[Oregonian Haruspex]

On 2014-02-10 11:30:05 +0000, news said:

I hit "the pocket" again today on this volume thing. Recording is a big band
in a decent rehearsal room. Played too low, it seems too brash, noisy,
screechy, however you want to describe it. Bring it up to "just right" live
levels and all of the mid and lower freqs seem to fill in, like turning up
the color control on a black & white image. The individual instruemnts sound
more like themselves - horns especially - and the ensemble is no longer
harsh but very realistic. I just want to hear more and more.

If you have experienced those days when your system just wasn't "making it"
for you, you didn't want to hear more, just turn it off and get the wine,
then this may be a clue. We are all reticent to turn it up because of
neighbors or wives and family sensitivity, but this may be a lot more than a
social matter. It may be a fidelity matter in a more important way than
previously thought.

Gary Eickmeier

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.