Hi
Not sure if this is correct place to post this ....
whenever i play any any music a question spins in my mind ... is the volume which i have set is accurate/correct
so usually i go by catching an instrument / volcal sound and gradually increase the volume until i feel its at natural sounding level
The way a cartridge has tracking force value declared for a cartridge , i always wish there was a sound ref value provided on album itself
so is there a measure/reference etc to make sure volume is at right level
Regards
Tanoj
The term "volume" or "loudness" is a problem because this belongs to psycho-acoustics and this subjective personal feeling is only difficult to "measure".
A person feels and judges sound events by exposure time, spectral composition, temporal structure, sound level, information content and subjective mental attitude.
It is difficult to measure the exact level of different instruments and musical genres. This is because the level depends on how loudly a single instrument is being played and the ensemble in which it is being played. The combination of instruments being plaid in conjunction with one another will affect the safe amount of time one can listen to any given instrument or group of instruments and as such no recommended safe listening times are given.
The levels listed below specify how loudly an individual instrument can be played keep in mind that they are not played at this level all the time, but the instruments played with them can also make them louder than the level listed here.
Sound Level (dBA) Example
129 Rock or Jazz Music
114 Flute
112 Amplified Guitar
111 Steel Drum
110 Orchestra or Symphony
108 Trumpet
105 Pop Music
104 Cello
100 Bass Drum
92 Classical Music
90 Piano
82 Single Clarinet
Sound level in dB is a physical quantity and may be measured objectively. Loudness is a perceived quantity and one can only obtain measurements of it by asking people questions about loudness or relative loudness. (Of course different people will give at least slightly different answers.) Relating the two is called psychophysics.
And what many of us don't realize until we hear it, is that clean undistorted loud sound often does not sound that "loud." The key here is that in most of our home listening, there are small amounts of distortion caused by a lack of dynamic headroom. It's the distortion that makes it sound "loud" in a domestic setting. We've become accustomed to accepting some distortion with our reproduced music, because all amplifier's distortion ratings gradually increase as they approach their output limits or slightly clip the audio signals. When that happens, we turn down the volume, because distortion starts to intrude on our listening pleasure, and it sounds "too loud."
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