That's because there is some compression applied to nearly all recordings...even classical ones...especially big orchestral works. In order to hear uncompressed recordings, you are likely to have better luck with chamber music recordings.
At What SPL Do You Listen to Your Stereo?
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
- Start date
Agree with this. I dedicated a lot of time and effort into time aligning and level aligning my subs, Plus I had a massive help from Lyngdorf RoomPerfect. I am now of the view that unless you have a DSP in place getting subs right is very very hard.
I am still surprised that dealers still go by distance for setting subs and not understanding that you need to "see" (using something like REW) the interaction between the mains and subs in order to be able to get them working together.
Subs should be seen and not heard ... well most partners are happy not to see the subs also.
Additionally, I believe excessive bass contributes more to hearing damage/loss. Your instinctive response to protect your ears will protect your ears!
Last edited:
No it doesn't. Our ears are not as sensitive to bass as higher frequencies, and not as damaged by it. If there was danger in bass exposure, the "A" weighting curve would look very different. This curve is specifically intended to quantify which frequencies are most damaging.
I was playing music last night. Bouncing through a bunch of different stuff. No classical. I would get the music where I liked it before.I looked at the sound pressure level. Only once or twice was I out of place where the peaks we're reading about 82 or 84. For the most part, they stayed at about 78 to 79. The lows are registering in the high 40s. The average reading was almost always 65 to 67.
At that level, the music seemed to come alive. I don't believe raising it anymore would have kept it in an optimum listening level. It would be louder. But i'm not sure the bass, mid and highs would be any more optimally balanced. If anything, it might have made the mids and highs become excessive. And it would start making me drawback with odd faces, as it was approaching uncomfortable levels. I would lose the relaxed listening session.
At that level, the music seemed to come alive. I don't believe raising it anymore would have kept it in an optimum listening level. It would be louder. But i'm not sure the bass, mid and highs would be any more optimally balanced. If anything, it might have made the mids and highs become excessive. And it would start making me drawback with odd faces, as it was approaching uncomfortable levels. I would lose the relaxed listening session.
I read somewhere that the low frequencies were more dangerous, but it looks like that’s not true. From what I read now, it does sound like extreme low frequencies can have other ill effects on the body outside of hearing. In any case, anything extreme is usually not too good for you!
Our ears are less sensitive to low bass - not immune from it. I'm sure a jacked-up home theater with gigantic subwoofers playing some inane superhero movie with over the top explosions is not doing your ears any favors. But even in that circumstance, taking an "A" weighted reading would tell you the relative risk verses length of exposure, and those limits are widely published for industrial exposure.
Not arguing. Only saying that weighted measurements don't mean much at the levels I play at. I don't feel the need to try and play louder. In a rare circumstance like playing Stairway To Heaven, I want to turn it up. As soon as the song is over I turn it back down.
I do have a couple Tchaikovsky pieces like Piano Concerto 1 where I may turn up the quiet passages to hear them better, but I may turn it down a little when it explodes. Most music I can set it and forget it. Fortunate in that my preamp is manual. I keep bugging the manufacturer about putting a drive of some sort in it. He won't do it.
A better mic that is calibrated might give a more accurate measurement. My phone seems to be very close to what other people devices say.
Take a look at the picture of my speaker stack in the profile. Now if we both played the same 1812 Overture cannons measured at the same average A weighted SPL on our separate systems and then changed to unweighted (Z), the reading from my system would probably be at least 10 DB or more higher than yours. And none of that is contributing to real volume as we perceive it - it's only because I have bigger speakers, and that makes the comparison useless with smaller speakers. Comparing using A weighting which eliminates that bass speaker discrepancy is the only way to get a valid comparison to what our ears are actually hearing and how loud it is in our separate rooms.
None of this has to do with how loud we actually prefer to listen, but if we we are throwing out numbers of the SPL we listen at, then it makes sense to use weighting which isn't skewed by the size of the speakers or the particular music we're using for the comparison (bass heavy versus a string quartet).
So the 10db increase is not “real “ Volume! Psuedo dynamics ..?
A bit of nonsense there Mr Ampexed.
A bit of nonsense there Mr Ampexed.
You are missing my point. It is "real" but not in a way which translates between different systems with different low frequency capability. Unless you have the same subwoofer stack I have, the same "80dB" means nothing in the important region of human hearing which DOES determine relative volume. Low frequency variability is the reason that reviews do not include low frequencies in their sensitivity determinations. "80dBA" will read the roughly the same on yours and my systems with the track with heavy low frequencies, but the dBZ measurements of the same music with heavy low bass content will ready quite differently with mine higher. Large woofers will skew the overall reading if low frequencies are included. But bass does not register as 'loudness' to the human ear. Do you doubt that this would be the case? The Fletcher-Munson equal loudness curves established this almost a century ago. Do the research if you're interested instead of accusing me of spewing 'nonsense'.So the 10db increase is not “real “ Volume! Psuedo dynamics ..?
A bit of nonsense there Mr Ampexed.
I can say "I'm driving at 70" but that means nothing unless it is specified in MPH or kM/h. I can say "it is 80 outside" but that is meaningless unless it is specified as C or F. In this thread numbers like "80dB" are thrown out with no standardization of the weighting, the low frequency capability of the speakers, and most importantly, what music is being played. In that context 80dB means nothing. If a thread is devoted to how 'loud' we listen, it stands to reason that the basic units being compared would be the same and the music used would be specified. I don't expect 20Hz in a string quartet, but I well expect it in the 1812 Overture.
Otherwise why bother with a thread such as this? You may think it nonsense, but expecting something approaching uniformity in measurement methods when wildly different units are being compared and the low frequency content of the music is not specified is nonsense. You may not be trained in scientific method, but I am. I don't do nonsense, which is how I make audio designs which work verses blowing up.
Last edited:
Doesn't your meter or meter app have a selection of weighting curves? If the music you listen to doesn't have low bass, weighting doesn't really matter, but music with strong 30Hz bass surely does, and will skew the actual listening level verses somebody listening to the same music with different speakers. I'm generally in the neighborhood of 80dBA with most early jazz music on peaks, lower if I'm listening to it as background music. With modern 'electronic' music which uses synths/samplers and has bass lower than 30Hz, levels in excess of 110dB are common, but setting the meter to "A" weighting beings the real level down to a more reasonable 80-85dBA.
I think I going to instal REW and a Umik 1 mic I have. That should give more accurate readings.
The SPL module in REW does give the capability to specify the weighting, and REW in general is one of the most powerful programs an audiophile can have. Make sure that you import the calibration file which comes with your UMIK-1 microphone (download it using the serial number of your microphone from the MiniDSP website) into REW, otherwise the SPL function will read the wrong levels - it needs that calibration file to work correctly.
I even use REW for purely electronic measurements in my audio designs since it provides more information at-a-glance than my dedicated audio analyzer hardware/software.
There are also many SPL meter apps available for smart phones which are reasonably accurate and give the ability to specify weighting.
Last edited:
Similar threads
