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SPL for critical listening

noobie1

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Was curious what everyone considers to be the reference SPL ranges for critical listening (e.g., while conducting double blind tests).
 

SIY

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Pretty much depends on the source material.
 

majingotan

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80 dbc average level for me with some parts of the songs peaking at 90+db (those with high dynamic range)
 

RayDunzl

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Mine, for all-day mildly loudish listening, is about 80dB Leq unweighted Lzeq), at the couch.

Pipe Organ from www.OrganLive.com

Felix Hell - WIDOR: Symphonie no. 5 en fa majeur, op. 42.1 - Toccata - Orgelgiganten

1550948727550.png
 

Krunok

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Mine, for all-day mildly loudish listening, is about 80dB Leq unweighted Lzeq), at the couch.

Pipe Organ from www.OrganLive.com

Felix Hell - WIDOR: Symphonie no. 5 en fa majeur, op. 42.1 - Toccata - Orgelgiganten

View attachment 22439

Looking at these graphs it seems that dip at app 47Hz is affecting the reproduction of those "giganten" organs! :D

 
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flipflop

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85 dB for music and 83 dB for movies are the playback industry standards, I believe. You should use those to avoid warping your perception of the music, through the equal-loudness contour, unless another value has been specified.
I do blind testing a fair bit louder at an estimated 90-95 dB. Listening fatigue sets in after about 20 minutes anyway, so I don't worry about damaging my hearing.
 
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RayDunzl

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Looking at these graphs it seems that dip at app 47Hz is affecting the reproduction of those "giganten" organs!

Yes. There's a phase cancellation between left and right at those frequencies at the couch, I assume due to the uneqal distance to the back wall, where the right speaker bounces at 18.5 feet, and the open left corner bounces at 28 feet.

However, it seems musically benign - I didn't know it was there till measured. Still don't specifically notice it.
 

Krunok

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Yes. There's a phase cancellation between left and right at those frequencies at the couch, I assume due to the uneqal distance to the back wall, where the right speaker bounces at 18.5 feet, and the open left corner bounces at 28 feet.

However, it seems musically benign - I didn't know it was there till measured. Still don't specifically notice it.

This is how it looks at my place during final part of the play. I'm willing to trade some linearity for some response below 30Hz, what do you say? :D



Are you using FIR or IIR filters? I did some phase correction with my right speaker for the same reason and managed to get it right after few tries..
 

Soniclife

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85 dB for music and 83 dB for movies are the playback industry standards, I believe.
There are music playback standards?

How are those levels being measured, C wtd slow, or something else?
 

Ron Texas

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When it's loud enough.
 

amirm

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There is actually a standard as stipulated in ITU Ref BS1116:

1550953201849.png


In the case of stereo, this becomes 82 dB SPL. For 5.1 it is 78 dB.

For weighting, I have seen B used in some research instead of A above.

Personally I like it as loud as I can get to hear low level detail. :)
 

flipflop

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Nearest thing I know for this is the following, which is just a proposal.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-system
Yeah, I was just reading an article about it, written by him: http://www.aes.org/technical/documentDownloads.cfm?docID=65

There is actually a standard as stipulated in ITU Ref BS1116:

View attachment 22446

In the case of stereo, this becomes 82 dB SPL. For 5.1 it is 78 dB.

For weighting, I have seen B used in some research instead of A above.

Personally I like it as loud as I can get to hear low level detail. :)
Bob Katz makes a distinction between theater listening and home listening and argues that the former should be 85 dB while the latter should be 79 dB.
 

Blumlein 88

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Well the K system and those 82 or 83 db for one channel 20 db below peak are partly referenced back to work by Dolby. And for music which may have been compressed, but not squashed to holy heck and back.

I don't know that the web blog is on the web anymore, but I've seen a pro amplifier company which at one time did in house blind testing of their amps. The guy running that said an RMS SPL of about 75 db gave the most discerning results. He said there was some deterioration in their experience going up to 80 db SPL. He said as soon as people insisted on going higher then 80 db their ability to hear differences was drastically reduced.
 

amirm

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Bob Katz makes a distinction between theater listening and home listening and argues that the former should be 85 dB while the latter should be 79 dB.
He can argue what he wants. :) The point of standards for listening tests is so that results from one study can be compared to another. If everyone picks a different level, that can't be done.
 

amirm

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Here is an example of the application of ITU standard I mentioned:
The Subjective and Objective Evaluation of Room Correction Products
Sean E. Olive, John Jackson, Allan Devantier, David Hunt and Sean M. Hess

1550954371296.png

1550954401587.png
 

RayDunzl

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Are you using FIR or IIR filters?

I have a miniDSP OpenDRC-DI (digital in and out) with 6144 taps on each channel available for FIR, and 14 slots for IIR.

For filter construction, AcourateDRC (think Acourate Lite set up to easly build filters for that miniDSP.

At top is the current FIR setting, the bottom is the IIR> Phase correction is not displayed.

1550954486887.png
 

Krunok

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He can argue what he wants. :) The point of standards for listening tests is so that results from one study can be compared to another. If everyone picks a different level, that can't be done.

Heh.. Not all ears are equally sensitive. For example, yours are probably not very sensitive due to extended abuse with prolong listening of your headphones at high levels during DAC testing! :p :D
 
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