• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

What is the real dynamic range during your listening sessions? - test

The file with the lowest noise level that I can still hear at normal listening volume setting is

  • A

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • B

    Votes: 15 44.1%
  • C

    Votes: 15 44.1%
  • D

    Votes: 3 8.8%

  • Total voters
    34

DavidEdwinAston

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Nov 18, 2021
Messages
753
Likes
566
Maybe buy one of these for around $25. They usually come calibrated when new.
Mine says my ambient sound is about 30 dBA. My house is deep in the woods with a cul d' sac road.

My maximum listening level, not very often, is about 96 dBA* at my favorite chair.
Voila! 96-30=66 dB dynamic range. With the HVAC running, knock off 6 dBA for a dynamic range of 60 dB.

Further, I am about 4 meters from my speakers. Using the rule of thumb of 6 dB lapse for each doubling of distance beyond one meter, I am asking them to play at 96+6+6=108 dBA measured at 1 meter from each speaker.

Further still, my speakers are rated at a sensitivity of 86 dB at 1 watt at 1 meter. Thus, my trusty Emotiva amp is having to produce about
120 watts at the peaks of music. That's 1 watt+(10x10)+some more=~120 watts, using the rule of thumb that 10 dB more requires 10 times the power.

Even further still, if I am listening at a more typical level of 80 dBA at my chair, the amp is loafing along at about 6 watts. Maybe that's why distortion at low amp output levels is just as important as at full power, eh?

*Before you get all frothy-at-the-mouth over 96 dBA, tests show that symphony orchestra conductors often hear an FFF passage at ~120 dBA. I'm yet to see my first conductor wearing hearing aids.
iu
Gosh Jim, those are 55 Quid in the UK! Isn't the free one on our smart phones, whichever we use, good enough?
 

Jim Shaw

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 16, 2021
Messages
616
Likes
1,159
Location
North central USA
Gosh Jim, those are 55 Quid in the UK! Isn't the free one on our smart phones, whichever we use, good enough?
If you calibrate it, it might work. You wouldn't measure with a piece of wood that you hadn't measured against something accurate...
1672462407125.png
 

Cars-N-Cans

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
May 19, 2022
Messages
819
Likes
1,009
Location
Dirty Jerzey
Made it to C, whereupon it vanishes thereafter. Just at the threshold of perception. More interesting test might be to take a selected section of music and overlay the noise on top of it at varying levels. Even a -30 dB difference between the source and noise will likely mask most of it.
 

Sokel

Master Contributor
Joined
Sep 8, 2021
Messages
5,836
Likes
5,762
I suspect that my feel of the noticeable D file absence has to do with the muting of the dac plus the less pressure of the lows.
Or pure imagination.
Can't explain it otherwise,it's way down to be something else.
I'll repeat it having REW listening to it with db(Z),I'm curious about the energy lows apply to the room.
 

Steve Dallas

Major Contributor
Joined
May 28, 2020
Messages
1,201
Likes
2,784
Location
A Whole Other Country
I can hear C on speakers in my home office. I can hear D with headphones if I really concentrate. Distortion is much more problematic to me than noise.
 

solderdude

Grand Contributor
Joined
Jul 21, 2018
Messages
15,891
Likes
35,912
Location
The Neitherlands
SPL meters only show the total measured noise levels. It is very likely that at 3kHz the noise level is lower than the value indicated on the display.

Furthermore, when considering music spectrum is more akin to pink noise than white noise the test results may well be different.
I have done similar tests but with music being reduced in levels which also shows different results which can shed a slightly different light on the question of dynamic range.
Something that is constant (tones, noise) is different from the dynamic nature of music which is what we tend to listen to for enjoyment.

The test is valid for determining what noise levels one can hear as noise in electronics is usually white by nature.
 

Galliardist

Major Contributor
Joined
Jun 26, 2021
Messages
2,558
Likes
3,273
Location
Sydney. NSW, Australia
I can hear C on headphones, and at normal volume on my main system for orchestral or rock music. At the lower setting which i use for guitar and lute music, I can hear B.
With closed headphones I can hear D but I'm only aware of the fact when the recording finishes. Right now at my desktop where I'm writing this, D and sometimes C is below the noise of the fans on the computer, but quite frankly that doesn't worry me.
 
Top Bottom