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I don't know about headphones/distortion since headphones are an afterthought for me. Headphones are their own little world, and my guess is that most people listen at louder than 'normal' levels.Loudness perception also seems to depend highly on what you've gotten your ears accustomed to during any given listening session. I have to force myself to set the volume at what I know is a reasonable level and try very hard not to let myself creep that knob up and up because as soon as I let things get loud, that becomes the new normal and I want it louder and louder...
With free standing loudspeakers distortion is one of the biggest factors in listening levels. If your loudspeakers didn't distort (i.e., if they were as clean as the amplifier driving it) you'd probably never turn it down. A quote from the late Drew Daniels, JBL applications engineer, on his low distortion loudspeaker project:
First, play music at no more than realistic levels. I assume that if you choose to build these things, you've done so because you're interested in fidelity of the reproduced sound to the originally recorded sound. You will get the best representation of the original sound if you play the reproduction at the original sound level. Playing too loud is as detrimental to fidelity as playing too softly.
If you play predominantly rock music, there is no such thing as an original sound level-since all the recorded material comes out of a little electronic box or was derived by sticking a microphone somewhere you would never purposely put your ears.
In either case, you need to keep a sound level meter handy. You can get a perfectly adequate SLM at your local Radio Shack store for around fifty bucks, and for your ears sake, don't ignore this advice.
These speakers make so little distortion that you will be tempted to believe that the 120 dB sound you are listening to is only playing at 90 dB. This is not good. You will lose your hearing.