Good sound , low volume?

[Fredygump]

You can glue egg boxes to your walls, I thinks it's the better way to listen to music without disturbing your neighbors.

Why say such a thing? You say this now and later someone will read it and think egg crates are acoustic treatment...

 

[Miniyouuuu]

Why say such a thing? You say this now and later someone will read it and think egg crates are acoustic treatment...

Neither acoustic treatment nor acoustic insulation for neighbors.

 

[Manukatche]

Why say such a thing? You say this now and later someone will read it and think egg crates are acoustic treatment...

Yeah you're right, actually egg crates are cheap and decrease a bit high mediums whiches we are extremely sensitive. But anyway it's not a good idea because of fire hazard.

If stevensuf really want a good sound at low volume, he can throw an eye to the sensibility's speaker as mentioned ahead.

But be careful, take focus of the amp output impedance and the speakers input impedance whiches have to be nearly 8 times more important in order to brake electricaly your speakers. That will eliminate resonances by prevent the speakers to move when there is no sound. It's from a professional sound engineer who share this advice in his blog.

And, I dunno what's a low volume in your mind, but are you able to enjoy your music at low volume? If you like sub bass, as myself, are you able to feel the vibration just with your hears? Have you already tried to perceive sub bass with your body?

 

[Wesseling Audio Lab]

I Listen at very low volume often.
Speakers have very low resonance in the bass region. At low volume room reflections are at a minimum. There is no equalization. With low speaker resonance and minimal room reflections accurate bass is revealed along with upper detail and spacial information.
No adjustment is required. It took a long time to come to this place and I thought about low level listening for a long time.

keep in mind there is a 20db(+/- 10)range in bass level from all modern recordings starting from about 1960 or maybe a bit earlier.

 

[Manukatche]

... bass is revealed along with upper detail and spacial information.

At very low volume? My feel is when we listen to music at very low volume, we reach a step where cochlear dynamic is reduced, so those details and spatial informations are not complete.
Every now and then, I listen to chill lo-fi at very low volume, that keeps impulsional sound (rytmics) and "ghost" another sounds, because I like so much turn lo-fi music this way. Point of view of the ears, not speakers.

I trust you anyway, our ears and psycho-acoustic are not the same.

 

[Clmrt]

Best ever low volume experience I've had was Altec Seville / original T-Amp in a 4 foot triangle setup, sitting on the floor in front of them. No EQ or loudness on that. LP or CD. That was a good 20 years ago now and I wish I had kept it all.

Now it's a Marantz NR1510 with dual subs and Snell towers. Dial it in properly and even at 60-65db I can still feel kick drums with Dynamic EQ and no compression.

 

[Chrispy]

I think we need some measurements of speakers at various power levels to see if there's much to this at all (other than things like how we hear and the room/distance from speakers, etc)

 

[levimax]

I recently got a pair of Neuman KH310 monitors and was surprised that they played at low levels much better than my previous (larger) speakers even without any low volume bass EQ compensation. Not really sure why but maybe the flat FR helps. Using monitors for low level listening was mentioned a few posts back and was not something I was expecting but is a pleasant surprize.

 

[Chrispy]

I recently got a pair of Neuman KH310 monitors and was surprised that they played at low levels much better than my previous (larger) speakers even without any low volume bass EQ compensation. Not really sure why but maybe the flat FR helps. Using monitors for low level listening was mentioned a few posts back and was not something I was expecting but is a pleasant surprize.

Just how does this "better" manifest, tho? How did you quantify it? Or are just good with a general "difference" preference?

 

[mhardy6647]

I think we need some measurements of speakers at various power levels to see if there's much to this at all (other than things like how we hear and the room/distance from speakers, etc)

I don't think I'm up for shipping my Altecs (even one of them) coast to coast.

 

[Chrispy]

I don't think I'm up for shipping my Altecs (even one of them) coast to coast.

But you're sure these speakers have significantly different (audible, evven mayvbe measurable) performance just on power applied?

 

[Clmrt]

Lower output would lend to less room interaction / excitement of room issues? Lowest possible loudspeaker distortion, coupled with nearfield techniques...

 

[Sokel]

I don't think I'm up for shipping my Altecs (even one of them) coast to coast.

This will probably sound like a heresy here but I strongly believe that the tube "sweetness" is not their very own quality.
It's rather because they are made to play with such speakers and it's a system outcome.

Change either of them and it's gone.

 

[pogo]

I recently got a pair of Neuman KH310 monitors and was surprised that they played at low levels much better than my previous (larger) speakers even without any low volume bass EQ compensation. Not really sure why but maybe the flat FR helps.

In my experience, this has less to do with the loudspeakers. Mine play absolutely flat in the audible range and with my Purifi amplifier (even with Dirac Live deactivated) loudness was no longer necessary when listening quietly. The need to use loudness may be due to some kind of crossover distortion of the amplifier.

 

[Waxx]

It has more to do with that the amp can drive the speaker easely, with high damping factor and enough watts in reserve.

It also helps if the speaker is easy to drive (no big swings in impendance), because then it is more sensitive to small wattage. A lot of diy'ers who build speakers for low power tube amps use zorbel circuits to flatten the impendance curve of their speakers to make the low wattage amps work well with those speakers. It's also one of the reasons why single driver speakers (headphones or real speakers) are so good sounding on low power, it's a very flat impendance.

 

[pogo]

It has more to do with that the amp can drive the speaker easely, with high damping factor

Maybe DF or crossover distortion.
One of my previous class-ab amps had enough output power and the DF was rated at 150. Nevertheless, I had to activate loudness when listening quietly with the same speaker setup and position.

 

[audiofooled]

IMO CBT's, line arrays, (also bass array arrangements for low frequencies) can sound very good at low volumes. I mean for a far field application, that is if you have enough room for this kind of setup.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

Noboby will like my answer too.
The bigger the speakers (both size and drivers) the better they sound at low levels.

Maybe something with the sensitivity as mentioned earlier,maybe something else.
Also at low levels big speakers disappear completely.

This aligns with my experience too. It could be something psychological, I can't quite explain it.

 

[Mart68]

This aligns with my experience too. It could be something psychological, I can't quite explain it.

Likewise.

Surprised this has generated so much discussion, isn't it just a case of adjusting FR to account for Fletcher Munson? Loudness button usually a bit too crude.

At the moment listening to Steely Dan, peaks are just below 70dB A weighted at listening position. But it sounds 'full' and 'balanced'. 180 litre cabs.

 

[Puddingbuks]

Nobody mentioned sensitivity. Speaker with high sensitivity ratings are easier to drive at lower power and will reveal more of the frequency range at low power.

Is that true?

I thought that human hearing was the problem, with low volume.