hmm our âsensitivityâ to volume; yes I certainly use this to set my speakers in a surround setup âby earâ when missing an SPL meter and/or the inbuilt microphone for calibration/setup.
By setting the volume at a lower level my ear is a lot better at picking up the respective differences between speakers, and assuming no huge timbre differences, generally gets me .5dB accurate across all the speakers.
Some caveats with this is that not all amps scale well when the volume goes up, but in more than 80% of cases, this âset the speaker volumes with the volume set lowâ rule seems to work well and scale correctly⌠(the speakers at listening level remain half a decibel give or take to each other)
Regarding my daily listening volume; completely depends on genre and âneighboursâ and whether the weather requires windows and doors open/closed etc.
What I find interesting is that when I go to my friends house who uses ~90dB sensitive Bower and Wilkins monitors, at the listening position in a room that has had effort given to sound control, we are typically at 65dB peaks when we are âjamming outâ.
Not sure if being drunk/stoned/relaxed aids the âsensitivityâ of OUR ears (probably), but that seems like such a low level (in terms of capping the dynamic range) that I feel we are hardly listening âto the systemâ (always âthe musicâ)âŚ
Always a good listen, and as I have matured in life, happy to sit their sober as a monk and still audition cable and equipment upgrades on said system.
My own den setup; owning two high quality SPL metres (one analogue and one digital) that agree with each otherâŚ
at 9oâclock on the dial of the XS3, depending on the recording - ie âmade for radioâ compressed can easily be 10dB higher at the same volume level (so lets IGNORE THAT STUFF); I generally find that 65dB is a very happy level for enjoying music as âbackgroundâ eg as I write this⌠(Orchestral Pink Floyd by the London Philharmonic)
which, for orchestral stuff, if listening CRITICALLY, I would generally want the volume to peak at 85dB (so as to maximise the dynamics)âŚ
when measured last week, I found that between 9 and 10 oâclock on the âlowlyâ Nait XS3, I was swinging from high 50sâ decibels to greater than 85 decibelsâŚ
for in room listening this is âlarge scaleâ for my ears and any higher wouldnât be comfortable.
Donât get me wrong⌠growing up (before I âgrew upâ) I would use super high powered amplifiers and incredibly capable speakers and really march up the volume⌠(Seldom to be listened to âin roomâ).
The XS3 seems to have the headroom to render most of my music catalogue very well.
Ben Harpersâ Faded (opening track - Will to Live) is one of the few examples of a track that seems to be missing headroom capability (even at low volume) to recreate âthe bestâ rendition I have heardâŚ
but for everything else, the Nait integrated seem to have a lot of raw grunt and recreate better music than many many âmore powerfulâ (by the numbers) amps I have owned.
The speed of the amp actually reveals a lot of lyrics and fast instruments (or notes between notes when played âat speedâ) that many other systems just miss.
My setup uses 90dB sensitive speakers (Krix Apex towers), and at the listening position around 3.4metres away, the need to push past 9oâclock on the volume dial (XS3) is basically nil.
Except when playing music into the front yard (which needs to get through âa few roomsâ and out âsmall openingsâ).
Sheryl Crow at 10oâclock would be âtoo loudâ to comfortably listen to âin houseâ, without wanting to tap toes/âdanceâ.
TL:DR Iâm a 65dB person,⌠but like peaks around 75dB if trying to pull apart a track and appreciate the capabilities of the system (factoring a little bit of dynamic response as well)