Could more power help a shrill sound? (1 Viewer)

[Arthur S]

Ed

John Royster has this exactly right. 100 db is crazy loud. Using my Rat Shack meter, 92 db was verging on painful with my favorite CD. One thing though, 100 db at 20Hz is no where near as piercing as 100 db at 1,000 Hz.

Reference level has produced some long tiresome threads. Balancing my system at 75 db gives me what I want. The 105 db figure is for the loudest possible sound with a lower (but still high) average. It is also the "reference" for THX.

The problem I have is that so many movies can be hard to hear the dialogue but when there is a crash, the sound is very, very loud. Theoretically, this wide dynamic range is a plus, however, having to put up with painfully loud scenes to get enough volume for the dialogue is a drag. Some people will give the center a 2-3 db boost to bring up the dialogue. Of course that practice can get you flamed.

Artie

 

[Chu Gai]

I agree that 100 dB is excruciatingly loud. It's a difficult thing, when reading and not being there as to what's going on. Room openings have a way of just sucking out things exascerbating the need to 'crank it up'. One of these days on HGTV they're going to have some $500 room makeover with the goal of improving acoustics. One of these days. Might not get you flamed but on marginal power sources that old shut down seems to happen a bit!

 

[Michael R Price]

Well, the 105db per channel "reference" specification is for peaks only - plus the movies are usually pretty uncompressed so the average level is much lower... like 85db.

I really don't think 100db is excruciatingly loud provided it's completely undistorted. My system can't do that, it starts to sound "loud" above around 90db... but different components can sound very different (from pleasant to painful). Others with horn-based systems have commented that it is difficult to tell when the level is that high, because the sound doesn't distort enough to become unpleasant.

From a member of the Klipsch forum describing a good system in a treated room: "While the music did not appear extremely loud, I was amazed when another fellow tried to speak to me. He was right next to me and I couldn't hear a single thing coming out of his mouth. The music was that loud. At the same time it did not sound uncomfortable at all. In fact the music sounded quite nice."

 

[John Royster]

I'll sum up my experience real quick and hope it helps.

For me a harsh or shrill sound (most notable on vocals) comes from:

1) underpowered amp
2) speakers incapable of producing the volume without distortion
3) room

Hope this helps. A good strong amp is the foundation of any nice stereo...its something you never have to worry about and can focus on the other things - room/speakers that are much more finicky and difficult (not to mention very important) to tune/control.