What is your listening level?


Is 85db the ideal listening level?
50jess
I get to hear LOTS of live music(nothing symphonic), every week. Playing back recordings at less than realist levels gets old, to me, QUICK! SO- I'm with Unsound on this one. Here's a little something that might be of interest: (http://www.digido.com/honor-roll.html)
I think Ebm is being sarcastic in this case with his usual one-line comments, most of which go begging for additional explanation or comment anyway.

I think every recording has a sweet spot where the system makes it 'come alive', and this can range from 65dB to 100+dB depending on genre, individual mood, and auditory ability at any given time.
I often listen at around 65 to 70dB.
For chamber music, small group Jazz this is pretty close to live.
Foor rock I really will never play it at concert levels. I just listen to it at lower levels. Same for orchestral music.
However I find I can crank up Opera some due to it not really having much low freq. content. So the voices can be near concert level from back in the hall. (85dB)
Levels are a funny thing. Someone here mentioned ideal levels for each record-and I get that. I also think that every system (and its interaction with the specific space) can dictate what the prefered listening level is to some degree. A live room usually will sound better at lower levels while a dampened room with the same system might require quite a bit more crankage to "come alive". As my system gets better at resolving detail, I also find that I don't feel the same need to turn up volume as much to get the resolution I am looking for. I recently heard a killer Wilson Sasha setup last month, and the volume was set VERY low at my request and yet was so detailed and layered that I felt the entire experience was properly presented without addition level required. Not many systems can do that I assure you.