C´mon, someone own up. What´s the secret of good sound at lower volumes ?

[John]

The Quad ESL manual had a take on volume which I subscribe to:

 

[mansr]

My system sounds ace at reasonable (for me) volume (unreasonable for SWMBO) where it really comes alive but flat as a pancake if I turn it down to her reasonable, namely where you can talk and be heard (God knows why people want to do that when music´s playing).
I am no headbanger, I´m talking about Armatrading, the Dan, Patricia Barber and Bill Evans etc. for God´s sake. Is near field listening the answer, in a tiny room, on my jack´s ? Are standmounts likely to improve things ?
Am I the only one with this existentialist problem ? Is hifi really for nerds only ?

Audyssey dynamic EQ can help in this regard. That said, some music (hard rock, metal, etc.) really needs to be played quite loud to sound its best.

Mine is a Sugden A21Se, by the way and the speakers are WD25TEx. Can anyone recommend a freebie sound meter phone app, just to get an idea of levels.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pjw.noisemeter

 

[gavreid]

Fletcher-Munson. Ideally, you need a volume dependent bass and treble boost to give the opposite effect to the way the ear / brain behaves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

 

[Zombie]

"Every recording has its natural sound level". Quad tilt works fine with lower volume levels.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

I never really understood why tone controls on an amp went out of fashion.

They bothered 'subjective' reviewers because even a tiny tweak on tone controls might swamp any 'wine tasting' preferences they had. It was also cheaper and easier for makers to omit them than impliment decent tone controls. Mere buyers who wanted to enjoy music didn't come into it! They were simply fed the line that tone controls were 'baaad', and then people lost the ability to decide for themselves once they'd gone.

Ditto for balance controls.

 

[Hazelberry]

Yamaha amplifiers often include an ingenious continuously variable loudness control. With the loudness control set flat, you set the main volume control to your normal listening level. Then you use the loudness control to lower the volume as required. As you do so, the circuit adjusts the contour to compensate. It works pretty well.

 

[crimsondonkey]

In my experience (and preference) to get good dynamics at lower sound levels it helps to have horns and class A amplification.

 

[mansr]

In my experience (and preference) to get good dynamics at lower sound levels it helps to have horns and class A amplification.

Do the horns have to be real, or will one of those Viking helmets work?

 

[AshM750]

Don’t know if anyone has mentioned it yet but I added a Subwoofer and DSP which has helped a lot for low level listening.

 

[chartz]

I tried my Cabasse high efficiency speakers (95 dB/1W/1m) at low volume today and the music doesn’t really comes alive until the meters hit about 10 W (8 ohms).

 

[Whizzy]

Could it simply be your partner finds even music played at moderate volumes annoying or simply does not want to listen as often as you. If so then perhaps the only solution might be Bluetooth headphones. Unfortunately and inexplicably not everyone enjoys music.

 

[Zombie]

Or the partner thinks the sounds isn't that good

 

[Robert]

Near-field listening does help with an appropriate speaker, and by that I mean something with excellent driver integration up close, KEF UniQ designs, LS3/5a, Tannoys, that sort of thing. Near-field maximises direct sound over reflected and gives a more intimate sound so you are less reliant on higher SPLs.

Otherwise you need the ability to adjust tonal balance, slightly boost the low end & (optionally) the high end.
Simplest option is to pop something like a Schiit Loki into the tape loop (if you have one) and flick it into circuit at low playback volumes.

 

[John]

I think the better the system and setup, the better it can sound at low levels. Less loss of information.

 

[John Phillips]

"Every recording has its natural sound level". Quad tilt works fine with lower volume levels.

Indeed. It's presumably from the pen of Peter Walker and this is in my Quad 34 (with tilt control) instruction book:

"Volume control
…
The perspective of a recording or broadcast is fixed in the studio by the relative placement of microphones and performers and the use of the volume control should be thought of as a focusing device.
A close miked performance will sound rather forward and the volume control is turned up to bring the image of the performers into the plane of the loudspeakers.
More distant placement of the microphones produces a more open perspective and the volume control is adjusted to bring the performers and recording environment into focus at a distance behind the plane of the loudspeakers. For any given recording or broadcast there is only one correct volume setting."​

Sounding good at low levels has, I suspect, a few dimensions.

I am sure the human ear-brain system's increasing inability to perceive bass as audio level reduces (the Fletcher-Munson curves) is a key element. You won't hear what the mixing/mastering engineers heard unless you at listen at the same level as in the studio (and in a similar acoustic with similar loudspeakers). And that studio level is, AIUI, usually higher than I normally use for foreground listening. A tilt control or a loudness control is a partial compensation although I have had neither in my active system for a while.

But equally the correspondence as above between audio image, perspective and volume control setting is also one I also perceive. And actually that's the dimension that to me gets a live concert broadcast to sound sufficiently right. Fortunately I have enough freedom.

 

[RoA]

Listen with your head pressed in a corner.

 

[Beobloke]

It’s interesting to see the love for high sensitivity loudspeakers for quiet listening.

I’ve always found the opposite and that it’s the less sensitive models that seem to hang together better at low volumes. I’ll never forget Leak 3090s driven by a 750W Yamaha MOSFET amplifier - when used for background music duties they were, ironically, an object lesson in how to do things properly but quietly!

 

[cooky1257]

Obviously the equal loudness curve has a major part to play but I suspect the (usually) larger radiating area(Sd) of a more sensitive speaker also influences how the sound is perceived.

 

[mrlamonta]

Thank you for this thread it is most interesting. My previous speakers, Harbeth M30.1s were so good at low level listening. I really miss them.

I am guessing that if want low sound in a small room with small speakers I need an amplifier with the loudness slope thingy.

My father's old AKAI receiver had a loudness switch. Is there a difference between a switch and a knob?

 

[gavreid]

Thank you for this thread it is most interesting. My previous speakers, Harbeth M30.1s were so good at low level listening. I really miss them.

I am guessing that if want low sound in a small room with small speakers I need an amplifier with the loudness slope thingy.

My father's old AKAI receiver had a loudness switch. Is there a difference between a switch and a knob?

A loudness button is a quick and dirty compromise really. It'll be setup about a specific volume level, and if that matches for you (system, environment, level etc) then great, but otherwise... Tone controls are very limited in the frequencies that can be adjusted but setting the tone for a certain volume is usually better than loudness. I think digital eq correction is possibly the better all round solution these days, whether in software or built into the speakers, dacs etc.