell when they are in the slightest amount of distress and back the volume down 1db from that point. Interestingly enough, I believe I can set levels this way far more accurately than by any other method.

    Using meters for this is next to worthless for me. A dynamic song can have peaks hitting full scale on my amplifier's meters, where a heavily compressed recording can have the same apparently loudness level with the meters 20db below that of the dynamic recording.
     
  5. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    75-85dbl. But in the car? Forgettaboutitt! It's loud!
     
  6. DaveN

    DaveN Music Glutton

    Location:
    Apex, NC
    I really want to know how loud the equipment reviewers listen. The detail and other performance indicators are driven by volume.

    I know that I cannot listen at near-realistic levels. This leaves me wondering if I am missing important components of the music because they are not produced accurately at lower levels.
     
  7. snapper55

    snapper55 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    Depends on the music and time of day.

    During the day with rock music,sometimes into the high 90's.

    In the evening,and into the small hours with some ambient,maybe as low 65
     
  8. Kyhl

    Kyhl On break

    Location:
    Savage
    :laugh: :thumbsup:


    My normal range is about 75db peaks on the meter.
    Loud is 80db - 85db for a few songs.
    Rockin' is 95db for one song every six months or so.
     
  9. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    Thats about right for me{maybe 70db} but if nobody is home,the 90 range will be abit longer.:D
     
  10. Metoo

    Metoo Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Spain (EU)
    I had the idea that I was usually listening at about 74 dB, but I just did a measurement of a stereo source with my SPL meter and it was around 62 dB or less (more like 55 dB). Yet, in any case it makes sense given the large amount of hours I listen to music on a daily basis. Everyone knows that the more time you listen to music the lower the volume it should be played at. See here: http://www.marshfieldclinic.org/patients/default.aspx?page=wtfoml_wau_aug07_mp3
     
  11. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    :confused: You must have an extremely dead listening room. The ambient noise in my room is louder than you listen.
     
  12. Metoo

    Metoo Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Spain (EU)
    My measurements were done pointing the SPL meter at the ceiling, which is how I have calibrated my surround setup. I did have to close the windows to do the measuring because in the summertime there is a lot of noise coming from the outside (traffic - about half a block away - and children playing outdoors mostly). Fortunately my window does not face a street, but a sort of park type of street. :) In any case, I feel there is too much extraneous noise in my room, especially in the summertime.
     
  13. McIntosh

    McIntosh Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle
    My system reveals a LOT more detail once I get above 80db.
     
  14. Metoo

    Metoo Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Spain (EU)
    Well, as you say it could be your system. Then again, it could be your ears. Remember Fletcher-Munson's 'equal-loudness contours'? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contours
     
    Robert C likes this.
  15. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
  16. phish

    phish Jack Your Body

    Location:
    Biloxi, MS, USA
    i play it as loud as i can get away with playing it.
     
  17. Metoo

    Metoo Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Spain (EU)
    One thing that I must point out that also factors in on this is what kind of place you live in. I live in an apartment and this means I cannot get away with the same SPLs that someone can get away with in a dedicated room and/or a house.

    This said, I sometimes enjoy taking the volume level from 41 (which is where I usually get about 75 dBs) to 60+ (usually about 64), but if I did it regularly not only would I surely have lost hearing, I also would probably have serious problems with my wife and my neighbors.

    In any case, I usually feel proud of being able to distinguish quite a lot of detail at lower volumes, even if this means I lose on the bass punch to my solar plexus. :D

    As I've often mentioned when discussing volumes to use with headphones. I tend to try to set them at a comfortable mid-to-low level and then I lower the volume a little bit more. One can easily get hooked on volume and finally lose the ability to hear detail unless the music is very loud. Think of it like getting used to salty or greasy foods. Sure their taste more likeable (perhaps even better), but the accumulated results of them on one's health down the line are no fun. I don't mean to say that this is always the case, but if there is no hearing the fun is over. :)
     
    Robert C likes this.
  18. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    I tend to play it quite soft under 70db...

    I will also crank it if I feel the need around 95db...
     
  19. bluesky

    bluesky Senior Member

    Location:
    south florida, usa
    On a scale of 0 to 10 I usually listen at level 1.5 to 2. The way my house is designed level 2 is loud enough. If the wife isn't home maybe it will go up to level 2.5 or...3 maximum. Don't want to blast out the neighbors and level 2 is fine for 'enjoying the music'. The wall between the kitchen and the living room/dining room is open for display items on the shelf/upper part of the wall and the music goes everywhere! (and seems to get amplified in a very nice and pleasing kind of way which I really like!!) Level 1.5 to 2.5 is perfect for me. :agree: :righton:
     
  20. axnyslie

    axnyslie Forum Resident

    the threshold of pain!
     
  21. I Am The Lolrus

    I Am The Lolrus New Member

    Location:
    LA, CA, US
  22. Steve G

    Steve G Senior Member

    Location:
    los angeles
    I don't have any kind of volume measuring device, but I prefer listening at fairly low volumes
     
  23. I never used a SPL meter in my house but when I checked a scope I was running usually 1/2 - 1/4 watt RMS with loud passages at about 1 RMS watt and peaks at 2 watts. So plug that into 88 db speakers at about 1.5 meters and that is what I usually listen to :shrug:
     
  24. PreciousRicky

    PreciousRicky Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY, NY USA
    I should be able to have a conversation with someone across the room without having to significantly raise my normal speaking voice. Recently, this hasn't been the case, so I've had to dial the volume down about 25 percent. Volume creep.
     
  25. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    I'm a little surprised how many don't have a SPL meter.
     
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