Domestic compromises and low level listening

hificricketboy

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Nov 21, 2008
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Rob
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The sub is a curve ball. It's from the surround sound for the TV and not used in the hifi.

Speakers are spiked on to granite chopping boards - no footing under the boards, just straight on the carpet. The floor across the majority of the lounge is concrete beneath the carpet. There's a cellar under the area to the left through the brick archway.

Usually LV users go as wide as possible but I think the sofa on the left shadows at lower volumes. I've brought that speaker inside the line of the sofa which has helped. The speakers were quite a but further back - 30cm from the rear wall. Now they're 56cm. Also the right hand speaker has been moved in a little as it was 20cm from the side wall, now nearer 30cm. I need to tidy up the tilt and re-centre the boards. I'll keep an eye out for some Gaias as they do seem quite well received and reviewed.

The volume control is probably the biggest issue. I've used the Aries to reduce the output to 50% but realise digital volume control is often frowned upon. This definitely improved the presentation compared to being at 100%, plus I was able to use significantly more of the volume range on my pre amp.

Are attenuators a reasonable idea? Would they have less detrimental impact than using the streamers digital volume control?

Jennifer Warnes' Way Down Deep had reasonably good impact even at 60-65dB peak last night with my output tweak and imaged fairly well. Need to listen to some more well recorded tracks...
 
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hearhere

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Apr 9, 2013
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Speakers are spiked on to granite chopping boards - no footing under the boards, just straight on the carpet. The floor across the majority of the lounge is concrete beneath the carpet.
Have you tried spiking through the carpet so the speakers are rigid with the concrete floor below? This was the preferred method 20 years ago, but more recently isolstion has become popular. My stone slabs were an inch thick and weighed over 12 Kg each. You need a good mass for slabs to offer any advantage but I'd still suggest you try Gaias - a dealer may loan you a set with carpet spikes.
 
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Andrei

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Mar 28, 2013
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A couple of recent posts have made me think about listening volume plus amp and speaker "activation" point.

Due to domestic compromises I tend to listen to music at relatively low levels;

Should I be looking for more (!) sensitive speakers to make the most of my compromises? And if so, what are the options?

All views welcome.

HCB.
Back in the day amplifiers had a loudness button. So when you were listening at low levels you would switch this on. This was in effect just a bass boost - necessary as I understand it is because acoustically the bass disappears faster relative to higher frequencies as the volume goes down. I think this is still valid, but the way to do it now is to add a subwoofer.
 

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