Unsure why you chose not to answer a single one of my questions.
Sure, some musicians wear ear protection. Have you not noticed how close they are to their own and surrounding instruments? Thankfully, our listening perspective is supposed to be at a distance like maybe somewhere in the audience with the performers on a soundstage? So your point here seems sorta’ pointless.
Golly, I don’t know. I imagine some come home to brush their teeth and go to bed while others make love to their spouses or go out to dinner? But I do know many musicians stay clear of high-end audio altogether – some perhaps for valid reasons.
BTW, you started off by talking live performance volume levels. How does live performance volume levels now equate to blasting? Unless perhaps you’re now overemphasizing to make some imaginary point?
Forget loud and blasting. We’re talking live performance volume levels here. Such levels are only a requirement for those pursuing a sense of genuine realism - no more and no less than any other sonic characteristic. If this doesn’t sound like you, then why are we having this conversation? But to substantial my position, go listen to your most engaging music piece and continue turning down the volume until it is no longer engaging. Eventually, you should understand my point.
Indeed. You can also pull weeds, walk, knit, crochet, finish your math homework, etc. with an AM transistor radio and earbuds. But how serious of a system is required to meet such criteria?
That’s only because you’ve not given this much thought. Apparently, you’re unaware that the lower the volume, the more music info is missing from the presentation. Try turning your volume slowly down to zero if you think I’m wrong.
Like I said before, live performance volume levels are no more and no less worthy than any other genuine sonic characteristic. I get that you’ve conditioned yourself to listen at lowered volume levels, but can you really prove otherwise?
I would say that some playback configs clearly sound closer to live music than others. And a dead giveaway of limited and less musical playback systems are those unable to listen to playback music near/at live performance volume levels. Due primarily to distortions that rise with volume levels that induce serious breakup, flattening out, etc resulting in ear bleed, hearing impairment, etc. I suspect this is primarily why so many have adhered to this preconceived narrative for the past 50+ years. IOW, to receive listening enjoyment they’ve had to condition themselves to listen at lower levels otherwise the distortions make them wince, cringe, or even run outta the room.
BTW, when it comes to pursuing a sense of realism, I’m coming from the position that everything matters but only because it is so. As for your position, who made anybody here grand poo-bah to discern and dictate which sonic characteristics are important and which are not?
Or perhaps it's more of a question of lowered expections and/or not putting much thought into their pursuit?
