Low volume listening

We’ve not heard back about any of the free experiments yet, he must have a life.

Kristian G posted:

Hello...

I was looking for advice to fix a problem of low level listening just not sparkling. I moved from Cyrus to Naim uni to Nova with a 250DR bi-amping into Kef Blade 2 speakers that fell in love at my dealers.

The system at mid to high volumes sounds amazing, but now my girlfriend has moved in I spend more time at lower volumes....around 20 on the Nova.....and the music looses all it's sparkle and interest....is there a fix without changing my blades ? Moving up to 300dr or more?

Many thanks for advice... 

Indeed your girlfriend could be causing this problem. Without you realising it, she is probably so exciting that your music is simply less sparkling & interesting than she is. This phenomenon happens a lot to young couples, it's a little thing called "love".

Take a look at courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys406/sp2017/Lecture_Notes/P406POM_Lecture_Notes/P406POM_Lect5.pdf

In this fascinating article how your ear works, you see the frequency/sound level curves on page 18. On page 19 is the famous Fletcher & Munson curve, who demonstrated in 1933 that at low volumes you hear less of the low & high frequencies.

From the dotted line in the graph: people will only hear 20 Hz notes when they are above 70 dB, and 50 Hz notes when they are above 43 dB. This explains why the subwoofer solution proposed by Richieroo works so well: At low volumes your ears hear less of the lower frequencies, and his subwoofer puts the sound back into the same balance when played louder. The same happens at higher frequencies. That is why they invented the infamous "LOUDNESS" button. It was not created to get "loudness (extra volume)" but to compensate for this "low volume effect".

If they would have called it the "LOW VOLUME COMPENSATION" button back in the seventies when it was introduced, it would have a much better reputation today.

Take care, and I would just play soft music to her

Bert posted:

Take a look at courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys406/sp2017/Lecture_Notes/P406POM_Lecture_Notes/P406POM_Lect5.pdf

In this fascinating article how your ear works, you see the frequency/sound level curves on page 18. On page 19 is the famous Fletcher & Munson curve, who demonstrated in 1933 that at low volumes you hear less of the low & high frequencies.

 

Very interesting reading!  Thank you for that link 

I was just reading another recent thread about adding an equalizer to a 202/200, using the tape monitor function. 

This could be a very easy fix, boosting lows and highs with the eq in a tape monitor loop when listening at low levels, and normal inputs at normal listening levels. 

This will not compromise the sound for normal listening, and through the loop you can even customize the boost in highs and lows to your likings when necessary. 

I might even try this myself... 

Claus

Unfortunately not really applicable for a Nova as it would best work where the source had an additional digital output, would be the RME ADI-2 Pro or ADI-2 DAC. One of these could be placed in the chain after the source and has parametric equalization, DSP room correction, and for low level listening has a special 'progressive' loudness function which increases its effect gradually as the listening level is lowered. 

The volume threshold at which it starts to work is also user configurable so that amps/speakers with different gains/efficiency can be catered for properly. This seems by far the smartest implementation of loudness function I have come across, and if your digital source has two outputs you could switch it in/out of the chain as needed. 

Oh, sorry, didn't know that Nova hasn't got the "tape monitor loop".

Anyway, for those with a preamp/amp with this option I could imagine this to be a simple and effective solution for casual listening at low/very low volume. Say, background music when having dinner.