David McGown wrote:
Chris,
Pardon me, but I followed your previous posting on Minimalist Audio, which seemed to digress from what seemed to be a potential project discussion or direction to a rather heated and deteriorating thread that ended up stirring up alot of flames. Here you are asking a general audio "philosophy" question that has no definitive answer that will only solicit a wide range of opinions with no real technical resolution. You are posting in the Project Discussion, but I do not see any discussion of a project. What are you trying to do? Is this an honest question or just an attempt to stir things up? In either case this discussion should be moved to General and not Project.
I think Paul is spot on with his answer. "It depends" is the only correct answer to this unanswerable question. Having attended a wide range of live performances from a handful of rock concerts in my youth (which I now avoid because they are too loud for me), full symphony orchestras w/ chorus, to clavichord recitals. The latter is a great example of how quiet a performance can be, forcing you to really concentrate on listening to hear the subtle and micro dynamic expressive range of the instrument. So, it depends on the music you listen to, and how you experience and enjoy the music. There is no universal answer, no universal laws.
However, a few things. Live performances are very dynamic in its content, and this is where things fall apart in recording and reproduction through a home audio system, which tends to compress the sound, particularly with small, inefficient speakers and low power amplifiers. Do you adjust the playing level to capture the same dynamic peak to re-experience what you hear live? Usually that means you may play the music too loud on an average level. Do you listen only to a level where the music does not sound strained or forced? This will vary considerably based on system quality. Do you want to not bother the neighbors (or bother them)? Obviously the listening room is an area with severe constraints on audio reproduction, and will limit what magnitude of the sound is tolerable. Another point to make is our perception of frequency balance is based on SPL, and playing too loud or too quietly will skew that. So somewhere in this is that there probably is a "technically correct level" from a reproduction standpoint that is true to the recording, it will be different for each recording AND there are alot of factors that work to limit this practically in a home audio system.
So it depends.
David
Excellent reply David.