Have you ever played your system "really" loud?

Yes. When I thought that my Ovators 600 were setup properly, I tested it by opening volume to 90% and listen to a prelude and fugue for Organ by Bach in about 15 minutes. No significant distortion.

On 50 cm distance, I could only see the lips of my wife moving - I did not hear any word of her.

Yes, we have a detached house too.

Well it wasn’t my Naim, but I remember having a particularly enjoyable and possibly reckless house party many years back... I ran my Cyrus mono blocks back then (can’t remember if those ones had fans or not)  into my earlier ATCSs.. we were ‘dancing’ or ‘pogoing’  to 80s new wave and punk tracks.. I am fairly sure it was running at full tilt... the music was pounding away, it really sounded fantastic and then eerie silence... followed by laughter... the thermal or current trips had gone on the amp boxes... boy those boxes were hot... quickly the system recovered and we carried on again.. a little softer and we changed genre ...

Quite often wind my system up and then retire to another room completely

Why?

Just like to feel the whole house thump to some good music

Yep - no neighbours within a quarter of a mile (had a live rock band playing in the garden until after midnight with no complaints ). When I had a party my NAP250 would regularly cut out  so I had to get 135s. My Nova doesn't suffer from the same problem.

I think the physicality of music is part of the experience, especially at a live gig when it feels like your internal organs are being rearranged.

Pardon?

I recently had an old colleague from work over for a vinyl-listening session. He's been a drummer in various groups since he were a lad, so most of the stuff he bought over had oodles of percussion. I made the mistake of passing him the remote, with the instruction to turn up the volume as much as he liked. So Genesis' "Seconds Out" side four, with lots of drums, went up SO INCREDIBLY LOUD THINGS WERE MOVING AROUND IN THE HOUSE. A crash when an ornament fell off a shelf somewhere...I was really expecting serious damage; plumes of smoke spiralling out from behind the amps. Speakers firing their drivers out like guided missiles and embedding themselves in the walls. At the very least blown tweeters.

Remarkably, the system just dished it out unharmed, and when a deafening silence finally fell it just squatted there impassively, waiting for the next aural assault. I should have deployed the decibel meter app. I've got on my iPad, but in all honesty I was paralysed with shock.

I had Bose 901s for years. Not strictly hifi but just about as much fun as a speaker can be and being full range drivers with no crossover they were incredibly efficient. When I would crank up the volume on a modest Linn Majik (33 watts), those rear firing ports with the jet engine like plugs could shift enough air to blow about some seriously heavy ceiling to floor velvet curtains. I mean absolute paste them flat against the wall with air pressure. Was the most fun system a 16 year me at the time could ask for.

They are not huge but there is no speaker on earth that quite does scale and air shifting like the 901s. I've not cranked anything up to those levels since. Partly due to age. Partly due to where I live.

Even with a lowly Nova, i was tempted to test my Focals and at the end of the run in period.

I managed to get to 60% which was unbearable LOUD to listen to, i made this mistake of sitting in front of the speakers (listening position) for a hour at 50%, my head hurt for a few days after.

But the speakers and sound where amazingly controlled, i ventured to 70%, but it is crazy loud and still controlled which really surprised me, as my old active SBLs would loose their way eventually.

I normally listen at around 85-95 dB, but for an immersive experience, the volume can easily exceed 105 dB for about 45 minutes. It is my preference to staturate the entire room with resonance: in a way I'm listening with my ears whilst my body is being massaged at the molecular level. 

Years ago my Father went to see the Kodo drummers in concert.When he was next around at mine he brought a Compact Disc of their music and told me to really wack it up ,as I don't have any neighbours I happily obliged.I was using Acoustic Energey AE 1's with a 60 watt Bryston 2B poweramp and at about 12 oclock the Bryston started clipping badly the green LEDs turning to red and had to really turn it down as the poweramp just couldn't deliver such high SPL levels.A year later I replaced the mid - bass drivers in those AE 1'S as some sealant around the drivers was coming off.I  think that day with the Kodo drummers might have had something to do with it.

When I'm hoovering the volume goes way, way up beyond sane or even realistic levels so I can hear it all over the house and up the garden path! I some time's go rushing into the lounge when a particularly good track comes along, I don't turn it down though, not 'till I've finished my chores. Rich 

Ardbeg10y posted:

On 50 cm distance, I could only see the lips of my wife moving - I did not hear any word of her.

Wow!  Sounds like a perfect solution!

Beachcomber posted:

Ardbeg10y posted:

On 50 cm distance, I could only see the lips of my wife moving - I did not hear any word of her.

Wow!  Sounds like a perfect solution!

Yes. She's much more intelligent than I am and it is a nice way to camouflage my ignorance.

A long time ago I had a Musical Fidelity A1 driving a pair of Heybrook HB2 speakers... The A1had a wonderful sound.. all 20 watts of class A... the top of the amp was too hot to touch...

They were loud to a reasonable level until someone at the party tried to to turn the volume up a “little bit more” and blew both tweeters...

The amp had distorted at the higher volume...

Yes.

Of course, to all of us what is ‘loud’ and ‘really loud’ varies in meaning. I commonly listen with peaks in the mid 90s decibels at the listening position, but occasionally wind it up - needed if one wants rock music to sound and feel like it does live, though these days I limit it to just one album out of respect for my ears, and out of consideration for other occupants of the house only do so when they are out. At the highest I play it my amp’s clip warning lights tell me that its occasionally hitting 500W into my 4Ω speakers, which according to speaker specs (in passive mode) and calculating for listening position is around 115dB on peaks, although when I do that I’m sometimes in other parts of the room a bit further from the speakers, so a little less loud. That is peak level - the average sound level of course is quite a bit less, maybe somewhere in the 90s. 

I have sometimes played that loud to enjoy music elsewhere in the house, only having the one system. 

My more normal listening levels are around 15-20 dB lower (according to a phone app, so only a vague indication).

I’ve mostly been fortunate with living arrangements: the first three houses I owned were mid terraced: one built in 1818, had really good party walls, and neighbours said they heard nothing from us, despite my loud music playing. Another was a brand new timber framed house that had extremely good insulation, which being in the says of mineral wool rather than PU meant it had good acoustic properties, so again no issues (we did sometimes hear one side’s TV - but that was only via the window they and we had it open - and windows are always close when music playing). And the other had an elderly deaf gentleman on one side, and people always away on the other! I also once had a semi, with poor party walls, but the living room arrangement enabled the music room to be separated from it by another room. Otherwise detatched, as now. I feel sorry for people on places with poor sound insulation between them and neighbours - good for nobody.

In order to make relevant comparisons regarding sound level in dBs we need to include which frequency filter is being used ie. A,B,C or Z. Generally use A but you need to check your meter. dB levels can easily vary by 10 dB depending on which filter is used. If you use A for example then you would indicate level as dBa etc .

The response of the 552 to the NARCOM 4 I habitually use is sometimes a bit flakey and doesn't alway respond immediatly, including to the release of the increase volume button. This resulted on one occation in the volume going all the way round to full before I could reach the preamp, that was quite loud, fortunately there was no damage.

jsaudio posted:

In order to make relevant comparisons regarding sound level in dBs we need to include which frequency filter is being used ie. A,B,C or Z. Generally use A but you need to check your meter. dB levels can easily vary by 10 dB depending on which filter is used. If you use A for example then you would indicate level as dBa etc .

Indeed, if measured levels are to be meaningful to others. Certainly free phone apps are not very accurate  - I once compared as many as I could find, with, from memory, two or three reading different average levels by 5dB or more compared to three which were within a dB or two of one another, though peak readings varied rather more between even those three (perhaps depending on response time despite all being set at fastest). The differences in readings could have been a result of weightings because IIRC they didn’t all allow selection, and didn’t all say what they were set to read. However, although phone apps aren’t reliable for exact indications, they can be good for comparative levels, or at least better than ear memory - e.g. when selecting volume control settings to play different hardware for comparison at the same sound level.

My own reference in my post above based on speaker sensitivity i guess would be unweighted. 

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Well it wasn’t my Naim, but I remember having a particularly enjoyable and possibly reckless house party many years back... I ran my Cyrus mono blocks back then (can’t remember if those ones had fans or not)  into my earlier ATCSs.. we were ‘dancing’ or ‘pogoing’  to 80s new wave and punk tracks.. I am fairly sure it was running at full tilt... the music was pounding away, it really sounded fantastic and then eerie silence... followed by laughter... the thermal or current trips had gone on the amp boxes... boy those boxes were hot... quickly the system recovered and we carried on again.. a little softer and we changed genre ...

Same experience with Cyrus here - When I went Naim in 2001 I sold my Cyrus 3 to a mate - a few years back he had his 40th party at his house, tunes cranking louder and louder then silence. Ditto the end of Simons post for the outcome..

Many, many moons ago I ran a mobile rock disco, powered by my hifi amp, a Radford HD250 - and there were a few occasions -actually no more than a handful overall - when it was very busy and I just wanted more, by the end of the gig having the volume absolutely everything on maximum: volume, channel gain settings and bass and treble controls! (It actually was adequate, just me feeling like Pete Townshend the first time he smashed his guitar, just a desire for more ) Amazongly the amp took it without complaint. 

When I say the maximum was adequate, it was interesting that on one such memorable occasion afterwards one impressed member of the audience came up and asked me what power I was running, 2k, 3k? And he wouldn’t believe me when I said 100w total (the Radford rated at 50 W RMS per channel): he was likening it to a typical band in a that venue, when 2kw or 3kw PA rigs were typical, and my disco sounded similarly loud - and had a similar character. But then, my speakers were a bit uncommon - a pair of big horn/reflex bass/lower mid speakers virtually identical to Altec’s Voice of the Theatre A7, but with a different upper mid horn and additional supertweeter horns. When I say big, I mean the main bass/lower mid cabinet was 4’6” tall, 2’6” wide and 2’ deep, and so heavy that when I first got them I took a circular saw and split them in half and fitted rubber seals and peripheral clamps to reassemble, otherwise I would have been unable to lift them onto the stage or into my van without assistance. But the significance was their sensitivity, the bass/lower mid rated at 102 @1m and the separate upper mid/lower treble horn rated at 105dB/W (hence boosting bass and very top with the tone controls). The rated peak power of the amp at “over 100W” per channel means that peak levels just above the nearest audience heads could have been approaching 120dB, and it was clear they loved it. Not good for the ears, though nor is being that close to a rock band - but it can be hugely enjoyable.

Although it’s interesting how different perceptions of ratings became, if my memory serves me well, when Mötörhead were considered the loudest band in the world, Lemmy used between one and three 100W Marshall stacks.

Eoink posted:

Although it’s interesting how different perceptions of ratings became, if my memory serves me well, when Mötörhead were considered the loudest band in the world, Lemmy used between one and three 100W Marshall stacks.

Ah, but did they go up to 11?

Yes All the time. I find the 250DR really sounds fantastic after it’s really warmed up. 

Rob

Innocent Bystander posted:

Many, many moons ago I ran a mobile rock disco, powered by my hifi amp, a Radford HD250 - and there were a few occasions -actually no more than a handful overall - when it was very busy and I just wanted more, by the end of the gig having the volume absolutely everything on maximum: volume, channel gain settings and bass and treble controls! (It actually was adequate, just me feeling like Pete Townshend the first time he smashed his guitar, just a desire for more ) Amazongly the amp took it without complaint. 

When I say the maximum was adequate, it was interesting that on one such memorable occasion afterwards one impressed member of the audience came up and asked me what power I was running, 2k, 3k? And he wouldn’t believe me when I said 100w total (the Radford rated at 50 W RMS per channel): he was likening it to a typical band in a that venue, when 2kw or 3kw PA rigs were typical, and my disco sounded similarly loud - and had a similar character. But then, my speakers were a bit uncommon - a pair of big horn/reflex bass/lower mid speakers virtually identical to Altec’s Voice of the Theatre A7, but with a different upper mid horn and additional supertweeter horns. When I say big, I mean the main bass/lower mid cabinet was 4’6” tall, 2’6” wide and 2’ deep, and so heavy that when I first got them I took a circular saw and split them in half and fitted rubber seals and peripheral clamps to reassemble, otherwise I would have been unable to lift them onto the stage or into my van without assistance. But the significance was their sensitivity, the bass/lower mid rated at 102 @1m and the separate upper mid/lower treble horn rated at 105dB/W (hence boosting bass and very top with the tone controls). The rated peak power of the amp at “over 100W” per channel means that peak levels just above the nearest audience heads could have been approaching 120dB, and it was clear they loved it. Not good for the ears, though nor is being that close to a rock band - but it can be hugely enjoyable.

 

I answer you as you answered me....
◾You should write a book!

/Peder

Eoink posted:

Although it’s interesting how different perceptions of ratings became, if my memory serves me well, when Mötörhead were considered the loudest band in the world, Lemmy used between one and three 100W Marshall stacks.

Of coorse, for the ultimate, there’s Disaster Area...  (Hitchiker’s Guide to the Universe)

joerand posted:

For no real reason? Maybe just to see what it can do?

I can play the system louder than I personally find comfortable without any obvious signs of distortion other than my ears telling me not to do it.

But I find that the system actually has a sweet-spot where the level is such that I get the maximum perceived dynamic range and everything opens-out and you hear more of the performance. That level is fairly loud, but actually quieter than many others play their systems from experience. If I go louder it gets louder, but the dynamic range - as perceived by me - decreases, so I back it off lower to get the sweet-spot and all is great again.

Thankfully the system also sounds excellent at very low levels, but it is a different listening experience. Nice to play things loud at times, but I like to keep the HiFi aspects in terms of dynamics and detail retrieval, which also coincides with the best PRaT and other musical aspects.

DB.