Does It have to be loud?


Are you also under the impression that when people (or manufacturers) demo their equipment, they maintain sound pressure levels between 90-100 Dba. In general this is done in rooms being too small, and therefore the room will heavily interact with the sound heard in that room. Often, when you ask to lower the volume, the actual result is better, and –most likely- provides you with the information you were looking for. So, my question here is, do you also prefer to listen in the 90-100 dba range? Or do you –like myself- like to listen in the 70-90 dba sound pressure range? Of course, I’m referring to sound pressure levels at the listening position, which –in my case- is about 4 meter away from the speaker. 

128x128han_n
Yes, lower is better for extended listening! Levels over 90 db peak can become tiring!
Depends on the type and specific song of music you’re listening to. IMO, each song has a particular decibel range that makes it sound "right". For example, listening to certain Led Zeppelin songs will be more enjoyable, IMO, in the 90 - 100 db range as opposed to 70 - 90. So in answer to the thread title, no, it doesn’t have to be loud; but often times it should be.
For me it’s all about Dynamic Range, not loudness per se which usually means having to turn up the volume more for recordings with high dynamic range. And loud recordings don’t necessary have good/high dynamic range, in fact that usually means they don’t.
For me it’s all about Dynamic Range, not loudness per se...

Well, that me be your (Geoff) preference, but there certainly is more to it than dynamic range. For example, one could choose to listen to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture or Ravel's Bolero, each of which have reasonably high dynamic range. If you then choose to "top out" the max decibel level of that dynamic range at say 80db, you've done an injustice (IMO) to the great work of those composers. So again, volume/loudness *does* matter.  

Geoff, you should be impressed. Looks like I know about and have listened to more music than only Grateful Dead :)