[Pirate]

Do your speakers sound as good at low listening levels as they do at high?  It seems that when I have a chance to audition speakers the sales person has had to increrase the volume up pretty loud before the speaker starts to sound good.  In the past I have heard systems sound really good at low levels to where a conversation could be comfortably performed.  I like to play my music loud when I can but  reality is when the family is at home the volume needs to be turned down. Is there a trade off?  Will I have to give up one for the other ? Or have you found a speaker that does both?

[nathanm]

No!  They certainly don't!    I notice that when I 'show off' my system to friends I myself seem to like it more than I do when I'm alone.  Probably because I play it louder than usual.  (approx 80db at my chair vs. 65db normally)  Everything improves across the board with the increased SPL, up to a point.  But at that point the neighbors are getting a muffled roar, and I feel guilty.

Tactile sensation plays a major part I think, and unless you're getting some good vibes in the floor, your chair and your body it just isn't as involving.

What would be really rocking is if some clever person designed a pot whose taper was coupled to an EQ circuit that evolved with the gain.  I thought some mastering consoles may have this, but I might be imagining that.  Usually at higher volumes the frequency balance (or imbalance) reveals itself and fatigue sets in.

I estimate one thing that could make up for healthy volume is magical 3D imaging, but I haven't been able to achieve that either.  If there are speakers that sound great at low volume I'd also be interested to know what they are as well.

[Tonto Yoder]

Pirate,
I asked a similar question on Audio Asylum (back when I first got a remote controlled preamp): it seemed to me that there was a very limited range where the system sounded its best---somewhere around what one would call a realistic level.  Many people there seemed to agree.

It wasn't that the system sounded bad at lower levels, it just didn't sound its best.

[Tonto Yoder]

What would be really rocking is if some clever person designed a pot whose taper was coupled to an EQ circuit that evolved with the gain. I thought some mastering consoles may have this, but I might be imagining that. Usually at higher volumes the frequency balance (or imbalance) reveals itself and fatigue sets in.

 ...

Yamaha used to include such a feature even in its receivers back when a "Loudness" feature was standard fare: ideally, one set the volume knob for the maximum dB's one would ever use, set the loudness control for "Flat." and controlled volume via the loudness knob thereafter---turning down the volume a bit increased bass and treble a bit, turning it down to late night levels gave quite a bit of bass/treble boost.

This must have seemed like a good idea on paper, but the oversized "Volume" knob invariably got adjusted rather than the much smaller "Loudness" knob, throwing all previous adjustments out the window.

[PhilNYC]

I think a lot of it depends onyour equipment, particularly your preamp and speakers.  I used to run my cd player direct into my amp, and I found that my system didn't sound very good at low volume levels.  Asides from dynamics, I found that imaging was very diffuse and the music was not very engaging.  Adding a preamp with decent gain (10db) changed all of that...in addition to the greater dynamics, the sonic presentation just held together much better throughout the volume control range.  I suspect that speakers with high sensitivity will sound better at low volumes, too..

2 cents...

[Juan R]

I found since I changed from copper to sil.ver cables I get the same sound in the mid and high at lower volume.

[cyounkman]

I've found that my De Capos tend to really 'wake up' at a certain volume level... They sound great at lower levels, just slightly less dynamic. I've always assumed this is because of the non-linear nature of the port contribution.

[Pirate]

Yamaha used to include such a feature even in its receivers back when a "Loudness" feature was standard fare: ideally, one set the volume knob for the maximum dB's one would ever use, set the loudness control for "Flat." and controlled volume via the loudness knob thereafter---turning down the volume a bit increased bass and treble a bit, turning it down to late night levels gave quite a bit of bass/treble boost.

  I have an old Yamaha R-9 collecting dust in the den. Your right it does have this feature and I remember using it. The bass would indeed increase as the volume is lowered which did help a bit. I really never had any "GOOD" speakers hooked up to it though.

I think a lot of it depends onyour equipment, particularly your preamp and speakers.

I was hoping someone would touch on this. I have the Odyssey Stereo Extreme and am toying with the idea of getting the Tempest before speakers But so far it sounds like others are having the same problem  

[John Casler]

Do your speakers sound as good at low listening levels as they do at high?  It seems that when I have a chance to audition speakers the sales person has had to increrase the volume up pretty loud before the speaker starts to sound good.  In the past I have heard systems sound really good at low levels to where a conversation could be comfortably performed.  I like to play my music loud when I can but  reality is when the family is at home the volume needs to be turned down. Is there a trade off?  Will I have to give up one for the other ? Or have you found a speaker that does both?

Ahoy there Pirate,

What you're talking about is something called the "Fletcher Munson Effect".

Very simply as SPLs decrease, our ability to "hear" the extremes of frequency diminishes.   So while a frequency response curve might measure "flat" at any given volume, we may not hear it that way.

Just one of those cases where a set of subjective measurements does not coincide with out actual listening reality.

So how come you have heard recordings that sound reasonably good at low volume?

1) The system had a "loudness" or contour control to boost specific frequencies based on the Fletcher Munson curves
2) Ambient noise was low enough that it didn't obscure the drop outs
3) The recording engineer, actually engineered the recording to be listened to a lower levels
4) I'm sure there are others (but I can't think of any)

Just do a google search for Fletcher Munson and I bet plenty will come up