Do you use the 'loudness' feature on your rcvr/amp?

[jhjove]

Of course!
I would love to ramp my volume to the "12 noon"+ position and leave it there but wife and neighbors would harass the heck out of me.

So unless I want to listen to music sounding like the AM broadcast band I'll use the loudness switch or bass or treble or mid to get the best sound at low volume.

 

[klamsoss]

I often use it on older classical records where recording quality at frequency extremes is poor. I also use it when listening at low level because regardless of what people want to think about sound being adulterated, the human ear has a different level of sensitivity at the upper and lower end of the frequency spectrum when the amplitude of the sound wave is small.

If you are put off by this in some way, go read the Wikipedia page on Alan Blumlein. Pretty much none of this hobby would exist without him, and he studied the phenomenon when he worked at Western Electric in the early 20s. He literally designed the first frequency weighting networks (which is also how we have the RIAA eq circuit).
This was before he invented the loading coil that was used in wired telephones until the end of the analog era, the moving coil disc cutting head, moving coil microphones, which became the broadcast and recording standard for most of the history of recorded sound, stereo sound (both the ability to record it using microphones, and then put that on a disc), the ultra-linear circuit, the long-tailed pair, airborne radar, and the circuits that allowed for television broadcast.

He died when he was 38.

Sorta makes ya feel like you haven't done much with your life, eh?

 

[THF2]

Use it all of the time ( and tone controls ) to adjust and compensate for room conditions.

Would love to have that ideal environment where the system that I have stands on its own. Not the case with me and I use what I have to help it along to my liking.

 

[RobRoy]

Do you use the loudness button on your receiver/ amp? :scratch2:

When I had one, I used it only when at low volume. Technically, its function was to compensate for our ears becoming less sensitive to low and high frequencies at low volume. Now that I use hearing aids, I can really relate. A lot of frequencies are there until the volume drops. Then they seem to simply disappear.