Quiet Enjoyment: right of audiophiles neighbors to NOT be annoyed

I live in my own home, so don’t have to worry about the neighbors, at least I doubt it.

But, after reading some of the above, I have to wonder why we want to crank up the volume beyond what would be normal if you were listening in a ‘real world’ experience.

I listen to mostly classical and jazz, but also a fair amount of various ‘rock’ music at times. I am also guilty of playing my music very loud, but then started thinking about this ‘habit’ as too many times it just seemed unnatural, and in reality, too loud. So, I have taught myself to turn the volume up to where it would be natural for the music I listen to. Imagine myself in a concert hall, or a small club, or imagine if the band, musician, or orchestra, etc. were playing just for me on my couch in my living room. I then adjust the volume to where it would be most natural in a real live setting as a listener. And that’s were I Ieave it. I would say in most all cases, since I have been doing this, the volume is lower than what I may have used in the past. Sometimes by quite a bit. And I also realized all too often I’ve listened to my music at ‘unnaturally’ high volume levels. ‘Turn it to 11 !!’ ;-)

I also have large full range speakers, and a fairly small living space, so getting to the ‘realistic’ volume isn’t too hard to do, and still achieve good volume and full dynamic range. Or maybe I’m just getting old.

I’ve thought what it may be like if I moved into a condo/apartment when I get to the age of not being able, or wanting to, maintain a house, or able to climb the stairs, etc. But, I’m not going to worry about that right now. One thing I know, although I have fairly decent headphones, I really never use them as I feel you lose so much of the music expriance vs speakers which allow sound to fill a room. I do hope I’m not relegated to that in the future.

Elizabeth, your life listening experience certainly parallels mine. I surrendered my auditory future to Marshall amp stacks in the 60's and 70's. I'm glad my neighbors are not close by.  I have to turn up the volume to hear over my tinnitus. Was it worth it? Yes.

"I live in the country and can get away with upping the volume, but sound carries. There is a sound curfew out here too. I know, first hand. Yes sir, no sir, yes sir, no problem, consider the music turned down very low the rest of the night...*laffs"

I too live in the country. Neighbors about a quarter mile away are an extended family (parents, at least one adult child and spouse) in a huge house (about 7500 SF). Regularly anytime after 6 am until.... my home thumps from the bass. Not that I like calling law enforcement, but as the parents and adult son are ALL members of the local small city sheriff’s department I don’t even bother trying!

1st: why would a person that liked loud music put them in this situation? For the past 30 years at least, I built each new house or bought each new existing house with my dedicated audio room in mind. 
I always kept the dedicated audio room away from the master bedroom so if I wanted to play loud music at 3am, my wife couldn’t hear it.
Also, the audio room had to be away from any neighbors. We just had a house built in a 55+ community and we picked the lot that had 75’ separating our houses on the side with my audio room. 

I think the problem can be stated as party walls and ceilings bad, separate walls good. The only sure cure for the first is headphones. I lived in a duplex house for my first 17 years and our neighbor even complained if my mother ran the vacuum cleaner after 12 PM. So neighbor tolerance is a huge factor too. So my brother played jazz on his little music center at conversational volumes. The speakers may as well have been headphones.