Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
I always think of el cheapo Eagle and Teleton type makes of late 60's early 70's when I see a Leben
Watts aren’t all equal. How to measure an Amplifier’s “Grunt”?
- Thread starter strummer
- Start date
What's this obsession with listening at ear splitting levels? For me there's a definite line where music becomes strident and painful regardless of the system playing it, all the subtleties of quality playback are lost in a sea of noise, which is fine if that's what you want but you don't need a hi-fi to achieve that.
Yes this looks about "normal" to me. Average of 75-80, peaks of 95-100 and a level one can listen to all day without hearing damage or fatigue. Standard cinema levels are a smidgen higher and are published which can help when designing. If Joe and his meter are to be believed he is listening at 25-30 dB below these levels...
This looks the definition of not having a hi-fi! When a system starts to clip it sounds louder than a non-clipping system. Winding it up a bit more and it becomes strident because the clipping is generating high frequencies. Wind it up a bit more and the tweeters melt. Include +/- 20 dB low frequency room boom to the mix and whatever we have got it is not high fidelity in any technically recognisable sense.
You missed the part where I mentioned it's not system dependant but volume, I can't listen to any system past a certain level because it's just noise, if I want to listen like that I can do it in the work van through the radio. No hi-fi required.
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
Overly compressed stuff that's balanced to sound good on sound bars etc is where it sounds nasty to me when the volume goes up too high... just a wall of noise! Wide dynamic range material with a wide and flat frequency range OTOH can often be played really loud and just sounds more and more natural as the volume increases... up to a point of course!
Why would I think you were lying? I suspected your meter was not registering peaks but averages over a short period and having just dug an old sound level meter out of a cupboard and had a quick play that is what it appeared to do. Perhaps your meter is different but it is likely you were listening at an average of 60+dB which is still quiet but not background music quiet. (You could of course have simply said you listened louder than background music). My mother used to have music on at this sort of level but, like many, she had zero interest in high fidelity. It is the combination of an interest in high fidelity and quiet listening levels that seems odd.
Most live music is listened to at well above 80 dB average. Most recorded music is monitored and processed around these levels. Cinema levels are a bit higher. Etc... Is everybody hearing noise? 80 dB average is roughly the standard level for careful/critical/detailed listening to not just music.
If you don't think the noise is coming from undersized speakers and amplifiers in booming rooms where do you think it is coming from?
Cereal Killer
432
Why make so many assumptions and generalisation?
What generalisations? Not stating assumptions when trying to do the numbers can lead to people holding different assumptions. I am interested in doing the numbers in order to reason in rational manner about something that seems interesting.
Yes, that is right, you cannot do otherwise when somebody shouting at you angry.
Joe P
Memory Alpha incarnate | mod; Shatner number = 2
h.g.,
It was the “if Joe and his meter are to be believed” that suggested I was lying. If you’re questioning only the accuracy of my meter why assume I’m being untruthful?
I listen at different levels but typically at the figure I quoted because my hearing is good and I’d like for it to remain that way.
Joe
It was the “if Joe and his meter are to be believed” that suggested I was lying. If you’re questioning only the accuracy of my meter why assume I’m being untruthful?
I listen at different levels but typically at the figure I quoted because my hearing is good and I’d like for it to remain that way.
Joe
Last edited:
Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
There is standardisation in cinema,
https://www.digido.com/portfolio-item/level-practices-part-2/
keith
https://www.digido.com/portfolio-item/level-practices-part-2/
keith
mattgbell
Help the elderly and unwell!
Joe,
My experience (from audio shows, bake-offs etc) is that many self-styled audiophiles listen to music at levels that to me are uncomfortably loud. Playing loud is one of the things I put down to audiophile todger-waving, like the obsession with expensive cables.
I've just tried the levels in my living room: a large-ish benign room, using ATC SCM50 actives, which are well known for going loud with minimal distortion. 70-75dB average is as loud as I'm comfortable with. I could probably go louder but only after considerable ingestion of electric soup.
Joe P
Memory Alpha incarnate | mod; Shatner number = 2
Matt,
pfm grand poohbah Tony listens at similar levels to us. I’d try to find the post where Tony quotes the SPL, but I’m typing on an iPod, which makes searches a pain in the arse. Anyway, it's something in the 65-70-75 dB range.
If I were going deaf I’d likely turn it up, but I didn’t do that often when I was younger so I have no need to do it now.
Joe
pfm grand poohbah Tony listens at similar levels to us. I’d try to find the post where Tony quotes the SPL, but I’m typing on an iPod, which makes searches a pain in the arse. Anyway, it's something in the 65-70-75 dB range.
If I were going deaf I’d likely turn it up, but I didn’t do that often when I was younger so I have no need to do it now.
Joe
DimitryZ
pfm Member
Far from clear...but it sounds better on most material.
Yank
Bulbous Also Tapered
A Marantz 7 is a preamp. When you say "buffers" are you using the gain stage, or just the cathode follower?