Very good and wise advice Tyll! I agree the optimal and safe "concert level-like" listening volume is 85dB at your listening position with speakers, and also the same perceived volume is what I prefer on my headphones. Louder than that and at louder passages I feel uncomfortable and have to turn the volume down. Lower than that might work, but at some passages it might lack some impact. So usually I listen to music at around 85dB, both on speakers and headphones. That corresponds to 19/50 on my Marantz receiver, and 10-11 o'clock on my Dynahi.
That's of course recording dependant. Listening to Ana Caram's "The Other Side of Jobim" (A Chesky recording) to achieve that same perceived volume of 85 dB through my speakers I have to set the Marantz to (corrected, just checked) 28-29 over 50. That recording has excellent dynamics, so the average volume is relatively low compared to most compressed recordings. The beginning of Koyaniskatsi is the one that does require a setting of 30-31 over 50 on my receiver.
I have also perceived the low frequencies caused by your own hearing, and can consciously reproduce it. Didn't know it was caused by your inner ear, I thought it was probably caused by muscles from my jaw or from my head, the muscles that some people use to move their earlobes maybe. I can't move my earlobes, but I thought I was making those muscles tremble causing that low freq that I could hear, maybe from bone conduction. It is certainly hearable, a mild low to mid bass tone, similar to the low flutter you would hear with a very soft wind hitting your earlobes in a consistent manner.
ok can anyone just give me a quick answer. since most portable amps have roughly around the same output, when coupled to an mp3 player like a zune, or an ipod, how high can i go on the amp gain?
right now its on at 9 o' clock, sometimes when i really want to jam, its up at 12 o'clock. it rarely needs to go higher than that.
ok can anyone just give me a quick answer. since most portable amps have roughly around the same output, when coupled to an mp3 player like a zune, or an ipod, how high can i go on the amp gain?
right now its on at 9 o' clock, sometimes when i really want to jam, its up at 12 o'clock. it rarely needs to go higher than that.
is that acceptable?
Just to throw some more numbers out there...
when I used ZVM out to low-gain govibe v5 (set at 2 or 3 I think) to K81DJs I never went above 10 and I mainly used it at 9. When I gave it to my friend to listen, he cranked it to 11:30
Just tried a few times so as to figure out a way to to describe as best as possible how to make at will that inner ear "flutter" sound, those mild low frequencies.
The best way to describe how to make it is to somehow replicate what you start to do when you yawn. You don't need to yawn or move anything in your head or jaw actually, but the way I make that sound is to think as if I was right about to start yawning. I just don't start yawning, yet that flutter can be perfectly heard after that minor tension somewhere inside my head, similar to something involved at the beginning of yawning. Once you catch it, it's pretty easy to replicate. The sound is just a minor flutter, as if there was a very soft wind blowing right in front of your ear drums. A kind of brrrrrr... from a low level subwoofer, but coming from right inside your ears.
One interesting thing, I can restart the flutter at any time, but I can't sustain it for too long, just a few seconds.
PS. That is a description of how to achieve a perceptual experience, and a description of that experience. Kind of describing how to snatch those 3D images from a stereogram. Somehow describing how to achieve a particular perceptual experience makes me think I'm writing like Patrick (no offense Patrick )
PS2. Truly after a few times, I'm realizing the "tension" causing the flutter can be felt precisely inside your ears, not in the muscles on your head around your earlobes. Well, not sure whether bone conduction would cause a similar result misplacing the apparent location of the tension.
How quiet is quiet listening? That was more rhetorical because I know we could go ahead and try measuring. But on a slightly different note on the topic...if you were listening to live music, which most certainly is fairly loud (and depending on the genre damaging for sure), do you guys wear ear protection? It might not be weeks worth of earphone hammering, but I certainly can feel the SPL at live shows, musicals, etc. I sometimes stuff napkins in my ears (though that kills some of the listening experience, but sometimes it hurts).
Well said Tyll. I struggle constantly with my listening volume. I think one of the things that actually does bother me most is that a lot of the music I like has a lot of dynamic range. I can set something to a comfortable volume and in a few minutes I'll have a full on blast of music. Turning it down at that point results in a very unsatisfying listening session. It takes some knowledge of a recording to know when quiet needs to be *really* quiet, so you can enjoy the dynamics all the way through without hurting yourself.
That said, some recordings just don't work at low volume. I find that screaming guitars need to actually scream to work. Reserve those sessions for once in a while and enjoy that inner ear hum as simply a part of the live rock out experience. If you can catch a live show with equally great screaming guitars, leave that recording for another month and go experience the real thing. A few weeks ago I got hungry for some hendrix, and listened to Are You Experienced at full blast. Since then I've listened to nothing but jazz and light pop. I'll feel the need to rock out again soon, but everything must come in moderation.
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