[RobertR]

I haven't seen anything on headfi about headphone amps with loudness compensation built in for listening at low volume?
Do these exist and woulnd't this feature be usefull in correcting for the ears natural loss of sensitivity to low and high frequencies?

 

[gaineso]

To my knowledge, "Loudness" circuits, actually just switchable tone controls, don't exist on ANY premium audio components.

Why??? One word = They suck. OK 2 words.

Haven't missed that "feature" in years.

 

[RobertR]

Thanks for your reply but i thought that loudness comp. was different than tone controls and only kicked in at low volume ,unlike tone controls which are independent of volume setting. I agree that any manipulation of the audio output is likely to degrade the sound but for some cd's this would be nice- and if its swichable you could eliminate it at will.

 

[acs236]

I remember using a Nakamichi system -- pretty much their top of the line receiver -- that had an interesting "loudness" system that I thought was useful. Or at least useful enough to use..

You first adjust the volume to a level that sounds good to you in terms of bass response, etc. Then there was a dial which would lower the volume as you turned it, but still maintain approximately the same relative bass response. That way you could get the bass you were looking for at lower volumes. Why I ultimately think this is the same as simply turning the bass up at lower volumes, I found it quite covenient when listening to music quietly.

In short, Robertr, I think this feature does have a purpose even if its pretty much the same as tone controls, at least for convenience sake.