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How loud do you listen to your music?

Today I decided to take my RS SPL meter and see just how loud my system when I was listening to levels that I perceive to be pretty loud. To my surprise, the nominal SPL was only 70db with peaks going as high as 82db. I had expected the SPL reading to be much higher especially since I thought I had my system cranked up pretty loud. When I put the volume back to where I mainly listen, the SPL was only in the 50-60db range. For whatever reason, this number seemed too low but I do not really have a good sense for what decibels really mean in terms of how loud things are in the real world. Is 60db loud? Is 70db excessive?

So my question is, how loud do you normally listen to your music?
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beavis
272 posts
 
Makes me wonder, too. Makes me think many are taking a best guess. Its important to separate peak reading from nominal readings. I listen about 75dB nominal with peaks of about 85-90dB. It also make a big difference what kind of music you are listening to.
tvad
9,467 posts
 
85dB-95dB, measured 8 feet from the drivers.

pauly
456 posts
 
03-19-07: Shadorne 1) human hearing has a 120 db dynamic range...if you play at 60 db SPL (close to the typical ambient noise floor of 30 db SPL) then you will almost certainly miss details in the music.

Shadorne, if your system leaves details in the music at 60db SPL you need to upgrade to a decent system

Regards
Paul
pauly
456 posts
 
Oops , meant to say, if your system drops details in the music at 60db SPL, you need to upgrade to a decent system
pauly
456 posts
 
80-100db listening levels for frequent and extended periods will do irreparable damage to human hearing. I am sure some people actually listen to music at those volume levels. Ouch. Worse than that are earphones. Kids that listen to their iPods the whole time are going to have impaired hearing by the time they’re 40 or 50.

Rather them than me.

Regards
Paul
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