I just wondered if you all have already made some Tune Dem of the volume at which your speakers sound best, most tuneful. I guess that all passive speakers have some volume at which they sound optimal.
Maybe you could post some info on the amp and speaker you have and the volume you prefer to listen to your music.
Currently I use a C4200 single-wired to M140 (upgrade bases & 2dB cut) and I prefer a volume of 55.
In a few days I should get a Tundra and will update my post.
But I was curious what your opinion is about the volume.

Best regards,
Christian

55 as well for my 212 with 2200 :-)

Does it not depend of the size and room acoustics and even the music you are playing? Brickwalled or not?
Not every room is the same..some need more or lesser volume..
I play mostly between 50 and 60...

ADS/0/1 , AK/0 , C5100 and M140 with upgraded stands and 2db cut.

I'm glad this has been brought up. There's some subjects which seem to be completely ignored. I guess the difficulty with volume is that there's a comfortable level to listen to so there's not a lot of leeway with the equipment you have. I'm quite restricted by the volume I can play things at and in a small room and have noticed there's usually a threshold at the lower end beyond which it's poor and the sound not fully-formed. It then reaches a point where everything seems to be working as it should, but in my case it's a fine line because of the low volumes necessary. I guess my choice of gear has been largely based on the ability to reproduce well at low volume.

Very short answer would be 57 on KK/1D-KDS/1D-ATC SCM50SL AT.

This does not hold true on all material. I also listen at around 50 or lower much of the time for domestic harmony reasons.

To me, each album - or song even - has its own volume level where everything is just perfect. It varies, in other words.

lunch wrote:To me, each album - or song even - has its own volume level where everything is just perfect. It varies, in other words.

Interesting that this subject has been brought up. I thoroughly agree with the post by lunch above. There is a most musical level for any piece of music and it varies. I generally play somewhere between the mid 50s and the mid 60s on my LP12SE, KK/2 and ATC 100As but the exact level varies from record to record and sometimes from one cut to the next.

One of the things I like about the KK, and that I hope Fredrik will incorporate into he's new preamp, is half dB volume increments. I have found that each piece of music sounds most natural and musical at one specific volume and one half dB adjustment is often needed to get it there. If you think about it, a violin playing at a certain volume has a specific harmonic spread. If the musician wants to make some phrase louder they have to play it differently to create that additional volume and that changes the harmonic structure as the strings move more and the body of the instrument also resonates a bit differently. This is really true of all instruments. So if you play a recording of this violin at a level different from what it was recorded at the harmonics will be wrong for that volume and your ear/brain will not find it as in tune or enjoyable. The better the equipment at letting you hear the musical qualities of what you are listening to the easier to hear the correct volume level.

This is actually not a new idea. In the manual for the Quad 33 preamp Peter Walker stated that the volume control was there to allow you to set the system at the right level for the piece of music being listened to. He further commented that you could get interesting effects by increasing or decreasing the volume to a different level if you chose to but there was only one correct level. Sometimes what's new is actually rather old!

ThomasOK wrote:Sometimes what's new is actually rather old!

Old indeed and a bit too old for my taste. :)

I agree there's often a specific volume that feels right for every song, system and moment. But that every song would have a certain universal correct volume - regardless of system and moment - no, not for me. It's enough to change one component in my system for me to find myself playing at a slightly different volume than I did before.

As for instruments having a natural loudness: Well, some do and that's why big bands became popular/necessary about a century ago. For everyone to hear, they needed many instruments playing the same tune. Then came electrical amplification and we could turn it up to what feels right, regardless of the natural loudness of the instrument. There's also a lot of electrical instruments that lack a natural loudness, so I'm firmly in favour of "this feels right to me, in this moment, using this system".

+1
It's a subjective thing for me too. I just dial in on what feels right. No need to look at the display.

And then there is the age of the meatpuppet's ears, and the abuse they have taken over a lifetime. Anyone else with tinnitus?

Yes! I have a natural limit of listening to music of about an hour, maybe a bit more. The 'noise floor' just gets too high after that and I'm battling to hear over the buzz. And that's at low volumes.