How loud do you listen to music?

[ironbut]

CTA is kinda famous for having some unusually high peaks on the horn section. So, their albums probably aren't the best for testing average levels.

What I've always heard was what Doc mentioned in his first post. 82dB is the "loud" reference level for my nearfield monitors. And being able to carry on a conversation at normal speaking levels is a quick and dirty way to be sure that the monitor level isn't higher than that.
I do tend to listen to headphones at higher levels though. I often have to turn the volume down a few dB's if I expect my perception of high frequencies to last for hours on end (particularly +12kHz).
I'm 59 years old and while I can still hear 5 or 6 dB changes in frequencies above 14kHz, I have to be pretty focused on those "air" frequencies to hear changes at 16kHz and above (plus, there just ain't that much energy happening in that freq range on most recordings).

So, if you listen to headphones a lot, my advice is to train yourself to keep the levels reasonable. It's tempting to try and get that pant leg flapping bass on headphones by cranking up the volume, but it's just not good for your hearing to do that all the time.

[earwaxxer]

Hey Steve - I know what you are saying about headphones. They require discipline. The sound can be so good you loose track of the db's. Thats why I dont listen with headphones! Discipline is not something I exercise with my audio hobby.

It funny that several have mentioned CTA as a reference. I have been using that album as a reference when making changes to my system. It seems to be a recording that is particularly difficult to get to sound 'right'. Not sure why. It might be because the horns and the piano are hard to reproduce just right, not sure. Its a favorite album of mine, and it is pure nirvana when it sounds right. I think it can tend to be bright. That may be part of it. Great album though, and a great piece of pure 60's Americana. I remember my friends sister turned us on to it, as well as Iron Butterfly.

[tsingle999]

I measured tonight using the ipad app suggested in the thread and averaged 93/94. What? I cant hear you...

[Grainger49]

Reminds me of the Allman Brothers concert where we were in front of a 20' stack of speakers.  We were pummeled!!

We should have taken this offline.  We are way off topic.

[earwaxxer]

wow - Allman Brothers in concert. That must have been one to remember! Those audio systems sounded fantastic back in the day. At least thats the way I remember them.

[Grainger49]

My first was 1969, the Allman Brothers were warm up for Santana.  The most recent is the one where we sat in front of the speakers.  It was 2001-2004 sometime.  Those seats should not have been sold even to someone who is deaf. 

[Natural Sound]

Who remembers, "The Wall of Sound."

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.audioheritage.org%2Fimages%2Fjbl%2Fphotos%2Fpro-speakers%2Fgrateful.jpg&hash=b862a349179d2c2d2e4a22fb6f93cef67dd29e7a)

[4krow]

And WE worry about speaker placement. umm what cables are they using? umm, what kind of connector enhancer do they like?

[bainjs]

I remember reading somewhere when the group Blue Cheer (who remembers them?) played a concert, maintenance crews had to go through afterwards and re-tighten the screws in the seats because of the volume level.  That's LOUD!

[corndog71]

And WE worry about speaker placement. umm what cables are they using? umm, what kind of connector enhancer do they like?

They have the benefit of physics to overcome minor details such as these.

[4krow]

I dont believe you.

[manis]

My fiance just downloaded an app on her iGadget (Decibel 10th, the same as Joel up in this thread used) to measure sound pressure levels. The living room where I also do my listening measures at 36-37 dB when nobody is talking. Based on the readings, I listen to my music between 65 and 75 dB on average, with occasional dynamic peaks shooting up to around 80 dB. Measurements taken in the evening past 10 o' clock.

If I go above 75-80 dB average, I start to get fatigued and uncomfortable quickly, which is probably a side effect of several things:
- crappy, rather plasticky speakers I'm using at the moment ($50 Pyle PDMN48 anyone? )
- wall behind speakers and wall behind listening spot less than 2.5m apart
- simple DAC that does a decent job for the price but just sounds too digital to my taste
- no acoustic treatment

I'm waiting for my Orcas to arrive, fingers crossed. They should represent a more than decent remedy against listening fatigue if I may believe the general consensus. And I should also look into hanging some sort of absorbing panels behind the speakers... I guess this is why it's called a hobby.. it never ends

[chard]

 Classical music is very dynamic in an instant it goes from being so quiet that I have to strain my ears to hear all the musical details to being so loud I find myself suddenly upright in my chair and all my muscles taut. In order to enjoy the soft passages my amp has to be set at a volume level that makes the loud passages very loud. I enjoy the loud passages and they don't last very long. Maybe this is why Beethoven became deaf.   

[manis]

 

Classical music is very dynamic in an instant it goes from being so quiet that I have to strain my ears to hear all the musical details to being so loud I find myself suddenly upright in my chair and all my muscles taut. In order to enjoy the soft passages my amp has to be set at a volume level that makes the loud passages very loud. I enjoy the loud passages and they don't last very long. Maybe this is why Beethoven became deaf.   

If there is too much "dynamic swing" in a recording, mostly classical, I find it very difficult to use headphones especially... The loud passages are just too loud to be bearable! Probably 100 dB easily.

[RayP]

I doubt that Beethoven went deaf from too much noise. The Wiki article below has a section on his deafness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven

However over twenty years ago I went to a concert at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore where the students played all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas. This monster concert started at 10 am and finished after midnight with a few breaks. The hall was quite lively and I have to say that at the end of the concert, my ears hurt. But I did get a new understanding of Beethoven.

The loudest piece I have heard in a concert hall was Messiaen's Turangalila. When the ondes martenot gets going it can get very loud. Which leads into the studies about orchestral musicians suffering from hearing loss.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21173486

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20721657

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/12/shock-data-60-percent-of-musicians-are-losing-their-hearing.html

I have seen some musicians sitting in front of the brass with plastic shields behind them for protection.

But now to a question. I measured my listening room and it appears to average about 32 db. Some peaks when music is playing come about mid eighties. If somehow I could reduce the background noise to 25 db by throwing out the refrigerator in the next room, could I reduce the volume I play the music and still get the same effect of dynamics?

ray