Does It have to be loud?

@gdhal

The mathematics you use are correct. However speakers do not behave linearly after a certain point. Worse speakers distort terribly. That point is surprisingly low. Soundstage do NOT test speakers above 95 dB SPL as a level above that will damage most speakers!! (Soundstage conclusions and not my opinion).

Drivers have a limited excursion where they are fairly linear (Xmax). Driver voice coils get extremely hot and that causes significant compression (non linearity). There are a huge amount of challenges for high fidelity (no added distortion) at rock concert levels.

My speakers play at 115 dB SPL linearly even at a continuous level with similar low distortion to playing at modest 85 dB levels. This is extremely rare in a speaker and requires large woofers, large drive motors on the drivers (huuuge magnets), short voice coils in a large gap (to preserve linearity),large diameter voice coils (for better cooling), extremely tight tolerances (better cooling) and lots of clean power - in short a huge amount of engineering is required to achieve this over a speaker that is designed to only play up to 95 dB SPL before starting to distort heavily (the majority of designs). To achieve this performance requires specific engineering that you won’t find in 99.9% of home audio.

Since our ears and brain interprete distortion as loudness most audiophiles think they have speakers that play extremely loud however a dB meter will confirm to them that what they think is loud is actually just huge amounts of distortion giving the appearance of loudness.

 audiophiles think they have speakers that play extremely loud however a dB meter will confirm to them that what they think is loud is actually just huge amounts of distortion giving the appearance of loudness

You make a great argument for horn design many sound amazing at low levels but have extremely low distortion as SPL increases 

Well mixing usually happens in the 85 dB - dB 87 average range.  If you listen to higher average levels the risk of hearing damage increases.

@larryi Thank you very much for your response. It’s very helpful.

I’m at a fork in the road with amplification (tubed or solid state) and have essentially chosen the solid state path. I’m also preparing to evaluate a few (new to me) solid state amps. My current amp is the Pass XA-30.8 The Pass performs very well at low listening levels, for my needs and preferences. Speakers are the Tekton SEs (99dB 2.83V@1m).

I hope your findings (copied below) do not bear out, as I am hopeful that my low powered options will perform well at low listening volumes (though I understand and generally agree with what you are saying below, especially at lower price points).

But, when even decent sounding solid state amps are played at the lower levels I prefer, they sound a bit lifeless, and I tend to lose interest.

If you have additional thoughts and advice regarding this, please share (PM me if it makes more sense to reach out that way). Thanks!

Since our ears and brain interprete distortion as loudness most audiophiles think they have speakers that play extremely loud however a dB meter will confirm to them that what they think is loud is actually just huge amounts of distortion giving the appearance of loudness.

Hi @shadorne

I appreciate your response to my question earlier in the thread. I’ll grant you that, unfortunately, sound stage does not seem to test above 95db. In the case of my particular speakers (Golden Ear T Ref), I consider the fact that they are a few db’s off "perfect" linearity, and even then over a small range of high frequency, essentially linear where the ability to play loud without distortion is concerned. On the basis of their sensitivity and power handling capability, they can produce over 115 db. And, I have reason to believe they could do so without damaging themselves in the process.

I certainly do agree with you that distortion increases as volume increases. But I think I’ve attended enough live events to know that - at least in my particular case - my system is more than capable of producing realistic rock concert level sound pressure, with (seemingly) no more distortion than the live event itself would produce. So, the fact that distortion increases with volume (generally speaking) is what it is, and IMO is largely irrelevant to the enjoyment of the listening session (unless the distortion is such that it becomes obvious).

To your point I’ve quoted above, I’ll disagree. Distortion doesn’t necessarily give the appearance of loudness. Distortion sounds "wrong" whereas loud and relatively undistorted music can sound authentic (and "right"), like a live event.

A db meter is used to confirm sound pressure level, not the "quality" of the sound. The db meter doesn’t care if the sound is distorted or not. Sound pressure is just that; sound pressure. So, whether or not the SPL is reading distortion or genuinely loud and un-distorted sound shouldn’t matter (from the perspective of the listener perceiving the sound as loud or soft).

EDIT:

Besides the fact that I do have an SPL meter, there are numerous charts available that provide insight as to sound pressure level. Here is one of many: https://ehs.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/decibel-level-chart.pdf It is based on my SPL meter and general understanding that if a subway train at 200 feet is 95 db, my apartment at times can sound as though the train is 50 feet away :)