[Butler]

Ah. The nice thing about being a Audio-Technica fanboy… Everything is always so easy to drive.

 

[kite7]

Quote:

At my last meet, everyone was listening at volumes unacceptable to me!

What if that's not their normal listening volume for hours? If I were to demo a headphone, I would listen to it louder because I want to get the feel for the sound quick
 
 
I listen to my headphones this loud and not this quiet. It's too hard say what is loud or not, but on my Zune HD I set the volume to 16 to listen to grados with bowls but 5 to listen to my Westone 2 IEMs.
 
 

 

[wind016]

Quote:

Not really.  There's a difference between being recessed and not being able to hear.

If you can enjoy treble boosted sound, chances are you are desensitized by treble, either from being outside all day or maybe because of other reasons. I certainly can't enjoy treble early in the morning. The best way to enjoy low volume music is through a neutral balance of sound which doesn't mean bass-light/heavy or treble-recession.
 
 

 

[scompton]

Quote:

What if that's not their normal listening volume for hours? If I were to demo a headphone, I would listen to it louder because I want to get the feel for the sound quick
 
 
I listen to my headphones this loud and not this quiet. It's too hard say what is loud or not, but on my Zune HD I set the volume to 16 to listen to grados with bowls but 5 to listen to my Westone 2 IEMs.
 
 

True, you can listen louder if you don't listen very long.  The problem I see with that is it's pretty easy to listen longer that you originally intended.  Most people don't have the self discipline to stop listening at 90dB when they hit the time limit.
 
I listen between 0 and 10 hours a day, so I want to listen at the lowest level possible.
 
The other thing about meets is it's usually a noisy environment.   That tends to make people crank it up too.  I don't really try to do critical listening at most meets because of the noise. 
 

 

[Graphicism]

...I wonder if people who listen to neutral cans like Sennheisers HD800 and Beyerdynamics DT880/T1 and complain of no bass are simply listening to them too loud? For instance when I turn my DT880s up too loud I can't stand the treble but at what I would call normal listening volume find them to be perfect...

 

[dan1son]

I think you guys need to read this.  http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html
 
The set of curves at the bottom show that at lower overall volumes the bass needs to be boosted a bit to sound as loud relative to other frequencies.  Turning it up doesn't bring up the mid range, it actually brings it down relative to the bass and treble.  At higher volumes the bass should sound higher relative to the others.  High treble is the same. 
 
So maybe people that complain about heavy bass are listening too loud... and those who complain about too little bass aren't listening loud enough
 
Just take care of your hearing.  Keep it as low as you're willing to stand.  It's safer in the long run. 

 

[wind016]

I think you guys need to read this.  http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html
 
The set of curves at the bottom show that at lower overall volumes the bass needs to be boosted a bit to sound as loud relative to other frequencies.  Turning it up doesn't bring up the mid range, it actually brings it down relative to the bass and treble.  At higher volumes the bass should sound higher relative to the others.  High treble is the same. 
 
So maybe people that complain about heavy bass are listening too loud... and those who complain about too little bass aren't listening loud enough
 
Just take care of your hearing.  Keep it as low as you're willing to stand.  It's safer in the long run. 

Great post.

If I was listening any quieter like some posters claim I should, I won't be hearing anything. At least there would be absolutely no bass and I have no intention of bringing up the volume to hear the bass

 

[jackmccabe]

It's interesting that people can't hear their headphones when held out at arms length, because  with my w5000's (which are closed) I can easily hear them even at around 45db.

 

[scompton]

At the levels I listen, I can clearly hear bass down to around 30Hz.  To hear below that, I do have to pump the volume.  However very few recordings have bass that low and most headphones don't reproduce it accurately.  I had an amp with a bass boost of +10dB at 30Hz and I only heard it kick in with a handful of recordings.

 

[yepimonfire]

you need to listen to the DTS version of inceptions soundtrack on the bonus disc of the blu-ray there is SO MUCH sub 30hz material in that recording.
 
Quote:

At the levels I listen, I can clearly hear bass down to around 30Hz.  To hear below that, I do have to pump the volume.  However very few recordings have bass that low and most headphones don't reproduce it accurately.  I had an amp with a bass boost of +10dB at 30Hz and I only heard it kick in with a handful of recordings.

 

 

[Graphicism]

Quote:

The set of curves at the bottom show that at lower overall volumes the bass needs to be boosted a bit to sound as loud relative to other frequencies.  Turning it up doesn't bring up the mid range, it actually brings it down relative to the bass and treble.  At higher volumes the bass should sound higher relative to the others.  High treble is the same. 

I believe we perceive different frequencies at different volumes; such as quite sounds we can pick out voices but louder sounds we kill off certain extreme frequencies. Maybe someone can back this up with something a little more scientific, I just remember reading that a while ago.

 

[yepimonfire]

 

 

[BASGTA]

Speakers 100% while windows is usually around 20%, 30% being max.

 

[moocow111]

Foobar's volume is at 100%, while the amp's volume is maybe 40%.

 

 

[kite7]

With what amp and what headphones? That's very vague