The best level for speakers
Subscribe to Ask Paul Ask a QuestionWhat's the perfect dB level for loudspeakers? We know too high and we get distortion. Too low and we cannot engage with the music. What's the right level?
COMMENTS
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I agree optimal volume depends on the music source, type, and quality of the recording. I like the reference with using the main vocalist center stage and making them sound as if they are in the room. Great tip!
Again, there are so many parameters limiting the maximum tolerable volume level for a given room/speaker/amp combination: continuous tweaking of my system (room treatment, power regeneration, better speaker cables, better power cables, opto-galvanic Isolation, better DAC,Isolation platforms/racks etc) allowed further increase of SPL finally revealing more and finer details otherwise buried in distortions. I never had thought that a RBCD could sound that good – having preferred vinyl hitherto. However it took a long journey finding the weak points in digital signal transfer!
Paul, I noticed in the video that you’ve positioned amplifiers directly in front of some massive woofers. Don’t low frequency vibrations mess with the electronics?
It also depends on the ears. In my younger days, I went for “concert” volume. Now, in spite of hearing damage and loss, I go much lower. Kind of backwards, but really loud stuff bothers me now.
On Thursday afternoon’s, John Pizzarelli plays a concert from his house couch. He plays an unplugged electric guitar and a 7 string nylon string guitar. He talks and plays directly to a microphone. You can access these amazing little concerts on Instagram or facebook.
I suggest you use his voice while speaking to set up the volume in your room. He should sound like he is there with you. The clarity of the sound is uncanny. When he starts to sing and play his guitar, if you don’t fiddle with the volume, you will get a proper level in your hime. For that music.
Sometimes his wife and even other times his daughter joins them playing another guitar or singing. There is no sound manipulation, no effects, just one microphone to the ether space.
It is beautiful music anyway.
I can appreciate what you’ve written. I have all my audio sources set up to play through my main system. Much of the time I have our Australian ABC Classic channel playing and prefer to listen at a level where the announcers sound like they’re talking in the room. They usually play the music at commensurate sound levels. I’m often caught out by sounds from the radio that sound like they’ve come from somewhere in the room, another part of the house or just outside the house! It’s certainly a good rule of thumb for setting the sound level.
I have always suspected, at least for a well recorded and mastered piece, that the best level at one’s ears is the level it was mastered at. That way the balance octave to octave and especially the relationship of bass and treble to the middle(due to Fletcher/Munson) will be ‘correct’.
It slightly bothers me when a recorded piece uses instruments that naturally have big differences in loudness. For example, a typical brass section with trombone, sax, and two trumpets is incredibly loud if you’re standing nearby. Similarly, a rock drum kit played in the style of Keith Moon or Animal from the Muppets is extremely loud. An unamplified acoustic guitar stands no chance, yet we hear pieces where the guitar solos over the band. What’s the correct volume in this case?