Do you take part in the volume game

savvypaul

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I like to play music at some sort of realistic volume level. What then happens is my significant other pops in to the room to catch up on the day.
I ask if she'd like the music turned down, usually only a little is what I mean. She then all but turns it off! It's down at or below background listening levels.
I think it is a gender thing, my daughter's do likewise and don't play their own music that loud either. It could be a deaf old man thing as well.

Pardon?
 

Rayymondo

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I listen via to a stored music library generally on random, so volume knob is going up and down like a yoyo - this is why I couldn't live without remote control. Some music hurts my ears if too loud, rock and pop mainly, but I turn it up for gentler singer songwriter type stuff - but will depend massively on the recording levels used at the recording or production stage. I wish all music had a standard level it was recorded at, would make my listening experience much easier, not to mention increasing the longevity of my motorized volume pot / remote control batteries!
 
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Klassik

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I wish all music had a standard level it was recorded at, would make my listening experience much easier, not to mention increasing the longevity of my motorized volume pot / remote control batteries!
Those who listen to music via FM radio will likely receive music in a consistently compressed manner. Outside of things like that, it's not really feasible for, say, classical music to be recorded in a completely consistent manner since different types of music/works will have different dynamics and such. It's not unusual for one to listen to something that might seem quite softly recorded until one gets to a fortissimo tutti of a coda or some other tutti. :oops:

Even with this, Klassik rarely uses an amplifier with a remote. ;) The amp Klassik is using now does have a remote, but the remote is sitting in the drawer with the batteries removed. Perhaps Klassik ought to bring that remote out at some point. Klassik certainly does not need to turn down the music for a nagging wife though. :)
 

Le Baron

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Even with this, Klassik rarely uses an amplifier with a remote. ;) The amp Klassik is using now does have a remote, but the remote is sitting in the drawer with the batteries removed. Perhaps Klassik ought to bring that remote out at some point. Klassik certainly does not need to turn down the music for a nagging wife though.
I use a remote (with this amp anyway, not the recently retired one) for the very reasons you outlined in classical music listening.

In general I've always been the one telling the other halves to reduce the volume. Every time I visit my dad (in Blighty) I'm appalled at how loud he plays music. He seems to enjoy the atmosphere of a disco. He has a good system though.
 
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JANDL100

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If I'm in the middle of a piece of music and have to pause for a minute or so ("comfort break" perhaps, aka have a pee) when I come back and unpause, it often seems too loud. So I turn it down and then over the next minute or so I gradually turn it back up again.

I think my hearing desensitises, and is reset back to normal if there is a pause.
So someone entering the room while music is playing will likely find it too loud.
 

Lawrence001

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Just like musicians argue endlessly about "the right tempo" - not just the ideal bpm of songs when you are writing them in software, but all the historically informed practice like "what tempo does Bach sound best at" etc. Bach has speeded up considerably in the last 40 years or so.
But had it slowed down considerably in the previous 200 years?
 

Lawrence001

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My listening levels vary with different musical genres..
Rock replay usually has a mich higher dB level,but classical and jazz is at a more relaxed listening level.
When my neighbours are out I tend to be a bit more generous with the loudness button! 😀
I hope you don't really mean a loudness button!
 

Lawrence001

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I listen via to a stored music library generally on random, so volume knob is going up and down like a yoyo - this is why I couldn't live without remote control. Some music hurts my ears if too loud, rock and pop mainly, but I turn it up for gentler singer songwriter type stuff - but will depend massively on the recording levels used at the recording or production stage. I wish all music had a standard level it was recorded at, would make my listening experience much easier, not to mention increasing the longevity of my motorized volume pot / remote control batteries!
Most ripped music from CD will contain volume tags, and most decent playback software has volume normalisation options you can switch on. What software do you use?
 

Strider

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I don't tend to listen at any particular genre at a set level but adjust the dial accordingly if the playback gain is low, mind you I'll give it some beans if on my own.

If my lovely lady has been out she enters the lounge scouting the room for the cats before anything else, then she speaks to the dogs (unless they're with her), says a dramatically "HELLOOOO!" And creates chaos!
If the music is at 'realistic' volume she'll give me a withing look so I drop it by a few db then she tells me everything about horses, who owns her money, how misbehaved some of her riders have been then the TV goes on.
Most often when she comes in I'll drop the volume and pretend to take interst in the banal regurgitation of the days events whilst listening to tunes until her mother calls, I can hear the MoL through the earpiece ten feet away and even with a decent level on the stereo because she sounds like an an inebriated raven that's bellowing out opera after huffing helium..
 
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Chumpchops

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…..sounds like typical wedded bliss. :cool:

In my WB days, I used to put on some music, significantly louder than I intended or wanted to listen at, then wait for SWUTBO to demand that I turn it down. Only then would I turn it back to to the level I would have initially wanted it first, but that she would have also complained about as being too loud.

Try it.
 

awkwardbydesign

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Also she can hear sound details that I cant. I wonder if its biological because her friends are the same.
Not necessarily. My hearing has (or had, as I age) a peak in the 6kHz and above region that meant I hear details that my wife and others miss. For example the line whistle from some old CRT TVs used to drive me mad, whereas my wife and her sister couldn't even hear it!
 

audio_PHIL_e

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For example the line whistle from some old CRT TVs used to drive me mad, whereas my wife and her sister couldn't even hear it!
I was the opposite. In the days when I had a job in a company where you had to go work in your pigpen, on more than 1 occasion the departmental secretary came to my desk and with firm and deliberate action plonked the phone handset back on the phone saying "Can't you hear that?" and I'd say "Hear what?" - apparently it was making a high pitched screech to make you replace the handset 'properly'.
 

Le Baron

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Just like musicians argue endlessly about "the right tempo" - not just the ideal bpm of songs when you are writing them in software, but all the historically informed practice like "what tempo does Bach sound best at" etc. Bach has speeded up considerably in the last 40 years or so.
You've not gone the way of Wim Winters have you?
 
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bigrod

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You should be considerate to other people if it’s a shared space .. If Diane knows I fancy a music session on my main rig she will pour me a drink and then go into the snug which is separated from the music room by our downstairs loo…to watch telly..
Music does not have to be “bangin” to be enjoyable .. All systems that are manufactured work within optimum parameters to be at their best ,especially speakers .. You just need enough volume to get them to their optimum….
I can play music as loud as I like in the mancave on the 3rd floor though ..
 
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rdale

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If I'm in the middle of a piece of music and have to pause for a minute or so ("comfort break" perhaps, aka have a pee) when I come back and unpause, it often seems too loud. So I turn it down and then over the next minute or so I gradually turn it back up again.

I think my hearing desensitises, and is reset back to normal if there is a pause.
So someone entering the room while music is playing will likely find it too loud.
I use the ‘Sound Meter Pro’ app on my mobile quite a lot to measure sound levels. I recently upgraded my amp and I could use the sound meter app to set the average level on the new amp to the same as on the old one. I think I listen of my the system in my medium sized room quite quietly though - between 75-78 db according to the meter. Whereas in my larger listening room, the level tends to be more like 83 db according to the same meter app.
 

mj446

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30 years in the mining industry have taken their toll on my ears, so when I changed kit I turned up the volume above what I would consider my max level, I had a wander around the outside of the house and decided that it wouldn’t trouble my neighbours so I know normal levels are fine. Herself might turn the level a little if she joins me from her kitchen or doing jigsaws in the dining room, but I do get p*shed off if she shuts it down,turns on the telly and then sticks her nose in her iPad, ffs, one thing or another woman.
 

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