This question came up to me again following a discussion with Shamil about the M&K Sat speakers. He told me that these little bookshelves can go really loud, much louder than most bookshelf speakers that he knows (which made me happy again that I bought mine).
That said, after the discussion I reflected on my own penchant for listening loud at times. It is only with some music, but there are times that I really like to turn up the volume to absurd SPLs. I mean, when I am listening to something like Chris Rea (for example 'On The Beach', etc.), or some instrumental like Andreas Vollenweider's later albums, or Jean Michel Jarre, or several other types of music and artists, I can quite happily toddle along at speaking volumes. But put something on like Radiohead's Creep, or Queen's Princes Of The Universe, or Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma, or Placido Domingo singing No Puede Ser (both the former from their performance at the Baths of Caracalla), several other songs, the volume level tends to very quickly go from loud to very loud to 'Are you NUTS/DEAF!'.
This is quite different from my buddy Bravick. He likes to listen at whisper volumes. He has very sensitive hearing, so he does not like it loud. Which makes it quite interesting that he loves HUGE power amplifiers, but he says he likes the control a big power amp brings.
That said, how do the other members on the forum like it? I never had the privilege to listen to our sadly departed forum member Rodney Gold's system, but I think it is one I'd have enjoyed. I did have the privilege of hearing another sadly missed member's system, that being Chris Templer's system when he still had the big Tannoy horns (I knew him from long before I joined this forum). I never got chance to hear his Altec based system, but knowing Chris, it was probably awesome.
So, please share your own listening preferences.
That said, after the discussion I reflected on my own penchant for listening loud at times. It is only with some music, but there are times that I really like to turn up the volume to absurd SPLs. I mean, when I am listening to something like Chris Rea (for example 'On The Beach', etc.), or some instrumental like Andreas Vollenweider's later albums, or Jean Michel Jarre, or several other types of music and artists, I can quite happily toddle along at speaking volumes. But put something on like Radiohead's Creep, or Queen's Princes Of The Universe, or Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma, or Placido Domingo singing No Puede Ser (both the former from their performance at the Baths of Caracalla), several other songs, the volume level tends to very quickly go from loud to very loud to 'Are you NUTS/DEAF!'.
This is quite different from my buddy Bravick. He likes to listen at whisper volumes. He has very sensitive hearing, so he does not like it loud. Which makes it quite interesting that he loves HUGE power amplifiers, but he says he likes the control a big power amp brings.
That said, how do the other members on the forum like it? I never had the privilege to listen to our sadly departed forum member Rodney Gold's system, but I think it is one I'd have enjoyed. I did have the privilege of hearing another sadly missed member's system, that being Chris Templer's system when he still had the big Tannoy horns (I knew him from long before I joined this forum). I never got chance to hear his Altec based system, but knowing Chris, it was probably awesome.
So, please share your own listening preferences.
