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What volume do you listen at?


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What Volume do you listen to your music at?  

  1. 1. What Volume do you listen to your music at?

    • Whisper quiet - 7 to 8 o'clock
    • Normal - 8 to 9 o'clock
    • A bit loud - 9 to 10 o'clock
    • Loud - 10-11 o'clock
    • Earbleed - 12 o'clock +
    • I listen so loud that up to a half hour after finishing a session, I can go to the bathroom and pee decaying transients.
    • It goes to 11, so I listen at 11


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Results for anyone to see.

Asking because I know that not a lot of people listen to music as quietly as I do. I find it essential to listen at this volume however otherwise I get fatigue.

I know the o'clock ratings are fairly arbitary since there's no accounting for source, amp or headphone and is thus merely a rough guide.

Cheers!

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The o'clock measuring system is pretty much worthless. Sorry to be so harsh but since the actual volume level will depend on the source, headphones and amp there's absolutely no way to make any sort of meaningful comparison from someone telling you that position their attenuator is at. Unless they happen to have the exact same setup that you do, which seems pretty unlikely.

For what it's worth I usually listen with average db's in the low 70s as measured by a Ratshack SPL meter.

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This is a retarded poll, but I voted for 12+. I only say it is retarded because every amp will have different gain at different settings with different headphones, and not all sources output the same voltage to begin with. Knowing what you turn the knob to tells you absolutely nothing.

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Pretty bloody loud. I have no idea how loud exactly since I don't have an SPL meter handy. But, it is basically the minimum volume you need for the music to really open up and bloom - which does vary from system to system.

The thing is, loud as I'm listening right now, it is much, much quieter that I used to listen, and it is also much, much quieter than most people around me (who listen to deafening levels, in my opinion). So I don't know if it's me merely perceiving an average volume level as loud or others simply cranking their music up to 11 regardless of what it does to their ears.

I suspect the latter.

Anyway, I gave myself tinnitus in the first few months of this hobby, and I've since cut down my volume by a lot. In the last year and a half, it virtually disappeared, and my current listening levels - which I still think are pretty loud - haven't caused it to recur.

Yes, this doesn't make me seem very brilliant does it...

Then again, with my listening preferences, which include psytrance and death metal, I would want to understandably crank it a bit.

But just a bit.

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Then again, with my listening preferences, which include psytrance and death metal, I would want to understandably crank it a bit.

But just a bit.

I know that feeling well. Every time I listen to metal on my Grados, I have to fight an urge to crank the volume up to "11". I'll listen a bit louder than usual, and then I'll crank it way up for my favourite song on the album. Then I take a break, cause if I don't my ears will ring all night.

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The "o'clock" varies by what headphones I have plugged in; they all have varying sensitivity.

I keep it pretty low with headphones. My test is speaking a few words at a normal level with the music playing. If I can hear myself about at regular conversation level, I leave it there. If I'm hard to hear, I turn it down. I'm also careful with classical because of the huge dynamics.

Occasionally, I have to crank it for a song or passage, but I usually save loud listening for the speakers or in the car.

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