How loud do you like your music?

[killdozzer]

• I'm interested in how loud you enjoy your music. For this purpose I propose A weighted, slow SPL measuring.
• I'm also proposing a clean, well produced song that is not bass heavy to avoid subjective impressions of low frequencies (Hey Nineteen - Steely Dan).
• Since music material varies in dB, I propose you start the SPL meter mid-song to avoid the gadget taking the silence before the song into account.
• You can put dips and peaks into the comment. In the poll, you should enter average SPL. This is one more reason why I propose a song - to avoid having additional variations due to different material.
• Sources, mastering, edition etc. shouldn't play a major role here. You should just turn it up the way you like it and then measure.
• The question is about enjoying loud music, not how much you can put up with for a short period of time. It is about SPL you'd enjoy for at least the length of an album.
• Not all smartphones are reliable, but some are. If you could just enter whether you took measures with a phone, that would be fine.
• This is about the amount of loudness you like, so imagine you live on a prairie with no neighbors. It's about what you enjoy, not what is allowed.
• Feel free to add numbers for movies and TV in the comments.

One other thing I almost forgot. It has to be at your listening position. If you're further away from the speakers, you'll need to go louder in order to get what you like at your sitting place, but I'm interested in what reaches you, what you actually hear.


**What motivated me; I've seen people throwing around numbers like 90-96dB and even higher, yet, nearing 80dB average is simply too much for me. I wanted to see the real-world numbers.

 

[killdozzer]

I did use Hey Nineteen and got 76dB on average (71-81dB dips and peaks) using Decibel X on a Xiaomi phone with a calibrated mic. I used several other apps to see if there are some significant variations, but after calibration, there were none. I measured A-weighted / slow. The loudness was at the top end of what I enjoy when I want to crank it up.

Being in a small (22 sq meters / 237sq feet), untreated listening room (treatments are in the near future), it IS possible I'd go higher in a well treated room.

I do visit some concerts, but I often find them too loud. When I attend chamber music or small club bands, they are usually not louder than what I get at home.

I tried several other songs just to test it, like heavy metal for distortion, again, I did enjoy average of 76dB.

 

[Sokel]

As a lot of people are REW users here it's handy to measure with the SPL meter (after calibrating it of course) and also see the results with the logger included in the same tool.
(as I did on the other thread)

 

[Cars-N-Cans]

I have measured in the past and about 80 dBA average is around where I like more enthusiastic listening. More than that and it starts to bother my ears, and is more than I would be comfortable with for any sort of length of time.

My brother is one of those "max SPL" folks. I would say well north of 95 dBA for sure, and that's an average value. Drove my old man nuts when we were kids since he would literally pop the window panes in his room playing Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. He used to build the worst speakers out of large PA drivers and horns, and I still have a few of his full-range car audio amps that I fixed, naturally from them overheating. Not from driving subs, but just from them being pushed so hard and so far into clipping driving huge speakers in the back of his car. To say he has presbycusis now is an understatement since everything is just treble after he adjusts the controls.

 

[Birdy]

About 65 - 70 dB, more then that it becomes to much for me.. if prefer close my eyes and float into the music with just enough deep bass and pleasant mid's with soft highs.

 

[Scytales]

• I'm interested in how loud you enjoy your music. For this purpose I propose A weighted, slow SPL measuring.
• I'm also proposing a clean, well produced song that is not bass heavy to avoid subjective impressions of low frequencies (Hey Nineteen - Steely Dan).
• Since music material varies in dB, I propose you start the SPL meter mid-song to avoid the gadget taking the silence before the song into account.
• You can put dips and peaks into the comment. In the poll, you should enter average SPL. This is one more reason why I propose a song - to avoid having additional variations due to different material.
• Sources, mastering, edition etc. shouldn't play a major role here. You should just turn it up the way you like it and then measure.
• The question is about enjoying loud music, not how much you can put up with for a short period of time. It is about SPL you'd enjoy for at least the length of an album.
• Not all smartphones are reliable, but some are. If you could just enter whether you took measures with a phone, that would be fine.
• This is about the amount of loudness you like, so imagine you live on a prairie with no neighbors. It's about what you enjoy, not what is allowed.
• Feel free to add numbers for movies and TV in the comments.

One other thing I almost forgot. It has to be at your listening position. If you're further away from the speakers, you'll need to go louder in order to get what you like at your sitting place, but I'm interested in what reaches you, what you actually hear.


**What motivated me; I've seen people throwing around numbers like 90-96dB and even higher, yet, nearing 80dB average is simply too much for me. I wanted to see the real-world numbers.

AMHA, you should also specify the position, distance and height of the SPL-meter from the speakers to get meaningful data.

 

[Sokel]

AMHA, you should also specify the position, distance and height of the SPL-meter from the speakers to get meaningful data.

Enjoying music is usually at the MLP and that's probably what it means.

 

[killdozzer]

AMHA, you should also specify the position, distance and height of the SPL-meter from the speakers to get meaningful data.

Yes, as @Sokel said, I'm expecting people to measure roughly where their head is.

 

[LightninBoy]

The preference for below 85db may explain the popularity of speakers with bat curves.

 

[killdozzer]

Too small of a sample, but it's tilting my way. I mean, to lower levels. I thought it would be only me on the lower side.

 

[JayGilb]

IPhone: SPLnFFT App. dB A weighted/slow
Centered at 8' from speakers, head level.

It depends a lot on musical genre and especially recording quality.
I won't crank up a poor recording or on certain genres.

Checked the "Around 90 dB" box.

Song used during measurement: Travis Larson - Axe To Grind

 

[restorer-john]

Funny, I have been blasting Steely Dan in the car all week, so I'll get out the SPL meter and get you some numbers tonight for Hey Nineteen in the listening room.

 

[Cars-N-Cans]

It depends a lot on musical genre and especially recording quality.
I won't crank up a poor recording or on certain genres.

That is a good point. The type of music definitely factors in. I would say it may be better to use the proposed Steely Dan - Hey Nineteen more as a reference to find something similar spectrally in one's own library that is enjoyable and use that for the reference when recording the SPL levels after choosing a suitable volume. If you are just listening to something analytically then you are unlikely to have the volume any higher than necessary to hear all of the content.

 

[Waxx]

I measured it a while ago with rew and an UMIK-1 microphone and mostly are between 65dB and 85dB, depending on the mood, music style and so. I sit about 2,5 a 3m (8-10ft) from my speakers. Both my speakers in the main setup are diy and build to get over 102dB/2.83v/1m on low power. So i have headroom.

95dB like some claim here, is down here in Belgium the max level of nightclubs, the belgian norm is 95 dB(A)LAeq,15min and "LAmax,slow 102 dB(A" (constant 95dB, peaks to 102dB). At home these levels are crazy loud, and if you got neigbours, they surely will call the police down here when doing this levels at night, even in a freestanding house.

 

[Dal1as]

I believe people like myself who use subs with a bass curve may skew above 90 db easilly in this test. I'll have to check when I get home.

I've done this in the past with similar music and the kick drum peaks were over 100db while the majority of the material was probably around 70 to 85.

 

[hege]

I believe people like myself who use subs with a bass curve may skew above 90 db easilly in this test. I'll have to check when I get home.

I've done this in the past with similar music and the kick drum peaks were over 100db while the majority of the material was probably around 70 to 85.

This thread asks specifically to measure in A-weighting (slow average, not peak), which mostly ignores bass. This way there is less variables.

I would guess most answering 90dB+ are probably not using A-weighting, or did not read the "It is about SPL you'd enjoy for at least the length of an album." line. I answered 85dB, even though I can sometimes enjoy much louder for a while.

 

[Sokel]

As instructed by OP,"Hey Nineteen" dbA slow at my comfortable listening level at MLP.
REW's logger and go:

Can someone please explain why LZpeak (largest absolute sample value) goes up there at 109dbZ?

 

[Cars-N-Cans]

Can someone please explain why LZpeak (largest absolute sample value) goes up there at 109dbZ?

What happens if you reset it? The song is fairly repetitive so the peak value should be similar once reset. As for the timing, that is roughly where the main bass line starts after the intro, so I would assume this also corresponds to the peak value. Edit: Taking a closer look its around 15s in. There are some drums there right after that, so I assume thats probably what was recorded as the peak dBZ value:

 

[Sokel]

What happens if you reset it? The song is fairly repetitive so the peak value should be similar once reset. As for the timing, that is roughly where the main bass line starts after the intro, so I would assume this also corresponds to the peak value. Edit: Taking a closer look its around 15s in. There are some drums there right after that, so I assume thats probably what was recorded as the peak dBZ value:

Ok did a little test.
I gave it time to see what it does at silence at first,about a minute and then started playing it.
At around 2.30 of the logger I cranked it a little louder and same at 4.00 and then lower it again.
See what happens:

 

[Dal1as]

This thread asks specifically to measure in A-weighting (slow average, not peak), which mostly ignores bass. This way there is less variables.

I would guess most answering 90dB+ are probably not using A-weighting, or did not read the "It is about SPL you'd enjoy for at least the length of an album." line. I answered 85dB, even though I can sometimes enjoy much louder for a while.

Aye. My bad. My brain skipped right over the a weighting. Yeah continual 90 db plus with a weighting would be ear bleeding.