How loud is too loud?

RobHoltRobHolt
edited May 2013 in Digital
I wonder how many people check their listening levels.

I tend to let levels hover in the mid-upper 80s dB most of the time, and occasionally let it go a little above 90.

I'm prompted to ask as I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night and recored peak levels hitting 125dB in the cinema, which probably isn't healthy!

Comments

  • DocfosterDocfoster
    Surely that's well beyond H&S ear protector levels.

    What moment generated that figure...? Perhaps a fed up friend shouting at you "For chrisake Rob, can't you stop measuring stuff for 5 minutes...?!" ;-)
  • DocfosterDocfoster
    edited June 2013
    To answer the OP: The point at which one's ears distort the signal.

    edit: perhaps someone could review this...
    http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/Nonlinear.htm
  • AlanAlan
    I like exactly the same level as Rob, peaking in the low 90's, although I am frequently happy with a bit less.

    I would love a bit more, on occasion, as my gear sounds so effortless now - but the amp runs out of puff.
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    I'll have to measure the levels I listen at - I suspect it may be a bit higher than yours since the Green Goddess arrived. That effortlessness/lack of distortion seduces me into consistently higher levels these days.

    Try the Baby Blob with an active pre and you may get some more power out if it.
  • RobHoltRobHolt
    edited June 2013
    I wonder how many people check their listening levels.

    I tend to let levels hover in the mid-upper 80s dB most of the time, and occasionally let it go a little above 90.

    I'm prompted to ask as I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night and recored peak levels hitting 125dB in the cinema, which probably isn't healthy!
    It hit 125db on things like explosions and, strangely, on fist fighting.
    Every time one character smashed another in the face it was amplified to sound like a jackhammer.

    But don't worry, I didn't take a measurement rig to the cinema - just turned on the iPhone spl meter :)
  • AlanAlan
    I'll have to measure the levels I listen at - I suspect it may be a bit higher than yours since the Green Goddess arrived. That effortlessness/lack of distortion seduces me into consistently higher levels these days.

    Try the Baby Blob with an active pre and you may get some more power out if it.
    I measured loudness when I had my FET Atom, which is in for repair. It was smooth and unfatiguing, and wonderful at volume. The SECA is more of the same, and at about the same loudness, I suspect.

    The Atom I have on loan, as a day to day amp, is noticeably harder, and plays at lower volume than either of the other two.
  • DocfosterDocfoster
    But don't worry, I didn't take a measurement rig to the cinema - just turned on the iPhone spl meter :)
    Disappointed at that Rob. Had pictured you at the front of the centre aisle at your local iMax, in headphones, stereo mics hooked up to an oscilascope...
  • YomanzeYomanze
    I'm prompted to ask as I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night and recored peak levels hitting 125dB in the cinema, which probably isn't healthy!
    Love it, a true audiophile's words!  For me anywhere between 80-90db really... sometimes 95 or so.  Never above 100db I value my hearing!
  • AlanAlan
    edited September 2013
    I listen at around 75 - 85 dB, my little SECA amp doesn't do much more than that. That being said, it fills the room with sound and vibrates the sofa, and seems to go louder with recent improvements to the pre amp.
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    80s to not upset SWMBO, low 90s for preference, higher when I can get away with it ;-)

    100 or above, my social conscience won't allow it, nor care for my ageing hearing.
  • AlanAlan
    OK, I am sitting here with my SPL meter (this thread prompted me), and I was wondering why my baby SECA was clipping at an apparently lower volume than before, following a pre-amp upgrade.

    Turns out I'm comfortably (and very surprisingly) listening at 80 - 90dB without realising it! I think I'd better update the pre-amp thread.
  • DocfosterDocfoster
    I prefer the "Decibel 10th" ap's sound level equivalents... Earlier i was listening at food blender levels, now merely at those akin to being inside an automobile.
  • Brain_DeadBrain_Dead
    Yes it a surprise when that happen I still like levels at the threshold of sound limit myself. And I love the bass that moves the sofa, it relaxes the back wonderfully. 

    8-}
  • DocfosterDocfoster
    Chiropractors operate at what... >104dBs....?
  • Brain_DeadBrain_Dead
    edited September 2013
    Chiropractors operate at what... >104dBs....?
    Ben not seen that product is tube or ss?  8-} Now I understand Dave giving me the name Brain_Dead, it as turn from jelly to mush.
  • AlanAlan
    My sofa is tingling at vibrating right now, and I am not causing it!

    My poor little power amp can't keep up with the modded pre, it keeps clipping 'n crackling poor thing.
  • Brain_DeadBrain_Dead
    My sofa is tingling at vibrating right now, and I am not causing it!

    My poor little power amp can't keep up with the modded pre, it keeps clipping 'n crackling poor thing.
    Sorry, buy a bigger amp or go back to the NVA . :((
  • AlanAlan
    edited September 2013
    Not a touch decision mate! :) I like the sounds you make, so does Simon Lomax, it seems!
  • Brain_DeadBrain_Dead
    Did you play his Digital Lies Disc?

  • AlanAlan
    I haven't ripped it yet, got a few 'pooter problems. It's on the 'to do' list.
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    OK, I am sitting here with my SPL meter (this thread prompted me), and I was wondering why my baby SECA was clipping at an apparently lower volume than before, following a pre-amp upgrade.

    Turns out I'm comfortably (and very surprisingly) listening at 80 - 90dB without realising it! I think I'd better update the pre-amp thread.
    We're back to that observation that the SECAs are so clean that you can easily run the system louder than you imagine.
  • PACPAC
    eh?  Speak up!

    I have an SPL meter here so we can have a "guess the loudness level" competition on Saturday 
    :-SS
  • DocfosterDocfoster
    I'll bring my cat (as per the 'hifi in triplicate thread'). He takes a little while to learn to read but is very accurate. Here his ears are reading 97dB.
    image
  • PACPAC
    edited September 2013
    Here's one reading 110dB on the "C" weighted scale of course!

    image
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