General Forum

Re: Loudness ?

Dave — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 22:28:35 GMT

Soundproof, my room is medium - small sized with minimal materials to absorb the sound (leather couch, wooden floorboards, wooden blinds etc.)

My BS 4 arrived with loudness set to on, and when i toggle it on/off at higher volumes, it doesn't seem to make an audible difference, so there ya go, it does vary with the volume (on the BS 4 anyway).

Re: Loudness ?

joff135 — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 17:50:38 GMT

I remember everyone discussing this last year and at the time almost everyone said that they turned the 'Loudness' on...and infact B & O recommended that you left it on all the time and so we were wondering why then did they bother giving you the option of on or off?

I have a BV-7 32 which i use to play our music through too...connected to Lab 3s, Lab 4s and a Lab 2...and i will do some experiments with the 'Loudness' turned on and off!

Re: Loudness ?

Beobird — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 14:51:38 GMT

Peter:
Beobird:
I use loudness on the lower volumes and in my opinion it sounds better and I don't care what "audiophiles" say. On higher volumes I prefer to turn it off because it makes the bass a bit boomy and the high tones a bit sharp.
A decent Loudness control should switch off at higher volumes. Which system do you have?

I've got a BC9500, but it's actually the room acoustics that makes the bass a bit boomy at higher volumes

Re: Loudness ?

Peter — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:59:09 GMT

Graphical display of a good loudness circuit, as enjoyed by Soundproof!

Re: Loudness ?

Peter — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:54:54 GMT

Beobird:
I use loudness on the lower volumes and in my opinion it sounds better and I don't care what "audiophiles" say. On higher volumes I prefer to turn it off because it makes the bass a bit boomy and the high tones a bit sharp.

A decent Loudness control should switch off at higher volumes. Which system do you have?

Re: Loudness ?

soundproof — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:47:33 GMT

Clearly, there should be a LOUDNESS function on B&O phones then. Sure, the voices we listen to might not be quite as recognisable, but they would sound better!

Re: Loudness ?

Beobird — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:43:28 GMT

I use loudness on the lower volumes and in my opinion it sounds better and I don't care what "audiophiles" say. On higher volumes I prefer to turn it off because it makes the bass a bit boomy and the high tones a bit sharp.

Re: Loudness ?

Alex — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:34:36 GMT

As said numerous times, it's all a matter of choice. Where people make mistakes is judging loudness as an improvement too quickly without actually listening properly to the difference in sound. Play something with almost any acoustic instruments, and you will generally find that loudness just 'closes-in' the midrange frequencies, which could be considered the most important in many ways as they carry the greatest amount of information about the timbre and character of most instruments.

Some people may prefer it like that though. I personally like open sounding midrange, it really helps with the sound-stage.

Re: Loudness ?

Friedmett — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 09:53:00 GMT

It depends on the recording to me. I mainly turn it off on the BM6000 and boost the bass/treble instead. Everything played sounds good on bass 1-2 and treble -1,5. Flat sounds thin. The BM still needs a good service.

The volume is in the low maks 15. It seams to ad alot of bass and the sound gets muddy.

With my Beovision LX5500 the loudness is nearly always on and bass/treble flat. I do have some Metallica bootleg for instance still on VHS and those needs sound adjustments.

Again the sound is better with bass up rather than the loudness.

Re: Loudness ?

Peter — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 08:33:41 GMT

A good loudness control is used to boost both low and high frequencies at low volumes to compensate for the way the human ear works. It helps present the sound in a similar way to that which the person would hear if the music was played at the intended volume of the recording. A good loudness control varies with volume - look at the service manual of the Beolab 5000 amplifier for an example of this.

Whether you use it or not is up to you though most B&O active speakers do have a degree of bass boost built in at lower volumes! I am convinced the BS2 does as well!

Re: Loudness ?

soundproof — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 04:55:06 GMT

David:
This is a tough one. My BL 4000's really sounds alot bigger and richer - more true to life, with the loudness on and the bass and treble tweaked up a bit. They really aren't all that impressive with the bass and treble set to 0. Doesn't ABL and loudness adapt when when the volume is pumped up anyway??

Do you have a lot of soft fabrics, curtains and cloth in the listening room?

At any rate, we should use the setting we're most comfortable with.

I just got a "new" Beomaster 6500 in the door. When I hooked it up and played, it was as if the sound was coming through from inside a barrel. Got worried, thinking something was wrong with it, but checked the sound settings. LOUDNESS was on, and the BASS and TREBLE had been pushed up. Once I had those back to neutral, it turned out the amplifier was in excellent condition and not in a barrel at all.

Re: Loudness ?

Dave — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 03:52:54 GMT

This is a tough one. My BL 4000's really sounds alot bigger and richer - more true to life, with the loudness on and the bass and treble tweaked up a bit. They really aren't all that impressive with the bass and treble set to 0. Doesn't ABL and loudness adapt when when the volume is pumped up anyway??

My question is, should i turn on loudns and turn down the bs & trbl, or leave the loudns off and turn the bs & trble up a bit?? It's a bit annoying if ya have to go through all the menus to turn the loudns on and off when turning it up and down, thats why i assume it's adaptive, and works in harmony with the ABL of the speakers.

Re: Loudness ?

Frank Rizzo — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 22:51:25 GMT

I remember growing up and there was an electronics guy in our town. His project was takiing a 10 band EQ and using each EQ band with an amp. ie.... the boost or cut of each EQ lever was controlling 1 amp...he was sizing the amps accordingly.....and each band of the EQ was attached to 1 speaker for that Freq. on each side L and R........ I'm not sure if he ever finished it...but that sounded interesting...for sure...what an interesting way to define HiFi...no??

Re: Loudness ?

darioazul — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 22:13:58 GMT

Dear All:

Use it if you need it and the sound is 'good' to your ears. At very low volumes loudness may help with highs and lows. Experiment a little with a piece of music you're very familiar and try to hear the difference at low to moderate volume....'My goes to 11.'

Dario

Re: Loudness ?

soundproof — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 19:30:06 GMT

mecca:
The end result may not be for a purist, but it sounds good to me.

And that's what matters. Listening is an extremely subjective thing, and it's what's good for you that matters.

Loudness does distort quite a bit though, as your sound profile turns into a hammock, with the midrange slouching.

I use the tone controls when I feel that the room I listen in is too soft or hard, and I need compensation. But in my main listening room, I have worked a bit to get the room to be as acoustically right as possible (while it still looks like a normal room) - then I can have the player be neutral.