I know! Being aware of personal frailties and admitting them can be emancipating!
Luckily, my stuff has no LOUDNESS buttons to tempt me over to the Dark Side.
Luckily, my stuff has no LOUDNESS buttons to tempt me over to the Dark Side.
tubelectron
Super Member
I use the Loudness/Contour knob in these cases : low volume, small speakers... That's why this feature has been designed for, finally ! 
But sometimes (on picture 2), I just raise the Bass Tone-Control level (2 or 3 points), instead of using the Loudness... That's why I voted "It depends..."
T
But sometimes (on picture 2), I just raise the Bass Tone-Control level (2 or 3 points), instead of using the Loudness... That's why I voted "It depends..."
T
DeFriend
Active Member
GFA power amplifiers don't have volume dials.
(and whatever preamp you have that *does* have a volume dial can have whatever sensitivity the manufacturer went with. Ideally, your volume knob is near 50% at your loudest listening SPL. Distortion starts rising when going above 50% and noise starts rising when going below 50% in most preamp circuits)
freeagent
Active Member
Awesome comprehension skills. I said with my, not on my 555. I do have a signature, like yours, where it shows the hardware that I am using.
I have a GFP-345.
Doug G.
Lunatic Member
Ah, those Marantzes. Still gorgeous after all these years.I use the Loudness/Contour knob in these cases : low volume, small speakers... That's why this feature has been designed for, finally !
But sometimes (on picture 2), I just raise the Bass Tone-Control level (2 or 3 points), instead of using the Loudness... That's why I voted "It depends..."
T
Doug
Not all of the time but most of the time.
The Dynaco A25 XL's I'm using right now don't seem to have much bass to them so the loudness or contour function helps to richen the sound. The high and low filter switches on the HK 630's do the same thing. Makes listening to good music more satisfying to my 73 year old ears.
The Dynaco A25 XL's I'm using right now don't seem to have much bass to them so the loudness or contour function helps to richen the sound. The high and low filter switches on the HK 630's do the same thing. Makes listening to good music more satisfying to my 73 year old ears.
Equipment from the '70s is a study in the beauty of proper industrial design.
Not trying to brag but my system does not have loudness and doesn't need it. I do make minor adjustments to the treble control depending on the volume level. Normally reduce it slightly with higher volumes. Very rarely touch the bass control. Only when source material has too much bass.
Love it.
freeagent
Active Member
No distortion either
This thing feckin pounds and it sounds good doing it.. Vifa tweets
A properly designed loudness control is only active at low volumes and automatically phases out as volume is increased.
Loudness controls exist(ed) (since it's mostly past tense
) because they are necessary to compensate for the deficiencies of the human ear, which universally has reduced perception of extreme low and high frequencies at low volume levels.
The human ear has not changed, and therefore the need for a loudness circuit has not changed.
There are workarounds that can be helpful -- changing tone controls, adding a subwoofer, listening at higher volumes -- all of those help, but the world is a worse place for audio companies largely having abandoned loudness controls (some Yamaha's and select others excepted).
The need for loudness will go away when human hearing changes -- which is likely not soon. There's no other way to look at it. We all want to be purists and not touch the signal -- but, related to the loudness circuit, that purist thought process is in direct opposition to how all of our ears work.
Loudness controls exist(ed) (since it's mostly past tense
) because they are necessary to compensate for the deficiencies of the human ear, which universally has reduced perception of extreme low and high frequencies at low volume levels.The human ear has not changed, and therefore the need for a loudness circuit has not changed.
There are workarounds that can be helpful -- changing tone controls, adding a subwoofer, listening at higher volumes -- all of those help, but the world is a worse place for audio companies largely having abandoned loudness controls (some Yamaha's and select others excepted).
The need for loudness will go away when human hearing changes -- which is likely not soon. There's no other way to look at it. We all want to be purists and not touch the signal -- but, related to the loudness circuit, that purist thought process is in direct opposition to how all of our ears work.
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A properly designed loudness control is only active at low volumes and automatically phases out as volume is increased.
Loudness controls exist(ed) (since it's mostly past tense
The human ear has not changed, and therefore the need for a loudness circuit has not changed.
There are workarounds that can be helpful -- changing tone controls, adding a subwoofer, listening at higher volumes -- all of those help, but the world is a worse place for audio companies largely having abandoned loudness controls (some Yamaha's and select others excepted).
The need for loudness will go away when human hearing changes -- which is likely not soon. There's no other way to look at it. We all want to be purists and not touch the signal -- but, related to the loudness circuit, that purist thought process is in direct opposition to how all of our ears work.
That's what we've always been told. But as my system became better I began to question that dogma. I'm of the belief that it's not so much about unusual deficiencies of the human ear but about tonal balance being more critical at higher volumes. Small imbalances that are not a problem at low volumes begin hitting your ears hard at high volumes only because they are so much easier to identify. It's the high volume that makes the imbalances stand out so much. At low volumes, those imbalances (colorings) sound kinda nice.
RunOutGroove
Addicted Member
I have it on my vintage Marantz receiver, and I realize that there can be some improvement with it for low level listening... yet I never bother with it.