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"Oregonian Haruspex" wrote in message
...


It may be that playback volume alone is not the only contributing factor
here. It could be that in the presence of increased signal levels all
components in the system are not simply increasing in volume at the same
rate. There are lots of non-linearities to consider here.

It might be possible that one EQ setting might make you happy at low
volume levels, and yet sound funny at higher levels, and so forth.
Perhaps the reflection and dampening of the sound waves in your room
contribute to this as well.

I know that the ears can compress the sound to a certain extent, so that a
very loud sound can be subjectively equivalent to a just loud sound. I also
know about the Fletcher-Munson curve, which tells us that "it sounds
different at different volume levels." The curve has us more sensitive to
treble than bass frequencies as the gain goes down. So they inject a little
more bass as you turn it down more so that it is subjectively equivalent to
normal levels.

So perhaps that's it - Turned too low, it just doesn't have the beef on its
bones to sound like when you were there.Turned too high, it bloomphs out to
sound obnoxious or at least to fat to be real. Something about how all the
frequencies get treated by the room.

Gary Eickmeier